I'm calling to order this meeting of the Arlington Select Board on Wednesday, February the 21st, 2024. I am Select Board Chair Eric Helmuth. I will now confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me, particularly the people who are remote. But I'll start with members. When I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. This will also serve as a sound check for our remote members. Diane Mahan. Affirmative. John Hurd. Yeah. Steve DeCorsi. Here. Len Diggins. You are a lot in clearance, Chair. Thank you, sir. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Town Manager Jim Feeney. Here. And as Town Council Attorney Mike Cunningham had joined us yet. Okay, so he'll join us when he's able. Select Board Administrator Ashley Marr. Here. Okay. I think that's everybody we need to do an AV check for. So as you can see, tonight's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023 signed into law on March 29th, 2023, which further extends servered certain COVID-19 measures regarding remote participation in public meetings until March 31st, 2025. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted in the Select Board chambers and over Zoom. It is being recorded and simultaneously broadcasted on ACMI. Second, people wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the Town's website. If you're participating by Zoom, you may be visible to others. If you wish to participate, we ask you to provide your full name and the interest of developing a record of the meeting. Same thing goes for people here in the room. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not asked to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials found on the Town's website, specifically the Select Board agendas and minutes page. And finally, because one or more Select Board members are participating remotely, and tonight that is two members, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call in accordance with statute. So let's see how much of the Town's minutes this week can get done tonight. Couple of notes for public comment and also a note on the hybrid nature of the meeting as always. If we have problems with remote members or remote participants experiencing a disconnection, we will first attempt and allow some time to reconnect and hope that that happens. If after a sufficient number of attempts, we can't do that, provided that we still have a quorum of the Select Board, which is the three members, we'll proceed with business as usual. Regarding public comment this evening, because we are entering into our season of warrant article hearings, it's a longstanding tradition and practice of the Board and I think a wise one that we reserve public comment for the warrant article hearings and any other legally mandated hearings, but we typically omit the open forum portion of the meetings during this season, and that's simply so that we can give the other public hearings, particularly the warrant articles, that the attention that they deserve. If we have items where there will be public comment, I will announce those before the agenda or before when we get to that agenda item. If you are on Zoom and you wish to comment at that time, I ask you to raise your hand and zoom. If you're in the room, obviously, you'll raise your hand here. If you do not know how to raise your hand and zoom, now will be an excellent time to search for how to do that. I'd like to begin this meeting with some very, an observation of some very sad news. Former town clerk Corrine Rainville, who served Arlington for 16 years, passed away last week. She died tragically in a house fire of her daughter up in Vermont. And I want to, on behalf of the board in the town, express our deepest condolences to her family. And I would invite board members to make any comments, after which we'll observe a moment of silence in Ms. Ranville's memory. Ms. Mohan? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for doing that, Ms. She said, we lost her tragically. So many people devastated. Mrs. Rainville, Corrine's passing. A lot of people still in town hall had the opportunity to work with her. And she's someone that Arlington born, started as a principal clerk, worked her way up. She was the assistant town clerk for many years, for my husband's aunt, Anne Mohan Powers. So she had some really great training. And as you mentioned, she served in that. For 16 years. And then she came back and filled in as an interim, I think, in 2019 for several months during that transition. And again, demonstrating her commitment to the town of Arlington, which was her second family. Her first family, of course, were her children, her two daughters, Carrie and Kristen. She talked about them all the time. And Corrine was really a very quiet, unassuming, woman. However, when she was in her element and working down at the town clerk's office and conducting the business of Arlington through the town clerk's office, she was top of the mark in terms of not only the knowledge that she has had, but also one of the just as balance of the job of town clerk is dealing with the public department heads, municipal officials, and sometimes state officials. And I know you will not find one person that won't have anything, but to say glowing and extremely positive remarks about any interaction with Corrine. So sad to hear of her passing. I know different people have on Facebook pages and others. There's a GoFundMe account for her daughters. I know I will miss her. I still kept in touch with her now and then she still said to me, Diane, you're one of the funniest people I know, which I don't know if I was, but she was kind enough to say that. And I'm really, really going to miss her along with so many other people. And Godspeed, Corrine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. Mr. McDonough. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also wanted to express my condolences to Corrine's family. And I knew Corrine when I first became a town meeting member. She was a clerk and got to know her through her years at various meetings and a town meeting. And I'm very sorry about the loss. Thank you, sir. Any of my colleagues over Zoom want to make comments? Please just jump in. Thank you both very much. I think, as I said now, I'd like to invite everyone to pause for a moment and observe a moment of silence and gratitude for Corrine's life and to express our thoughts and prayers to her family. Thank you very much. This evening, because one of our members is on family vacation out of state, as Mr. Heard, and he over and above the call of duty joined the meeting tonight for one specific item that he is involved with. And I'm going to take that item out of order and take that and do that now. And that is item 10, battle reenactment plans. This is, I would invite Deputy Town Manager Christine Bongiorno and our Economic Development Coordinator, Katie Lucida, to come speak with us. And I'll note that Mr. Heard then will make some remarks afterwards. He is, of course, the sec-lect board chair to the Arlington 250 Committee and the connection of that will become very clear momentarily. Ms. Bongiorno. Great. Thank you so much for this opportunity. As you mentioned, I'm Christine Bongiorno, the Deputy Town Manager of Operations. And I have here Katie Lucida, our Economic Development Director here in town. As you know, the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution is coming up. It's next year. The board has established a committee. John Heard and Angela Oluski are the two co-chairs. So a significant amount of work has been done to date the plan for next year's events that are happening. Arlington is a member of a four-community process. We're basically joining forces with Lexington, Concord and Lincoln. And we're partnering to make sure that our events and the different things that are happening that weekend are all coordinated. And so we're using this year, this April, as address rehearsal. All four communities are using this year as address rehearsal for next year. One of our big areas that we are planning for is a battle reenactment. And so our team, our committee has been working closely with a group of battle reenactors to make this happen. So the battle reenactment will be taking place on Sunday, April 14th. And we're here tonight to just ask for your conditional approval to move this forward. Our team has been meeting our emergency planning team, which includes the Fire Police, DPW, has been meeting to look at the logistics of the plan that's been proposed. And we're working closely with the battle reenactors to just make sure that we're looking at all of the different safety concerns that we're able to appropriately staff and move people in and out of the community. So I asked for a conditional approval to close Mass Ave from Grove Street, Grove Prentice Street, all the way to Medford Street, while we work through the logistics with our planning, our emergency planning partners. I will just mention that Arlington isn't alone, as I mentioned before, we are working closely with Lexington Concord and Lincoln. We do have partners in those communities that are doing the same in looking at making sure we're evaluating all safety concerns and making sure that we're appropriately staffing our communities. I think, you know, at this point, I'd love to hear from John if he has anything else he would like to add. Yeah, absolutely. And let me just, I didn't write down, I'm sorry, the date again. It's Sunday, April 14th. And the closure will happen. We are looking tentatively, again, this is a conditional approval based on the need for us to really continue to work through the logistics with our police fire and with the battle reenactor group. The closure would happen from 12 noon until 5 p.m. Okay. All right, so the request is a conditional approval of a closure of Massaf from Grove and Prentice to Medford, conditioned upon further work from the town officials Sunday, April 14th and 12 o'clock. Okay, anything else from you before I turn to Mr. Heard? I'll just also add, in addition to just our local public safety officials, we've also been working with MIMA and the Boston Athletic Association as well as FEMA, so there's a lot of different parties that have been working regionally just to make sure that this is really going to be a very safe event, since this will be really one of the first major public events since the pandemic. Excellent. Thanks very much. Mr. Heard. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to thank Christine and Katie for all the work they've been doing on this. It's really been a long process to get us to this point. And town staff has really gone above and beyond the call of duty to really put this together. It's an event like we haven't experienced in our only ten before. I think it will be a really great event for our residents and tourists. I'd like to move approval. And again, we're just asking for the outside parameters of what the event could be. And we're going to work with town officials and public safety officials to make sure that this event is safe and within the bonds of what works for the town. So I would like to move approval. And again, thank everyone for all the work on this event. Thank you very much, Mr. Heard. I will now turn to my colleagues for any second and potentially any discussion. Mr. DeCorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I'll second Mr. Heard's motion. I just want to clarify. I heard you say approval, Mr. Heard. And Ms. Mazzurino had asked for a conditional approval. I know there's things to be worked out just for purposes of the vote. Is that what your intention was? I just want to make sure I'm seconding the right motion. Yes, so conditional approval of, like I said, the outside parameters, but I think the board really needs to approve it is the shutdown of the street from Grove Street to Medford Street subject to the approval of working with town officials to make sure that the event is safe and within the bonds of what is approved by the town staff. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I'm happy to support it. And thank you all for the work that you've been doing on this in advance of April 14th. Mr. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to all the hard work that's gone into this. And there's still a lot more that I know many, many hours to coordinate something like this. Even though it is sort of a prep for next year, it still is a big major event. And I just want to make sure I'm correct in my understanding. We're not talking about the parade. We're talking about a battle reenactment. Correct. And I understand Lexington Concord, and I don't know if another community is doing it, but when they have the reenactors, is it going to be a spot in each community or is it going to start in one community and go down, go down past the foot of the rocks? And then the other thing I would ask, just to put in, if it can't be done, that's fine. It may already be being discussed. If Lansom Way was somehow incorporated into that, because I think that was something that I really didn't know a lot about until the town organizers at Andrew Lozowski may also have been involved in that. So if you could just maybe just clarify a little bit. It's not a parade. It's a reenactment. Is it continuous? Something like that. I'm happy to respond. Yeah, thank you for bringing up the Lansom Way. I think that's a really big part of our history that needs to be addressed as well. So thank you. So Lexington Concord and Lincoln, we have decided to break down the weekend and each community will have its own day. So Arlington's Day is Sunday. We're doing many events that weekend. The battle reenactment just happens to fall on that Sunday. And that's the day that Arlington will run. So each day there will be a battle reenactment in each community. Yes, Lexington and Concord have their reenactments on Saturday. Those are happening in the morning separately. There will be no movement between those. And then their parades are both happening much later in the day, in the afternoon. So they're really separating out their events. And Arlington is going to have our reenactment on Sunday. And then Lincoln traditionally has their festivities on that Monday. Okay. And then just from my days gone by with organizing parades and reenactments, only because I know what I went through with growing pains. Just about everybody in Arlington expects that around the Jason Russell House there'll be musket firing and firings and things like that. And I understand from going through the packet that you provided us all of just the initial plans that the three communities are still discussing about whether there can be cannons for event purposes obtained. And they may go off at certain points if it's feasible. And just to pass along, which you may already be doing anyways, one of the things when I was first doing parades and reenactments that I learned my lesson on is people pointed out to me that a lot of people are very sensitive. They expect it down by Jason Russell House that musket firings and the noise. But if there is a dedicated cannon spot, whether it's David Lansomway or somewhere else, maybe I used to always just put a sandwich board out so that people would know. Just because it's very, and it's not just children. Other people, PTSD, I'm not being melodramatic. I don't think you're being melodramatic at all. These are things that we're actively discussing. First off, there will, we've already, Kevin Flynn already worked out that there will be no cannon. Okay. And yes, and then Christine and I are working with the reenactors to see if there are different areas along the reenactment where we can not have gunfire or any kind of alarming noises. So all these details are part of the conditional approval that needs to be worked out for public safety. Thank you again. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I mean, the work I see that you've done is impressive. Very impressive. But regarding the shutdown of Mass Ave, especially across Route 60, I'm not recalling that anytime recently. So I don't have a problem with it. I mean, I'm just, I'm sure you're going to do this, but just notify people well in advance of that closure, especially on the Route 2 and I guess the, I don't know how far in the other direction you want to go, but I would imagine people would appreciate knowing for an advance that Mass Ave is going to be shut down that day for five hours. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Any further comments, Mr. Herd? Yeah, again, we're closing that down. It's subject to discussions with the reenactors and with town staff. So in the event that that happens, it will be, there'll be a lot of lead time and the town staff will make sure that we do it safely. Very good. Any further discussion from the board? Okay, so we have a motion by Mr. Herd and a second by Mr. D'Corsi and I've asked Ms. Mar to call the roll this evening. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. D'Corsi? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Helmeth? Yes. That's a five zero vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to all. And I'll note that we have been joined by attorney Mike Huntingham. Welcome, sir. And then we'll go back to the top of the agenda and move to item two, the approval of the sale of $200,000 in a sewer bond dated March the 4th, 2024 to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for the inflow. And we'll walk real slow, Mr. McGee. This will take a while. For the inflow and infiltration of, no, you come on up, for the inflow and infiltration of local financial assistance program and approval of the sale dated March 11th, 2024 of $2,600,000 in water bonds to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for the local water assistance program. And we are delighted to have our other deputy town manager, Alex McGee, who is also the finance director for the town. Welcome, sir. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We're here to seek approval for the sale of some bonds that have been authorized a couple of previous town meetings. As the chair noted, we're looking for $200,000 for sewer work and $2.6 million for water work. The water project is to replace the water main along Pleasant Street. And this is all MWRA subsidized loans. So they come with a 0% interest. So it's very advantageous to follow money this way. Thank you, sir. I'll now turn to the board for motions, questions. Mrs. Mahon. I'd like to move approval the sale of the $200,000 sewer bond in the $2.6 million water bond. Mr. DeCorsi. Second. All right. Any discussion? Reclasing 100-year-old pipe as 0% sounds like a good thing to me. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. I think we're ready to vote then on a motion by Mrs. Mahon and seconded by Mr. DeCorsi. Ms. Marr. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mrs. Mahon. Yes. And Mr. Helmeth. Yes. That's a 5-4-0 vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGee. So item three, it's my pleasure to welcome Cecily Miller from the Arlington Commission for the Arts and Culture to talk to us about a request for approval of Arlington's stories banners. Hi, and I give us just a moment to get the slides up on the screen and into the Zoom. It's not a very fancy presentation this time. Always good to see you. Let me know when you want me to start. Okay, go right ahead. Okay, well, the Arts Commission has supported a banner project in Arlington Center for about five years, I think, at this point. And traditionally, our youth, they're designed by youth. It's been called the Youth Banner Project. This year, the public school system decided they wanted to kind of take a year off and think about how they wanted to manifest public art and whether this was the way that they wanted to do it. So we came up with a different proposal this year, which involves inviting three artists to share kind of people of Arlington, people they know, people they think represent sort of interesting identities and character in the town. And it's something that could recur year to year with different people. In a way, it's returned to a project, the first project that I did in Arlington, which was called Storefront Stories. If any of you remember that, and that was portraits of the local business owners in East Arlington. This document just shows you three representative pieces of artwork by the three artists who've been invited. These are not the work that it's going to be on the banners, but each artist will be working in their own style. And you can see that they do work in very different styles, which I think is kind of an interesting aspect to the project. But there will be identity branding on each banner to make it clear this is one uniform project. And I'm working actually with Katie to see if we can find a storefront location in Arlington Center to do a complimentary display of the banner artwork on paper and short 300-word written portraits of the people why the artist shows these people and QR code to Arts Arlington and a little bit about the artists. So sort of a whole display that kind of explains the banner presentation. So altogether there will be nine banners, three by each of the three artists. Originally I was hoping to bring in a youth component to continue that aspect of the project, but in the end what the Arlington High School Art Department decided to do is an internal banner project. So they'll be putting banners up on school property in front of the high school around the same time. So the projects will be somewhat complimentary. So that's the basic outline. And the area actually if you want to flip up although I made an error it's there are 11 to the map there are 11 yeah to the map there are actually 11 banners but that light full banner stations but it actually does extend up to here. There are three on this part of the map and we on this part. Gotcha. I have a corrected map if you would like one for your records. Yeah that would be good to supply to this lightboard office after the meeting. Yeah thank you. Great thank you very much. So now I'll turn to the board for questions, comments and motions. Mrs. Mohan. I'd like to move approval for the celebrating Arlington Stories banners series April 1st 2024 to May 31st 2024. And it's my understanding that sometime in March we'll see board will see what the banners that are going to go up will be. Yeah we sometime in March exactly. Yeah mid-March. And I do want to say I do appreciate this is really the first time I think I've seen this particular document it looks very simple but I think it's good that we have a banner schedule that already has the Chamber of Commerce listed in there and then the Commission for Arts and Culture and then as we move forward with any other banner requests if we could continue to receive this so that one of the questions we always ask is we used to find out after the fact that we had overlapping conflicting time so thank you whoever did that and look forward to also seeing that in the future. Thank you Mr. Chair. Yeah and I should note that my understanding is that banners celebrating the high school graduation go up in June. So you know DPW will take ours down when those go up. You know like ours might be up for a little bit in June if they're not ready or if they're ready it'll be right at that time frame but I'm pretty sure they use all of those light poles. Okay great. Yeah thank you Mr. Chair. I'll second Mrs. Mahan's motion and then thank you for the presentation tonight. All right well thank you very much. Thank you very much. Hold on a second. Any Mr. Dickens. Yes me so I'm going to be happy. No hold on I'm sorry I'm sorry. Linda if we could just take down the screen here so we can see. Okay. All Mr. Dickens. Okay yeah okay now we have all of you sir. Okay cool. You know I'm very happy to I'll be very happy to vote for this me. I like the representative paintings and I'm also our drawings being in. I am happy that you mentioned that the high school is still having their their banner display and I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a judge again this year and I gotta tell you there's some really impressive artwork coming out so if you can get yourself around the high school when they have their banners up I think you'll be happy to to see them. And Ms. Miller I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you where is that utility box. Fire station. Okay. Near Havana's. All right I'll have to keep an eye out for you. I've walked past her a lot I haven't seen it but I really like that. I really really like it so. Oh no no no wait I think that's wrong. I think it's on Broadway Plaza actually it's somewhere right in the center and I'm forgetting now. Well I guess I'm pretty on spot but this farm was the so so so but I also want to talk to you about some other things so I'll get in touch. So thank you very much for all the work you do. And you know it's that design style is based on these trucks that are painted by the their owners in Pakistan is the Pakistani folk art form that the trucks that do these long distance deliveries are beautifully colorfully painted. Yeah spectacular. You know and now it's just I've learned something else so thank you once again. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. So we have a motion by Mrs. Mahan is seconded by Mr. D'Corsi Ms. Marr. Mr. Jiggins. Yes. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. That's a four zero vote. Thank you very much. So it takes us to the consent agenda items four five and six. Item four is the 2024 farmers market. Item five is acceptance of funds from various entities from the Health and Human Services Department. Item six is a request for a special one day beer and wine license March 9th 2024 at the Robbins Library Reading Room for a private event by Lizzie Wyant. I turn to the board for motions of discussion. Mr. D'Corsi. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Move approval. Ms. Mahan. Second with one question. I'm going to assume unless Town Council tells me differently that we do not need a separate vote for the acceptance of funds. Agenda item five that it can be done on the consent agenda. Attorney Cunningham is that correct? Mrs. Mahan is correct. Thank you. Thank you for checking. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Okay on a motion for approval of the consent agenda by Mr. D'Corsi and seconded by Mrs. Mahan. Ms. Mahan. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Four zero vote. Thank you very much. This moves us on to our appointments. We have, we'll start with item seven, appointment to the Historic District Commission. This is the Jason and Gray Historic District. Kenneth Lubar. Is Mr. Lubar in the room or on Zoom tonight? If you are in the Zoom, we'll bring you in. Raise your hand if that's, I don't see. We do have materials for Mr. Lubar's, let me switch over to my thing here.  Sometimes, sometimes we do approve appointments if we have sufficient materials, but that is really at the board's discretion. I'd like to move approval. We do have the attachment materials and I'm not sure if he's taking Mr. Warden's previous spot, but I know with many of our commissions and committees needing to have a full membership with it publicly notice committees needs to move forward, but that we certainly would ask that he come either in person or at hybrid remotely at a future meeting, so I would move approval. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that is a neglected say there's a common practice as well. And I think a wise one. So do we have a second or other discussion? Mr. Gorsi. Thank you, Mr. General. I'll second that and with that condition and thank you for adding that. And this is mine. All right.  It's a very positive comment, but I'll save it for then. Okay. All right. So we have a motion to approve with a condition and a request to to appear before the board of future date by Mrs. Mahan is seconded by Mr. Decorsi. Mrs. Mara. Mrs. Mara. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Decorsi. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. 4-0. Okay. So we have two appointments to the tree committee. Attorney Cunningham, can you remind me if we need to vote these individually or together? Individually, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry. Say it again. Individually, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Individually, Mr. Chair. Yeah. Sorry. There we go. No, that's right. You know, we are all rolling with the their tubes here. All right. Okay. So let's start with Marina Popova, and I'm probably not saying the name right. Please tell me how to say it correctly. She's in the room tonight. Welcome. Please thank you for your for your interest. Please just introduce yourself and just very briefly express your interest in serving on the tree committee. So I'm Marina Popova. I'm very interested in joining the tree committee because I'm a huge nature lover. We feed bodies in our backyard and stuff. And the traces, I think it's the most precious thing that we have that helps everyone. And I learned all the great stuff that tree committee is doing like increasing the tree canopy in Arlington. And I really want to help because I think that everyone deserves to reap the benefits of that. And that's why I'm trying to enjoy. Thank you very, very much. So I'll now turn to the board for motions and questions. Mr. Dekwersy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Popova, thank you for your willingness to serve. I'll move approval and thank you for the letter expressing your interest and you're helping your friends get rid of invasives. I know a lot of us in our neighborhood could use that help as well. But thanks for your interest and your willingness. Also second and say welcome. This is a really important committee as all of our committees are. But especially with climate change issues. Besides the aesthetics and other positives around what the tree committee does. This is a very active, as you know, committee that really does a lot of thoughtful has a lot of thoughtful deliberations, discussions at meetings and has really consistently been putting forward warrant articles and suggested policies moving forward, which have been beneficial for the town. But the other thing that's really exciting about that, it's been educational too. I didn't realize how important trees are and canopies and the breath with and other things until we had a formal tree committee. So thank you so much for your willingness to do this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Any other discussion? Yes. Good old D.B.H., this is Mohan. And anyway, thank you very much meet up for joining forces with us. And I'm sure you'll figure out some way to apply your big data skills and to help you out on the tree committee. So thank you once again. Very well. All right. So we have a motion to a point by Mr. D'Corsi and seconded by Mrs. Mohan. Ms. Mohan. Mr. Jiggins. Oops. I muted myself. Sorry about that. Yes. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Hamad. Yes. 4-0 vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you again for your willingness to serve. We look forward to it. And then we have Olivia Areyes. Please correct my pronunciation if I got that wrong. It was very good. Thank you. Very good. Welcome, sir. Please, as before, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your service. Thank you very much. Well, thank you for the opportunity to be here. I've been living in Arlington for 15 years. I love this town. I also see it's one that is changing very fast. And I think that the preservation of our canopy and our trees should be part of any plans we have to grow the town and beautify it. I'm deeply committed to contributing to our fight against climate change. I think trees have a role to play. I think trees have an economic value for the town, for homes. And having been part of the tree committee for a couple of sessions, I think it's the right place to apply my commitment, my motivation, whatever skills I have to help further that mission of protecting, growing our tree canopy in the town. So I welcome the opportunity to be part of this action. Thank you very much. I'll turn to the board. Mrs. Lodd. I would like to move approval of Livy Aries. And with that, my thanks. My previous remarks, but I'm also very excited to see all your different affiliations with trustees, the reservation, the Mass Audubon Society, the Neapolitan Mountain Club. I know quite a few Arlington residents are also involved as you are with those. So it's sort of like Old Home Week for Arlingtonians. But to me, that's sort of each member brings a certain kind of expertise or something that really is going to add to the committee that we have. So I'm really excited to see that because I know you'll be able to it's going to sound like a pun. Help grow this committee in a way that perhaps someone like myself had not thought about. So as I said before, and I mean this, it's an extremely important committee. It's done a lot of good things in the past, and I know it will in the future. Thank you for your willingness to do this because we couldn't afford to pay you, but I appreciate it. Oh, really? Well, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. Mr. Decorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll second. This is Mohan's motion and thank you, Mr. Aries, for your interest. And I also noted your experience as a volunteer and all the work you've done with the trustees of reservations and that experience. I know a number of people in town. I'm a member of that as well. And I appreciate your willingness to step up and serve on the committee. Thank you for the opportunity for the discussion, Mr. Aries. Yes. Thank you once again.  I mean, quite the quite the diversity of interest, I mean, and so I think we'll benefit from that in lots of ways. So thank you once again. So I think we're ready to vote on a motion to a point by Mrs. Mohan, a seconded by Mr. Decorsi. Ms. Mar. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Decorsi. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. 4-0 vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your service. And, you know, I often say after appointments and time is during them, it's always a reminder to talk with these folks and read their resumes, and we all do read the letters and resumes, and just how fortunate we are that we have so many highly qualified, highly committed volunteers that's part of what makes Arlington such a well run town and we are very, very grateful. Let's move on to item 9 under licenses and permits for approval, a common Vitular license for Kilos Takaria at 162 Mass Avenue. We have Jamie Herrera. Please come on up. Thank you for choosing Arlington for your business. If you would just introduce yourselves and we have your materials in front of us, but just for the public's benefit, talk us, tell us a little bit about the plans for your business. Great. Thank you. My name is David. I'm an owner of my uncle over the place. Good evening everyone. Jamie Herrera, nephew. We, first of all, I want to say that we are very sorry for your loss. Thank you. I know how it can be. Not too long ago, we lost our father. Oh, sorry. So we are very sorry for that. Very excited to be here tonight and for the opportunity and so grateful for the opportunity to just be part of the town of Arlington and this way serving the community when it comes food industry. We're very excited. Thank you for the opportunity. Well, as you know, I'm happy to be here. Thank you very much for that. The city did great with us. All the paperwork, the process. I appreciate that a lot. We're excited. I'm excited. The reason why we're here, right? It can't wait to be part of this town. Be part of the community and serve and do what I love, which is see people, you know, serve food, bring food, serve food, food. So again, I think my uncle, too, is happy to be here and we want to be part of the community. What else I can say? Very excited. Thank you so much. So I'll now turn to the board for questions, comments, emotions. This is Mon. First, I'll move approval and say welcome. I know in the restaurant business how difficult it is. Some of my family members are also involved in that and a lot of things and I'm so sorry to hear about you, dad. Thank you. I'm fortunate to have my dad still with me, so but God bless you and your family for that and thank you for thinking of Ms. Rainville. But I know how difficult the restaurant business is and a lot of times I want to say 95 percent. It's usually a family run business because you do give your heart and soul and really your family is the one that will do that for you. And I wish you nothing but success. I understand you're already down there making some improvements. People are telling me if I go down and peek in I can see on the chalkboard some of your offerings that you already submitted to us. I think you're very ambitious. Doing breakfast, lunch and dinner. But the reason we're doing that because personally I've personally been doing that for like 20 years, you know. So I know what involves. I know it's a lot of responsibility. I've been dealing with inspection for so many years with Citi. So we know what we're going to, you know. And I like it. I enjoy what I do, you know. So that's the reason I we're doing this. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this because I have experience with family members before. Not direct family but they get into this with zero experience and I know where they end. So we're doing it for a reason. No. And I'm really excited for you. And as you move forward this is not a requirement but our planning department planning director Claire Ricker and or the Chamber of Commerce in terms of community events that happen especially like in East Allington this Feast of the East usually in June which is a big community event. I'm not saying you have to do either one but if you make sure you communicate with either or both of those entities they'll keep you in the loop for everything that's going on. I have deal with stuff like that before which is great, you know. And one thing I want to mention we have a special discount for responders and I would love the city to come with us and give you this discount too especially discount be part of us. We want to work with the city the community. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Gorsi. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Now second Mrs. Mahan's motion and I'm sorry for your loss but I thought I'd be proud of it and thank you for providing all the information on your application. It looks like a great menu and it's a long day. 6 a.m. to 11. So pace yourself but best of luck. We got people there they're willing to work so yeah yeah. And again thank you. People around the community they've been amazing here on the town hall they've been amazing since the first day you know everybody's stops telling us you know where to go what to do and it's it's been it's been a great experience. Thank you so much. Mr. Diggins on Zoom. Yes I mean you obviously mean Sudo's hardly been gone and now the space is filled out that's great. Around the empty store front there and as Mrs. Mahan pointed out you're doing breakfast too so you're going to give Arlington Town Diner a run for their money and I see that you have seven smoothies. I love smoothies means that's going to be one one each day of the week. I mean and you know what I mean I'm just going to make this as a minor suggestion protein powder and a smoothie nice margins on those nice margins so that's it thank you. Yeah I'll take your recommendation though I know you a team guy I can tell. Thank you very much any further discussion. Thank you again for choosing I'll tell you I wish you the best of luck in your business. Thank you. So we're ready for a vote now on a motion to approve by Mrs. Mahan is seconded by Mr. DeCoursey. Ms. Marr. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. DeCoursey. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Helmut. Yes. Spore zero vote. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for coming.  No. Make us pay full price for more. Yeah. Full price to support you. Yes. Charge extra. Full price. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. That brings us to item 11 the vote of a placement of historic marker and I believe we're welcoming back Ms. Luzai. Luzai our economic development coordinator and we have some display here a little behind us. And Ms. Marr I know you're juggling a lot of things. Maybe for the lower screen if it's possible to yeah exactly just make our remote member perfect. Please. Hi everyone again. My name is Katie Luzai economic development coordinator. I'll try to make this brief since I know you have still have quite a few items on the agenda. So I'm before the board to get again conditional approval based on a final location for the placement of a marker indicating General Lafayette's visit to Arlington which was at the time West Cambridge. So this is a larger organization who is responsible for creating these markers and getting them in different spots along the Lafayette trail they're called the Lafayette trail organization. They fully fund the creation of these markers. So these markers are fully paid for which is always a great place to start. And from the town's responsibilities it would be our commitment to install these and just make sure that we have the approval for whatever that location is. So just to give you a little bit of backstory about General Lafayette's visit he came through West Cambridge on September 2nd 1824. This year is 2024 which marks the 200th commemoration of this visit. General Lafayette had a big impact in formulating the American democracy and so he had a very big celebratory final tour in 1824 and 1825. Currently we do have enough evidence through secondary sources to justify putting a marker in our community. I've provided a few here. We don't have any primary sources which means that our marker has to be a little vague a little general in the language. Also given our name changes it has to be a pretty simplified marker language which I've provided on the next slide. So our marker would say Lafayette's tour on September 2nd 1824. General Lafayette was welcomed in this town. I did I did met the conversation and argument to say West Cambridge in parentheses Arlington they thought it was a little too wordy and this is where we landed.  And below is there the foundation that pays for these markers. Just to give you some context on the next slide I've provided and it's a little difficult to see so I apologize for that. It's this is just one piece of a very large map but on this marker map we have in purple the purple square is where the Arlington mark would be and the blue dots are where other current markers are. So it is a very massive network nearby markers include Lexington and Medford. So placing a marker here would really add continuity on that trail especially from Lexington through Medford because that was the route that he took. I've thrown out a couple of proposed locations. Again I'm finally I'm working on a finalized location because ideally it would be in front of the first parish but of course that's completely up to them. Well ideally it's completely up to them whether or not they want to have a marker there. What the foundation is asked for is that it would be placed somewhere along Mass Ave. If you don't mind moving to the next slide Jim we could place it in Whittemore Park. Those are just a couple of ideas. I'm very cognizant of not overcrowding any particular area in Arlington Center with too many markers because there's a lot of history and a lot happened and we love to have markers but I don't want anything to be too distracting. Yes so what I'm really asking for is conditional approval to make sure that this marker would be approved by the select board that you're in support of it. If you have any feedback or suggestions or any strong opinions about where would you would like this placed I am all ears. Okay and so we can do conditional approval tonight would would you need to come back to the board for final approval of the location are you asking for us for that conditional approval to give discretion to the town manager. Yes yes the latter. That one. Okay. Yes. So I'll now turn to my colleagues for discussion. This is mine. I'd like to move approval of the placement future placement placement of the historical marker and in terms of I would be interested what the historic society and others have to say which I know you've been working with them and will continue to work with them if you're asking my opinion of where it would be since I think you said it was the current new Unitarian Universalist Church was quote unquote the meeting house my suggestion would be somewhere where if you're standing near in front of the side the marker you somehow can see that nothing has to necessarily be in front of that but that's just my only suggestion but it should not be me who decides it should be you. I'm very much welcome your suggestion and I will note and I should have I should have said I was at the historical society meeting last night to present this and got and got their feedback and opinions and and blessing. Great thank you. Thank you that's a conditional approval with manager to make the final call. Yes Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And ultimately I'll also note since it is the 200th anniversary our goal is to have this in place by September which is why I'm bringing it before the board now so that it can be ordered and hopefully and get here in time for a wonderful celebration. Got it. Mr. Quirsey. Thank you Mr. Chairman and I'll second Mrs. Mahan's motion. I'm glad to hear about the historical society because I have the same question and I will note it is September 2nd is a special day I saw the draft the slide for the draft marker that General Lafayette was welcomed on September 2nd 1824 140 years later I was welcomed to Arlington when I was born at Sims Hospital so maybe maybe we'll squeeze you in on that that was my fanfare that one Mr. Chairman but you come in on a horse. No, no, no, no. That was important. But but thank you for providing the additional information on other communities as well because I was aware that there was one in Reading I think this some another part to the state and that's helpful. Yes, you're I definitely suggest checking out the website because it's it's quite an impressive it's quite an impressive markers all over all over the country really. Thank you. Mr. Dickens is it Henry's? Thank you. So I take it to be permanent. Say again sir. I'm sorry this will be a permanent marker. The question is this the permanent? It is it is a permanent marker. I mean it could be taken out that's fine. Go ahead Mr. Dickens. No, no. Okay. So see I mean often what I tell people when they like want something permanent is like well you know when when it's permanent a it doesn't allow me the space to be used for anything else you know and when something's there all the time we people just kind of stop paying attention to it. I mean so so I find generally mean if you take something down and put it back up and you can also have like a little ceremony about bringing it back. I just put that out there. I mean I'm going to agree with this you know I'm just I'm just saying from discussions I've had with other people about wanting to commemorate other things on a permanent basis and how we often say can we not do permanent? You know but that's it thank you. Thank you Mr. Dickens. Thank you. Any further discussion? Mr. Mohan. That made me think of something in terms of whether it's permanent or not one of the things I used to always ask Lexington what I first came on the scene is you know how was your tourism so vibrant? You know what is it Lexington's doing that Arlington isn't and at the same time at that same meeting 15, 18 years ago they said how the heck do you have all those restaurants in Arlington why is it so vibrant and what isn't Lexington doing? But one of the things there were two things they told me for tourism which I know is a slice of the pie of your job as well as the other committees you're into faces. They said you know the two big things Lexington tourism that has made us so successful. I thought they were going to say hotels but it was bus getting the bus companies a place to turn in and be able to be on the route and right now I think the Schwarm mill is the only one that has that and that's a last minute thing they throw in but the other thing that they said was historical mockers statues etc. So I'd be for something permanent if possible because it's a historical marker but the other thing is if you maybe just keep in mind with safety regulations boundaries but if it's something that I mean if it's way way way too high you really can't it literally is people coming taking a picture in front of it. Absolutely. That's it thank you. Okay so we have a motion as described by Mrs. Mahan and seconded by Mr. D'Corsi Ms. Mar. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Helma. Yes. That's important. Thank you. Thank you very much. It just brings us to items 12 and 13 and these were items that the town manager suggested we place in case we needed them a vote for a special town meeting for date to be determined and and then if we were to do that we would then need the next item which would be the opening of that warrant. This time I'll turn to the town manager for comment. Thank you Mr. Chair. As you alluded to it is customary to have oftentimes we will need a special town meeting within our annual town meeting and I appreciate the opportunity to have had this item held on the agenda for this evening but frankly as I sit here today I don't think that we have any business that was not addressed within the annual town meeting more and I don't see there being a need to call a special within this year's annual town meeting at this time. Thank you and I'll add too that I did the triple check consulted with the chair of the finance committee and the chair of the redevelopment board and they also so no need from there in for a very I know it's for a bit special so at this point I don't think we actually need to do anything other than just take no action which doesn't require a vote but I will certainly welcome any comments or questions from my colleagues. Mrs. Mohan. I just want to say one of the other reasons we were perhaps pondering a special which I'll talk about a little bit more on a new business regarding the MBTA assessments but as we all know we don't need a special we utilize a special for that. Thank you. All right. Okay. So seeing seeing no other discussion we will move past those items and go on to warrant article hearings so that's item 14 so we have four articles for review for the for those members of the public who are new to this process with articles on the warrant which is an agenda for town meeting which we'll start up in late April this is the annual town meeting articles that are not zoning related and are not money and finance related are heard by the select board the select board's responsibility is to have a public hearing so there'll be a public comment at the end of each presentation the board will has a duty to make a recommendation to town meeting about whether we support the proposal or not and with any details typically what we'll do on the night of the hearing is that we'll just usually just indicate a positive action or no action with some instructions to the town council and other staff to help flush out the vote those come back to us at a later date when we do final votes and comments so the purpose of tonight is to hear about the warrant articles to explain them provide an opportunity for public comment and then for a recommended vote initial vote by the board so let's move to article 23 we have endorsement of the cdbg application deja vu in a good way oh hello good to see you again just introduce yourself and present the article well good evening thank you for your time tonight I'm Mary Musinski the community development block grant administrator for Arlington and I'll be presenting the cdbg subcommittees recommendation for program year 50 fiscal year 2025 so this year we received 18 applications from 15 organizations and town departments the applications fall into the following categories affordable housing public services public facilities and improvements and planning and administration the request totaled over $1,646,000 which is roughly $645,000 more than our expected program year 50 allocation the applications were reviewed by the cdbg subcommittee members individually using a rubric for evaluating projects and then reviewed collectively during two subcommittee meetings the subcommittee established a budget totaling $1,001,000 which is our anticipated allocation from HUD for program year 50 once HUD announces Arlington's grant award for program year 50 the subcommittee may reconvene to adjust the budget as necessary any updates will then be presented to the select board I'd like to thank the organizations that applied for cdbg cdbg funding organizations that do not receive funding for program year 50 are invited to apply again next year I'd like to thank all the cdbg subcommittee members including Mrs. Mahan Mr. Herd and Mr. Feeney who made the difficult budgeting decisions with Arlington's limited cdbg grant funds at this time I'd like to request the select board and town manager approve the preliminary cdbg budget for program year 50 and move the cdbg report to town meeting for endorsement thank you thank you very much as was just noted this is a vote that the town manager participates in as well and I'll turn to my colleagues for discussion and motions Mrs. Mahan first I'd like to move approval of the endorsement of the cdbg application I want to thank Ms. Musinski for overseeing this process I've been on the committee twice now there was a little break in between in my second stint certainly very different than the first and first it's very appreciated by myself and the fellow subcommittee members getting weeks in advance you know the notification of the process coming up the grading matrix rubik that we use as a guide and fill out and I think we may have to fill it out because of HUD requirements but it's certainly evolved along the way and it's it's really gotten to a great working document and and it's Ms. Musinski pointed out 1.6 plus request 1,600,000 plus requests and only a million dollars to do that and through the subcommittee meetings having to flip through various members especially your two representatives from the select board of what did we do last year what did we do two years ago can you go in and level fund everything can you try it at 2% and it just eased right through and that's a great testament for you being able to really wear all the hats you need to at that meeting and I anticipate two to three hours each meeting and we pretty much can get it done in an hour each time which is really amazing and I also want to thank Ms. Musinski and the in the town manager and Mr. Feeney and Claire Rucker our planning director because along with the cuts that we needed to make we also added more work to our department heads and town manager in terms of going back with that $600,000 cut and really reevaluating and retooling but still being able to provide the services that I know the residents and the businesses of the town have come to expect so it looks like you know and there were some really difficult decisions Allington Heats each presented a great program which we would love to fund but as Andy don't noted when she was in here I think at our last meeting from Allington Heats a lot of the close to all of the applicants and people who are getting money from CDBG under public services Allington Heats works with and is very familiar with those programs so very difficult decision but there was a lot of thought blood sweat and tears put into this and I really I know I'm probably going on too long but it's a great process and I appreciate you sort of heralding us through that so that we're productive make the difficult decisions but definitely have all the information and the conversation we need to have to get to as best a decision as we can and Mr. Heard honestly is invaluable the first meeting I couldn't even really call in my speakers on my laptop a little ousy but you know he just took a hold of that and ran with it also so thank you Mr. Chairman thank you very much Mr. Gorsi thank you Mr. Chairman I'll second Mrs. Mahans motion I want to thank everybody on the subcommittee and as I look at the schedule this year I can imagine what you went through because I saw the amounts of the request and we ended up and you have that 15% limitation on public service and it must have been very, very difficult and probably more challenging than any year certainly from what I've received and I know you also looked at other opportunities maybe for some of these applicants whether it's CPA or elsewhere so it's tough to not being able to fund everything and I know there's probably some people who wish they their organizations they wish they got a little bit more but it's just it's just not available so thank you for all the work and for the difficult decisions that you had to make yes yeah I agree I mean thanks it was hard because just as they came in I actually wanted to give them more than they were asking for because they made such a good case me for for their causes me so I I definitely was this hard I appreciate and what you've done and I'm sure everyone's going to be appreciative of me for what they get and hopefully next year things will be different thank you once again Thank you Mr. Diggins any further discussion any comments from the Tom manager who gets a vote on this no I just wanted to also call out Mary's wonderful work on this process it really was seamless and she did obviously this is one of the first warrant articles we're hearing and you know that obviously put us on a tighter time frame but she kept us on track to be prepared with a detailed report this evening so I just wanted to thank her personally thank you for that I'm glad that you mentioned that too that it was asking a much quicker turn around where on I think the earliest track ever for having our work ready and starting our hearings with this and we appreciate the flexibility and the and the extra early work on that so okay so remembering to include the Tom manager I will note an emotion by to approve it by Mrs. Mahon seconded by Mr. D'Corsi Ms. Maher Mr. Diggins yes Mr. D'Corsi yes Mrs. Mahon yes Mr. Helmuth yes Mr. Feeney yes so five zero vote okay thank you very much thank you good to see you and it moves us to article 24 revolving funds and I believe we welcome back Mr. McGee just talk to us about the article hello again hello again so just introduce yourself for the Alex McGee deputy town manager finance director we are seeking endorsement for our list of revolving funds which will be presented on a warrant article number 24 at the annual town meeting a lot of these are very familiar to this board and to the town meeting members when they ultimately vote on them there are we're seeking to establish two new revolving funds this year a cutter gallery rentals with a spinning cap not to exceed $15,000 and that'll be rentals to hold small events at the cutter gallery and then a community center rentals fund to leverage some of the new facilities at the community center with a spinning cap of $50,000 these all these revolving funds the the whole point of a revolving fund is to have revenues that are associated with the fund that can provide for continuing operations of the sort of associated activities of the fund another big change that we're looking at in FY 25 is an increase to the private ways repair fund this is one that we have run up against our spinning cap before which was previously set at $300,000 we're seeking to increase the cap to $1 million that doesn't mean that we're going to be ever expending any more money than we normally would in any given fiscal year but this just sets a new high ceiling that we cannot go above with the increase in costs associated with horizontal construction and the increase in requests to do private way repairs we think this is a prudent move we're also seeking a change in how much revenue we collect up front as part of these projects with the intent to make this truly a self-sustaining sort of engine for doing those kinds of repairs beyond that all of the revolving funds spinning caps remain the same as they have in the past there are four revolving funds which I'll say are sort of on our watch list they have zero dollar in anticipated revenues and zero dollar in anticipated expenses and if we arrive at this juncture next year without really any other anticipated revenues or expenditures we may want to look at dissolving those funds as well so one other to note our conservation revolving fund was dissolved at the FY or at the 2023 annual town meeting so that does not appear on this list anymore and the funds from that were transferred the fund balance which was not very large just transferred out of that fund when we dissolved it okay so that is in a nutshell what we're looking for thank you very much and I neglected in the previous item to hold public comment because it's a public hearing so I'll ask Mr. Cunningham after we finish this item how best to to fix that but for now let's do let's do this one right so I'll now turn to the public and ask because this is a public hearing if there is public comment on this the article 24 revolving funds if you wish to comment please raise your hand and zoom or in the room physically okay I'll now turn to members of the board for comments and motions Mr. Corsi thank you Mr. Chairman now I'll move to reauthorize the revolving funds listed here and thank you Mr. McGee for the presentation and you mentioned some of the inactive ones and I don't know if the the Gibbs School there's a balance in it the energy fund where that's back as a sixth grade for the for the past few years I think the intent on that was when we there was more rental activity I don't know if that's one to be to be looked at over the next few years as well there might still be some minimal rental activity but that doesn't look like there's much activity thank you for the presentation you're right yeah okay do I have a second from the Brewer and Zoom second all right second by Mrs. Mahan any discussions I see oh it's already going out I have to hand Mr. Chas want to mention it's that's not in the memo that I prepared for the board but the enabling statute for this is these revolving funds is chapter 44 section 53 and a half and the two new requested revolving funds set forth by the town manager and staff are also appropriately established if this board chooses to support this article thank you very much sir Mrs. Mahan I think my brain is playing tricks on me was the any function of the cemetery commission perhaps even the chapel was that a one time a revolving fund and it's not it is currently still revolving is it now I'm just not a watch list yeah it's oh okay so it's not on here it's uh it's on the last page of this there's three pages worth of funds listed it's the second to the last it's oh okay now I see it I'm sorry no it this has gone down like three times and I didn't have it printed out in paper so now I do see that okay and it is chow okay good I'm saying I thought okay that's it good memory I'm not trying to be like oh I remember that I don't but anyways whatever melodramatic sorry second Mr. Decorsi's motion thank you very good Mr. Diggins thank you Mr. Chair you know so I I do think it's good to take the part away on about what the raising cap to to Amelia you mentioned though that you're going to try to bring in more money up front you know so how much more percentage wise right so so the change so currently we request one third of funds be brought up front and there they request a change to bring two thirds of the project cost up front so it'll lead to a higher initial cash flow to sort of launch into the project right right so so so do you what do you imagine would be the impact on the residents who are trying to do a better because it's it's kind of doubled up front you know great yeah typically so what we have seen is that somewhere in the 70 to 80 percent range of projects are paid in full up front so so most of the time they're paid in full most residents elect to do that and so we thought that this was a reasonable number to to get to that would allow us sort of smoother operations and to bring more projects on board in any given year and that's that's that's a relief to hear because also I could imagine me that if people were struggling to do it then it would you know provide more incentive me for people to not try to do the betterment they know or for for them he's saying you have to have two thirds of the residents mean vote for it and so that could provide mean less incentive for them to vote for it so that that's reassuring so so yeah I was again the one millions good to me and and the prices have gone up and they'll probably go up again and then we'll may have to raise again and maybe also be a function and be like we have a lot of projects coming you know to to the foreground now and maybe you know that you know we have these these kind of you know like what do you call it like picking the python effect because like they come to they they we do them now and then then 40 years from now they'll have to do all these again so so just something to keep in mind but yeah and and uh believe the Tom Andrews had a further comment yeah I think just wanted to add some additional context along the lines of what Mr. Diggins is pointing out is that the change that Mr. McGee proposed will be discussed in a future warrant article hearing with respect to our betterment or private way by law yeah thank you yeah I look for I look for that a discussion I think since it since the point was raised if you can confirm my my understanding of this is that the the if if in that part of the discussion this is the two-thirds and that affects the revolving funds so that's the relevance but that's two-thirds of the money needs to be raised it's not it's not a requirement that each a butter contribute two-thirds up front correct so just the total total project yeah so I mean given what you said of the 70 to 80 percent already coming in you know fully all the time and that's the the basis of our comfort with that right and then and then the balance of that 70 to 80 percent would elect to uh pay this betterment on as a betterment on their tax bills so over spread over five years they would pay whatever proportion of the project is theirs got it great okay any further discussion all right and we did public comment on this all right so I think we're ready for a vote we have a motion favorable action by Mr. Mr. Chair yes yes Mr. Mr. County I saw Mr. County have Mr. Mr. Mr. I did Mr. Diggins and thank you but I'm sorry Mr. Mr. Chair I think zoom is failing us at the moment I'm trying to cutting him and um breaking up that's going I'll make I'll make my comment I'm sorry Mr. Diggins correct this saw me but if you did I'll I'll I'll make a comment afterwards if you proceed with the vote Mr. Chair I'm sorry about that okay all right so um I think we're ready to vote on this uh Mrs. Mrs. Ms. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Yes. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Ms. Mohan yes Mr. Helmet yes for zero vote okay good and assuming that the uh the zoom is uh is connection is working attorney cutting him sense since the chair neglected to public comment for article 23 do should we obviously invite that now but should we reopen that hearing and then or what what's your suggestion I recommend this Mr. Chair first I should remind you Mr. Chair that's not the chair's fault you get a lot on your plate my connection spot and I apologize for that But I would recommend that the chair allow for public comment if any at this time and then depending on the result of that call The there could be a motion from a member to re-vote All right. Yeah, that sounds good to me as well. All right, so thank you turning coming him and The so let's reopen article 23 the endorsement of the CDBG application We don't need to redo the presentation, but I will invite public comment On that so if you are in zoom and wish to comment on Article 23, please raise your hand and zoom at this time like ways if you're in the room, please do the same thing Okay, thank you So it's pretty cutting him suggested it might be prudent for a member to suggest a motion for a re-vote Second on a motion to approve By Ms. Mohan and second of a message to Corsi and including the town manager in this vote Ms. Marr Mr.. Diggins. Oh, mr.. Diggins. I'm sorry. I missed you there didn't see your hand go up in zoom. Oh I think she's just calling the wrong. Oh Yeah, that as you were Yes, yes, of course. Yes, Mrs. Mohan. Yes, Mr. Helmut. Yes, mr. Feeney. Yes All right, that's 5-0. Well done. Thank you. It's a it's especially busy with remote members tonight It is a different experience. I must say I'm still getting used to that There we go, but I'll be back in March. So I'll be back to this meeting just when you're getting used to it. I'll be back That'll be a pleasure. We miss you. All right, so that takes us to article 36 endorsement of the parking benefit district expenditures Mr. McGee are you here for that or two? Yes, sir. Thank you, mr.. Chair. So article 36 We're seeking endorsement for the parking benefit district expenditures budget This is an annual budget that is prepared with the sort of this with a specific focus of the Revenues that are generated by the parking benefits district, which essentially is that you can think of that as the bounds a long mass Ab that has metered parking and so This takes into account all of the revenues that we anticipate collecting in a given year On one side of the ledger and then on the other side all of these sort of maintenance Operations and then other expenditures that we anticipate In the given fiscal year so in FY 24, we're starting the year with a fund balance of $623,000 and this year we're planning on Closing the year with a balanced revenue and expenditure number now whether we come in exactly at that level We're not entirely sure but we're we're tracking pretty Pretty good a little ahead of schedule with our revenues and that is even with a couple months of Down time over last summer with our meter operation. So that's good news there So we anticipate the same starting fund balance in FY 25 and then making some targeted investments in 25 to the parking benefits district if mr. Feeney wants to talk about some of those high-level things I'll turn it over to him Sure So there were three items within the parking benefit district expenditure budget that I would highlight for the board as they are sort of You know what I would call one-time expenditures. The first is for the Russell common lot So there we've been had some design and planning work underway through public works in our own engineering division to look at rehabbing of the islands within the Russell common lot which are Frankly a bit tired, but also a challenge to maintain so we're re-envisioning those islands whereby we would remove much of the Currently impervious surface replace it with some measure of Pervious surface, but also seek to Replace and provide a better environment for the existing trees which are struggling To thrive and are not providing the canopy that folks would hope for Say, you know the farmers market or other events that happen in that lot So, you know, that's one sort of specialty project that we're looking Forward to implementing and really making an improvement within that lot with an eye towards increasing shade and tree canopy The second would be a line called electric upgrades last construction season I headed up an effort to have what we know is GFC eyes are receptacles put atop some of the Pedestrian scale lighting poles in Broadway Plaza so that like we do in Arlington Heights and in East Arlington We have a place to plug in string lights that could then be wrapped in a serpentine fashion around the light poles so what we hope with that line is to Expand that effort and continue to install additional receptacles on the Some what dated pedestrian scale lights in Arlington Center so we can Hopefully over time achieve a uniform aesthetic as you drive through our business districts from Sort of front to back or top to bottom. However, you want to think about that and then a line as well Called for the 200th 250th decoration. So again, that would be a One-time effort to increase and generate new banners provide for additional flags and a number of other types of decorations and event and activity support for activities surrounding the 250th celebration But as mr. McGee alluded to that, you know, some of the other items are sort of year-over-year and more annual Operations, I just wanted to flag some of those sort of above and beyond efforts that we were looking at within the parking benefit district and I want to you know, well I have the opportunity to thank the you know We had to call the meeting of the parking advisory committee and they were able to you know, meet this morning to review this budget, but also, you know propose some other Projects that we would undertake under our streetscape improvement lines So we try to get input not only for committee members, but the Chamber of Commerce Katie Luzai or economic development coordinator. So there was a great effort and happy to see this for the board this evening Thank you both of you Now turn to the board Mrs. I'd like to move approval of Article 36 and I have one question that it's a big long detailed answer Then I'll just follow up on tomorrow, but Just looking at the figures for the FY 24 budget versus accurate actual and then FY 25 budget Especially on single or multi-space meters Is that off why is that off so much? Is it because of the meters being down so much? Is it just a crazy estimate? Although when I look at the FY 24 budget and 25 they're close, but that's because the pay-by-phone and that crazy interest comes into play but I'm just wondering where that is and and I Guess we're going to adjust for that in the future Yeah, I would say you've just hit upon what is the major discrepancy and that is the manner of accounting You know in the proposed FY 24 budget there was na in pay-by-phone But obviously pay-by-phone is becoming an increasingly popular way to make use of our meters and that is a you know It comes in as a separate transaction, so we're going to account for it separately But there are funds within that line They could apply to both single space and multi-space meters But for accounting purposes, it will be easier for us to track it as its own source So that's what's skewing the actual FY 24 numbers lower Within the actual collections and we are modeling our FY 25 proposed budget off the FY 24 actual not the FY 24 Proposed so that's an anomaly. We probably won't see that. We'll see something but not to that extent. Yeah Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. If I could just allude to the you know as mr. McGee touched upon You know believe it or not this summer when we were not technically Collecting at our meters. They there were still a number that were functioning and we're collecting some revenue But for the first two months of this fiscal year, we were not collecting The full amount of what we would expect so you may notice that in the big picture FY 25 is a very Modest increase over fiscal year 24, and I think we're conservatively looking to fiscal year 25 to be our new benchmark year for what a full year of collections looks like in a post-pandemic world Thank you Thank you, Mr. Chairman out the second Mrs. Mahan's motion and a couple comments are in questions and Given the decline in revenue because the meters were down. Do you see? Expenditures being greater than the revenues for fiscal 24 and perhaps having to tap into the the fund balance What I would say is you know based on the revenues For fiscal year 24 to date we are you know hovering in around 75 percent yet We still have a significant portion and it is a busier portion of the fiscal year for parking So, you know, I'm actually feeling confident that we're likely to Hit our revenue figures given that you know the first few months were not full collection months And I also know that some of our expenditure line in FY 24 We're still carrying some money that was encumbered from FY 23 So it never closed to fund a balance so that money was tied to a project that was began in FY 23 And it's still being expended now So I think that we'll be okay on the expenditure side as well. Okay, great. Thank you And just I have to ask this question for Peggy Metropolis. She brings a lot on the trash management line I see there's money that hasn't been expended. I think in talking to mr. Feeney there was still a plan to buy some the big belly barrels for the far side of the Broadway Plaza near the Fire station those still on back order or door in planning We did receive yet another batch and you can start to see them in Arlington Center But we still do have a few more forthcoming for some additional locations. Okay, and just a comment on the pay-by-phone the app I mean, it's remarkable how much People are using that hasn't been in that long and you're really going to see that take off I think in the future, which is great. Thank you In further discussion mr. Dickens I'll just say that in melodramatic fashion. This is behind asked all my questions, you know So I'm all sat here. Yeah, and also I'm happy to see that the seasonal decorations go up now by rough 25k You know, I know one entity that's going to be happy with that. So thank you Okay, let's do the public comment portion of this article. So this being a public hearing for article 36 There we have mr. Slickman on zoom wishes to comment on article 36 Bring him into the is a panelist momentarily Thank You mr. Chair. Thank you members of the board just as somebody who lives across the street from Russell Tom and I Have been Encouraged to hear that you're going to look to do something about the medians within those parking lots Cuz right now they're looking kind of sad and any improvement would Certainly be merited. Thank you Thank you, sir. My zoom is down. So I'll rely on Ms. Maher to Tell me if there's any other people for public comment Mr. Morey coming of mr. Me. We have a member here Welcome sir just to introduce yourself and Steve more Piedmont Street. I don't know if this question is appropriate at this time. It may not be but my Question when you brought up the meters and the fact are you talking about you know pay by phone and that sort of thing? I know that we now I believe have a full deployment of the new style of meters And I'm wondering are they owned by the town or leased We own the meters, okay, well, that's My my next point was going to be if we lease the meters Could we please do something about making the more visible and bright sunlight there impossible to read and I don't understand how that missed When the design was picked how that was missed because I have a very hard time Making them out when the sun is full bright. That's all. Thank you. Thank you very much for the comments. Appreciate the feedback Thank you, mr. Moore Any further comment from the public in the room or in zoom Is mar seeing no hands raised? Okay all right Let's uh, so we have a motion uh For positive action by mrs. Mahan second. I'm mr. Decorsi. Ms. Marr Mr. Degans Yes, mr. Decorsi. Yes, mrs. Mahan. Yes, mr. Halmuth. Yes or zero boat Very good. Thank you mr. McGee It brings us to article 66 a resolution for mbta service. We can bring mr. Schlickman back in I think Proponent for this Schlickman and friend It's nice to be back Please go ahead sir. Good. Okay. Thank you. Uh, as you are aware we passed a similar resolution last year Uh, but I think that the things have not improved in fact things have gotten worse and I think it's worth Voting the resolution again I Certainly would be very happy if it went through on the consent agenda because I think it's more important that the resolution gets past and spread to state leadership Then to have any kind of an extended debate in town meeting because I think the Residents and taxpayers of the town of Arlington would be grateful to know the town meeting Is aware of the issues with transit in Arlington and are looking to Involve the state in the mbta in terms of solving the problems That said since The resolution last year a couple of things have changed. So I've refreshed Last year's resolution with a couple of additional points One is that on January 29th the Arlington school department began running a parallel yellow school bus service in the mornings Because the service for our students going to Otis and middle school Uh became so bad and we had such a critical issue with tardy students Uh, because the buses weren't coming and That's just a representation of a further deterioration Of the service in town with the loss of the 79 and the Significant reduction in the service of the 77. It's been a real problem for us to get our kids to school in time Also Last year on october 25th town meeting voted 189 to 35 to approve the Transit-oriented housing Uh Zoning changes Consistent with the mbta communities act and I think that Arlington has been a leader in this We pass this by a four to one margin We fully support as a town the The housing obligations that we have being close to the city And trying to become a transit friendly transit orientated oriented community, but we can't do that without the transit And thirdly, I think that we have new leadership both in terms of the secretary of transportation And the mbta general manager, and I think it behooves us to ask That they come And talk to us. Uh, they've been very responsive to other communities. They haven't been here We haven't asked them to be here. We should ask them to come here and and address some of the issues that we're having So that's the resolution Hopefully we'll get a positive vote from the board of selectman recommending the town meeting Adopsis we can get it through when they consent agenda and we can all have apple pie afterwards Select board Thank you I've been doing this too long. I'm sorry. Let's let's turn to the public comment for the hearing For this resolution. So we have mr. Oster raising and miss gruber. We could bring them in Raise your hand and zoom if you wish to comment on this article And let's start with mr. Oster Good evening I go ahead and you can unmute yourself Oh, I I didn't I missed some sound when it was switching over Yeah, so I also think it's important to say this every chance we get And it feels a little bit like the definition of insanity Because nothing happens and nothing happens and nothing happens But I believe that someday something happens and we should be there By doing this kind of stuff When that when that day comes I also want to remind the board that the t's New improved bus plan, which is not what we've got yet, but the thing that they're aiming for Uh, we'll cut Arlington service to the red line by 20% compared to What used to be scheduled and that it's actually worse than that Because within those cuts Is a 60 cut To the alway service The board may uh, recall that it received a report detailing these cuts a year ago and referred that to the town manager and I just bring that up because It's we all know we have crappy service, but we also have the receipts and it can be useful in Whatever conversations we might have in the future um, that report by the way is in the Correspondence received for february 6th of last year if anyone wants to retrieve it easily And I the only thing I'd say about the resolution may be making it a little better Is I think it should Along with calling for all of the, you know better service down mass av it should expressly call for improved service to alway And uh, I hope it all goes the way that uh, that paul says it will Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, miss gruber Good evening. Yes. Thank you for letting me speak and thank you to mr schlickman for bringing this resolution to town meeting As a member of the mbta community's working board, but speaking for myself And not being so audacious as to suggest that the state has any Responsibility for a quid pro quo We did put together a plan that was intended to take advantage of new housing in transit oriented areas of the town And I certainly hope that the state is planning on providing the necessary public transit That uh, we are Counting on housing development being able to take advantage of So I support this resolution wholeheartedly and again. I want to thank mr schlickman for bringing it To the town meeting. Thank you Thank you very much. Do we have any further comment from the public? In zoomer in the room on article 66 Miss mar seeing no hands raised Okay and I'll turn to the board and Just just with a request for my colleagues that tonight's vote so that Particularly with our questions about a quorum and then here I didn't want to recuse myself from this discussion in case that we would zoom would feel and we would like a quorum so To keep this clean just for my own potential conflict of interest if we I think it's fine If we move favorable action, but but specifically Postponed this specific language of that resolution to to the traditional votes and comments That would be my suggestion. Anyway, uh, mr. Corsi. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Jimmy. Can you just repeat that again if we're going to move yet not the final language? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think I think that with my situation. Um, I don't have a conflict We move favorable action generally. Um, depending on the specific content of the final of the resolution Which we would do under votes and comments later I may or may not have to recuse myself at that time, but we don't you know what that is yet Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Schlichman for Bringing this forward again. I note that last year it was article 66 as well So coincidentally it's going to have the same number I I You know agree with the the issues in terms of the the service and speaking out on this I think the resolution Um, for me as a as a member of the select board, there there's some language in here that if I were to do it I might change or take it out and specifically I'm not sure I would pinpoint that the city of quincy in in in my resolution I think that the real issue here is that the 14 communities that were The part of the metropolitan transit authority back in 1947 pay 82 of the assessment I don't think there's one of those 14 communities quincy wasn't and and so There are issues that we have in common with with some other communities boston cambridge and brookline pay the highest assessment Where it's all based on population and it's a by a factor of nine For the remaining 14 communities and then When the mbta was created in 1964 there were additional communities added those communities don't pay as much I think that's an area that's certainly worth exploring with with other Others of the 14 communities I would be a little reluctant just to target quincy in this in this resolution. I realize what they're served by and in That the number of stations and and so while personally, I don't have a problem with this and for purposes of moving forward I I think I would be inclined to move favorable by action. I'm not doing it yet But I also think it raises a larger question when you have a resolution Before town meeting and this clearly affects arlington And it just feels like this type of thing Should go right to town meeting because unless we're going to wordsmith it and I don't really want to take Change mr. Schlickman's words around I think there's you know, maybe something to be explored with the moderator where There is something that's Related to island is there a way to just get it before town meeting So that if we make changes and mr. Schlickman wants to bring a substitute motion He doesn't have to and I I think this is the only resolution this year Maybe it's a good opportunity to talk to the moderator to see When something like this is put before the body do you really need the select board to weigh in? I mean, you know, we may want to do it individually and again Certain things I I might change I wholeheartedly agree we have issues We'd like to work more with the nbta and there's broader issues in terms of the assessment that I think we can work through Or attempt to work through With some of our our neighboring community. So Just really a comment on that, but thank you for for bringing this forward Um, I wholeheartedly agree with mr. Ducorsi's remarks um regarding resolutions and Not not to be sarcastic. I know this is the second year. I'm assuming we're not going to see this every year Because I think it might take away from The message it's trying to convey but the other thing is as I said before With not going a special town meeting Wrote on the nbta assessment Um When I'm when I was reading this language in light of the remarks that I want to make under New business and conversations that I've had and various members of the select board have had um Regarding the nbta assessment, which um, we pay more than milton I believe we play more than brain tree Uh, and besides just quincy, um, we pretty much pay more than anybody else and um I think my remarks that I want to say of Steps moving forward on perhaps addressing The nbta assessment, which I would say in a new business. I don't think it falls under this But the reason I'm I'd like to bring it up and then Say what my concern is but I'm fine with a resolution going Before town meeting. I agree in terms of you know, maybe we need to streamline the process In this you know, the board has a resolution they want to just so that there's not an extra stop along paul's trailway railway Um for resolutions and and others moving forward Yeah But uh And again, it's a resolution. So i'm not going to you know, stand on the top of the hill and say i'm going to fight this To the whatever But I do think there are Step or steps regarding our nbta assessment that will have future discussions on In this resolution, I I don't think Unless somebody took it word for unless the nbta took it to hot word for word And I just don't see that happening. So, um I guess, um, is there no motion right now? That's for no motion Okay, um, I'd be interested in mr. Diggins. I feel like i'm always taking away It's fine. It's fine. I'm having a laugh. I mean happy say less And and and certainly I just want to make it easier on the chair since me, you know, I am removed Well, you all know my posture towards me and um resolutions in general Me I kind of said that if they're going to be a bunch of them, you know, like my high water point was going to be abstain, you know, uh, I think partly it's because the blm In resolution just left a bad taste in my mouth because I think to a large extent These these resolutions can be crafted in a way that doesn't the service mean to town meeting He almost dares town meeting not to have a nuanced mean Discourse me first off you only get seven minutes on both sides Me so it's really hard to have a meaningful discourse. And so the who's wants to vote against apple pie Look, the t is doing all it can to make service better. We uh for everyone You know, I mean if you look at the the board of directors either the meetings or the slide decks You'll see, you know, the great efforts that are being made the strides that are being made And it's in a tough position. It's been and it's it's yeah It's gotten into a really tough position. It's going to take it a while to work its way out of it But but making making good progress You know, I mean so if we could do this resolution you have to hear and one of these years It's going to sync up me with the the t coming out of it And then we'll be able to say oh the resolutions did it, you know, but it really would have been more of a correlation than a causation, you know with respect to the assessments be Mr. Decorsi laid out that the The problem very well, you know for a while I was under the strong impression that when fall river Came online. We were going to the south coast expansion of the community rail that we would that the team would then take on be um The reassessments because we'd have more communities mean Being serviced by the mca when I talked to senator Crichton He the one of the co-chairs of the transportation The joint transportation committee me about a year ago. I mean he was not aware of anything mean With respect to having with respect with respect to assessments. I've kind of touched On the topic a little bit with the executive director of the mbc Um advisory board and it's someone also that I would suggest that we have come to meet with us You know, we tried to get the chair of that body to meet with us He tried twice There was a an illness in one case and a death in another case me we could try with him again But Brian came the executive director is I think more easily available After he could give us some guidance as to me how to potentially move the assessments issue I will add to that though that the governor has set up a Transportation funding task force mean and and that's for statewide and I think that would be a good place You know to have the discussion about Assessments in general and other ways be funding transportation and and transit so so um so I'll just offer because I am gonna go I would like Let's go with mr. Corsi's like maybe we could just bypass the board completely on this and maybe on resolutions in general Because I mean At most you're gonna have staying up for me on this But I will offer you this in all earnestness be that I will be happy to work with you to Have people talk with us meet in large group or small groups Meet I'll I'll be happy to answer Any questions you have mean regarding any like mean future endeavors mean to make me the the the tea better Uh, and I'll leave you with this speed and that kind of concerns the 79 to a certain extent 79 Me it's very unlikely that it's coming back Especially when you take it to account mean that one of the big initiatives now that he is taking is to provide Um Half fares for low income riders being and that's going to cost you probably about 30 to 50 million dollars in about five years and and And chances are I mean low low ridership, you know, um roots me like the 79, you know Just aren't going to come back the resource is going to be shifted To towards that, you know, and I guess I did say one thing I'll just throw in another point too about the The the the school buses mean I don't know who ever thought it was a good idea Me to take out school buses be and use public transit Instead of me. I can appreciate that maybe many schools were stretched me to provide me Transportation mean and that was a way of shifting me that That financial load on to public transit But you're taking the rush hour period and then you're putting this spike rush on top of it There's just no way you can provide the capacity You know to do that, you know, I can think of other ways to do it You know, but I wouldn't put it on on public transit Along it's just asking for trouble and we got trouble. I mean, that's it. Thanks Thank you, mr. Chairman. Yeah, and just you know, there's a history here, mr. Diggins when That the MBTA actually used to provide special school bus services to the town of Arlington and Again, I'm dating myself. You you you learned today what year I was born now I was going to high school in the late 70s early 80s and and The almond bus I lived up at the heights the MBTA used to provide a dedicated school bus To the town of Arlington They did it at the Autism and they did it at the high school when mrs. Mahan and I were at the At the high school and then proposition two and a half came along So and again, we're not going back to those days But but there was a long history in our community for that for the tea recognizing Okay, we're not going to fill up the 77 bus with students as it goes up and down mass av We'll provide a bus at 210 from arlington high school. There was a period where the audison They provided a dedicated bus so That that that was a history. It's a long long time ago, but it's it's um You know things were different back then But I I want to go back to the to the assessments and I really we had Mr. Jamison in recently we've heard from mr. Tosti. Mrs. Mahan has spoken about it Over the years. I think we're going to hear from her again Tonight and and again just a little history lesson that the boston elevated railway became the metropolitan transit authority in 1947 We happened to be one of 14 communities based on service that was in place in 1947 And those communities that has dictated the percentage that we pay On our assessment and look look how the tea has changed since 1947 and in 1964 and throughout the years We pay a multiple of many other communities and when you look at the nbta enabling act Which is chapter 161a there are still 14 communities to find those 14 communities of the original mta communities There's another 51 communities that are identified um And then beyond that to get up to 178 or 175 whatever it is. There's other serve communities And with the assessment while we're only We're talking eight to ten percent of the tea's budget I think the total assessments to local communities is 193 million Boston pays half of that our share for next year will be about two percent of that That to me is a real discussion that should be had about You may have been fine in 1948 to pay a higher percentage But the the service to arlington relative to other communities and these other communities that are similarly situated too That should be a discussion for the legislature to take a look. How how is this being allocated? And that's why I mentioned my concern I wouldn't As I said earlier, I wouldn't point directly at quincy. I I pointed the definition of the Of the communities and and I'd like an opportunity maybe to talk to mr. Schlickman After the meeting between meetings maybe to suggest some changes with that with that paragraph because I think there's a way to Maybe add a little bit more of the air that that that points to the What I would consider the unfairness to the 14 communities As part of the overall discussion. Thank you So at this point I note that we don't have a motion on the table I know mr. Schlickman has his hand raised, but I'll check to see if my Colleagues want to go now before we get back to me. Just I'll make a motion for Faboral action and to kind of jump on the history bandwagon and then Mr. Schlickman I think it was I know it was after proposition two and a half. I think it was 1999 I think there were about 78 other communities that were coming into the tea at the time It's pretty well known anecdotal history in the state house that The person senator who represented milton quincy and brain tree Had a position of authority in Setting the assessments and basically it's been pretty well known for 20 plus years that you know In my opinion from what I've been told ollington really is carrying as a Because of what came out of the state house in that particular Person who was chairing the process at the time We're really paying A good amount of milton brain tree in quincy's portion and I think and I'll just again discuss it on the new business There's a way I think there are ways to address that I certainly think A way that this board has been sort of Discussing a little more Diligently or With a little more earnesty over the past two to three years And I'm fine to move approval on this resolution. I'll stop there Thank you. Thank you, mrs. Mahan just to clarify is your motion just to move Approval of putting the resolution before time meeting with with content to be voted later by the board. Yes, and I would um I know mr. Schluckman has his hand raised. I I would um encourage especially on that quincy. I agree with that too um, I don't know if that gets reworked or Whatever but I know I would do something to it But anyways, so I would encourage and hope that mr. Schluckman and mr. Corsi Have the opportunity to speak about that and I'll just give my thoughts Offline at another time to mr. Corsi about that. Thank you. So just general move approval. Not specific language Thank you for that For the comments, mr. Schluckman Yeah, first of all The purpose of the quincy paragraph is a discussion of equity And that I think that Arlington really deserves the opportunity to have to get what it pays for I'm not as concerned with the amount we're paying But for the Getting our money's worth and getting the subsequent value relative to what what we're contributing In that sort of the point and I'm very happy to work with mr. Corsi to come up with some language that That the board would be more comfortable with Quincy is just an easy example because they're a bigger city with A much larger population And considerably more service and they're Assessed at a lower rate because that's just the most Vivid and visible Example I can come up with and the assessment rates are In-state law. So it's a matter of calculation calculate the number of people In in a municipality and multiply that by a given factor And then assess that by the assessment rate, which keeps going up Now as for the student transportation This has been a A mission of the MBTA since it came to be and Uh First of all, massachusetts law does not require districts school districts to provide transportation for grades 7 through 12 unless you're in a regional district And Students in lull have T passes from the lull regional transportation authority and the buses line up high school And work their way out from from there at the end of the school day Every student in boston who is transported has a t pass and everybody who has a t pass Buys the t pass and our students are buying a t pass to use the MBTA And this is what has gone on historically since the MBTA came into business This is just an element of the MBTA failing to meet their responsibilities Uh that that has been a traditional purpose for them to provide services to us as well as Students throughout the region um, that's why we view it as an issue that The MBTA has turned their back on something that we've relied upon them to do for generations and that Dumping the problem in our laps where we've got parents who're so angry that their kids aren't coming to school in town That and that we can't get the MBTA to respond This is the issue why we ended up instituting a bus with uh with user fees and it's it's troublesome for us We we don't have the bus infrastructure to go and run a parallel bus service MBTA has made a commitment a long time ago to be a partner with the school districts within the MBTA service area and They should be held accountable uh, I am very grateful to the board for Supporting this effort. I hope we're not back here next year. I hope that we have um a communication with the leadership of the MBTA and the state department transportation. I'm more optimistic this year than last year uh, but I think I think some element of success would be for us to all work together To bring the tea into town to make us more of a priority rather than just turning our Hands up and saying well, what are we going to do? The tea's got problems Uh, we'll let them solve their problems and then we'll think about what happens in Arlington If if Arlington does not advocate for Arlington, nobody's going to advocate for Arlington and right now anytime I've seen any discussion in the MBTA over the past couple of years. I have not seen once the uh The town of Arlington, uh Even mentioned And I I think we need to change that. I I really do Thank you, sir So at the moment we have a motion we do not have a second so I'll second mrs. Hans motion. Okay Okay further discussion Well, I I don't agree with much of what mr. Picton said but the way it was put makes me feel that it's not really worth arguing at this point But all I'll say is that me I am willing to work me down to try to Me reach out to folks that I think could be helpful and at least mean Getting some answers being on and maybe even moving things a little forward with respects to assessments me But I will not be supporting the motion Okay Thank you very much. All right, so we have um I guess I'll I've been moving along and not making me own comments, which is fine But I do want to say I have a great sympathy for the for the Motivation and sentiments, you know behind the motion behind the motion I think that I'm intrigued by mr. Decorsi's Suggestion that as as a potential new precedent and something worth exploring with the Moderator in with town council after outside of this meeting would be you know resolutions to me are The voice of town meeting speaking and you know, I feel Although the the board does have a responsibility To to issue advice to town meeting about what we think they should do That's the whole point of a recommended vote I think that that's it's different when it's a non binding resolution. It's really intended to take to be A corporate expression of opinion by town meeting and it feels it always felt a little bit disproportionate to me that That the select board would be asked to do this and as mr. Of course he pointed out that that creates Some some procedural bottlenecks if The proponent quite justifiably doesn't like how we monkey with their resolution Then they have to go to the trouble of doing a substitute and that implies a conflict That's just not usually there. It's really more of a question of role And and so I think that'll be an interesting question and mr. Of course, I would welcome you to take that up with with the moderator and try to cutting him in At your leisure to maybe provide guidance back to the board when we take this up Provide all those comments. Would you like me to do that before the end of april mr. Chair? I think that would be an Excellent idea actually Even even even more so before we this comes back to us for final notes. So soon it would be great. Thank you um, attorney cutting him looks like he's uh Yeah, I think our our town council is uh Frozen and zoom at the moment. I just well said mr. Chair. I just want to stress that I'm happy to Sorry, mr. Chair am I on now? Yes I just want to say it's very obviously well said mr. Chair But I'm happy to follow up with the moderator and the board regarding possible ways forward on the issue of resolutions Thank you very much Okay, so let's go back to my notes here. So we have a motion for general favorable action with Uh content of the resolution to be voted later by mrs. Mahan seconded by mr. Decorsi Ms marr. Mr. Diggins No Mr. Decorsi. Yes, mrs. Mahan. Yes, mr. Helmut. Yes, it's a three one vote Thank you very much Okay, that ends the warrant article hearings Brings us to item 15 a correspondence receipt. We have an informational memo This suggests no action, but informs the board Of the of the work that the town proposes to undertake in response to the broadway crosswalk request And that is from john lessy senior transportation Later, I'll move Turn to the board Movers move receipt and I want to thank our senior transportation planner mr. Lessie For his uh memo to us that Right now There is no immediate action to be taken on this but that's because as he points out There are conversations and considerations and recommendations being formulated for the um Streetscape improvements, which are planned later this year and he has indicated that that's where This and other intersections Along broadway sunny all the way down to sunny side north union street Will be addressed so while it's initially it seems no action It's not because we're already we already have an action and something's about to come out to address that So a long way of saying move receipt, you know, thank you for that elaboration I think that's that's a Good service to the public there second Any discussion Further discussion I should say Okay, so we have a motion receipt by mrs. Mahan seconded by mr. Decorsi. Ms. Marr Mr. Diggins Yes, mr. Decorsi. Yes, mrs. Mahan. Yes, mr. Helmuth. Yes Thank you very much that brings us to new business Accepting cases of emergency the board will neither deliberate nor act upon topics presented in new business And with that we will turn to mrs. Marr. No new business. Thank you attorney Cunningham One piece of new business mr. Chair excited to announce That we have found and offered and retained a new deputy town council for the town of allington Jacqueline munson Was a very we're very excited to have have Attorney munson come on board most recently served as corporation council for the city of boston Very very distinguished attorney and very qualified And we're very excited to see that attorney munson will be joining the town probably sometime in mid march And special thanks to human resources director caramaloid and her staff for really You know conducting this search we had some excellent candidates in the end It was a difficult choice, but attorney munson is a real standout. We're happy to have Have Jacqueline join us Excellent news. Thank you, sir Mr. Feeney No new business Ms. Mahan Thank you, mr. Chairman regarding Mr. Jamison was here at our last meeting and I know we've been having conversations Some of us add infinitum all the way back to uh, mr. DeCorsi's finance committee days regarding the assessment I have had conversations with the town manager and town council as recently as today including God bless you you're on vacation attorney Cunningham, but I've still been bothering you about where mr. Jamison Correctly pointed out that there's another new factor um under the mbta communities act That communities overlay district act that ollington is now officially labeled as an adjacent community Whereas milton quincy brain tree or commuter rail or rail trail that's ctrt And we're just adjacent community with bus services that has been They don't point out this point but drastically cut um as well as limited and And mr. Jamison did ask us to look into the possibility of either putting something in the regular town meeting or special town meeting, but after conversations Uh as the town manager pointed out that the formula is codified by state law under a statute that um Of course the board could put something in a warrant, but it really Would not be the correct route or the direct route To address this and I did have conversations last year with um representatives garbly about since it is a state statute That governs the assessment now you understand there's a formula But there's something wrong with the formula this there's still that state house everybody knows it and nobody really says it publicly I mean I'll pick on the city of quincy just because mr. Schlickman has pointed it out if you go by oh, there's a formula We're stuck to it. Well ollington has approximately 42,844 residents as of July 2022 quincy has 102,897 residents and we pay a million plus more than them So there's yes, there's a formula and there's a factor of nine and i'm not saying this to mr. Decorsi, but there's also Tweaking that started at the beginning that in my opinion really Pardon my language. My dad will get mad at me, but I know he's asleep. So he's not watching They stuck it to ollington and you know to me it's gone on long enough since 1999 It's time to change that and one of the ways um to change that And i'm not saying there aren't other ways, but Um last year Representative goblin is in his staff his office looked into I asked him to look into the state set statute and governed in that state Statute is language that the mbta assessments are supposed to every july Go through an automatic reassessment, which hasn't really happened And so One of the ways that he suggested last year and the town manager and town council um, because I don't want to waste anybody's time including All of our time in the manager and others, but um I've asked them to look into Formally taking that step. I believe it's through the legislative delegation I'm not asking us to discuss it here tonight because that would be a future agenda item or something else That we ask our legislative delegation to since it's in the statute. It's in state law There's no way, you know, even if I think ollington and our delegation said, okay, please do it by The the formula that you have with the factor of nine Which is population and then you're also supposed to add into What type of community you are which we've now been officially mbta adjacent community. We're not even a ct or nati That assessment should go down so My hope is that Since the state law statute says The reassessments are supposed to happen every july I've asked the town manager and town council to have conversations with the delegation To say This is the route we would like to go We'd like to It has, you know, there really are no reassessments, but they're supposed to be we're going to ask you to do that And or they recommend other ways for us to Get the assessment I don't I don't want to just have a meeting where we meet with a titular head from the mbta or the mbta advisory community Complain about this because everybody knows this has been going on and we just say it and nothing happens I want something as we all do that that has some teeth to it. So the town manager and town council Are looking into to see if asking our legislative delegation and When that request when the request should come from this board And when the legislative delegation should actually file that request I'm assuming it's, you know, at least A month six weeks before The physical year starts july 1st, which is what the state law says and as well as Perhaps when they're investigating that with Senator Freeman representative garbally and representative rogers. There may be another Suggestion under the state statute because I think that's the only way we can get any relief is to mbta The law that was created under the state statute And at the very least We somehow have to make the request Fine, then let's do it by the formula that's in there that goes by population in a factor of nine Which means we're going to be paying less than quincy Milton and brain tree which we pay millions of dollars more than them will be more in line with like lessington Which pays about 829,000 so I just wanted to and I know we've all had individual conversation members of the boards With the manager and with town council. So I don't want anyone to think since I'm so wordy on this and I think because I've been on the board longest in anybody here Since 1999. That's why I'm like And so I'm so tired of hearing about this every year and how how the mbta assessment is unfair to ollington and you know all these other cities and we're a town Don't even come close to pay what we're paying But I feel confident that you know, especially in light of the budget presentation given by our town manager Mr. Feeney and our deputy town manager mr. McGee at the last meeting Regarding chapter 70, which I hope the news that we receive does get a little bit better, but There aren't really indication that that's going to happen as you know, as well as other things Including living within the guidelines and the promises we made to the voters Who were gracious enough to once again open up their Wallets parka books bill votes whatever and vote for the last override. So This is something we'll continue to address. So and then the only other thing under new business because We have to do blank and giggles every now and then I've never noticed this before But michael quinn posted to the ollington list earlier this morning that And I went and looked and he is correct that if you look at the warrant It says right in the beginning in the preamble and of course right now. I can't find it Basically language saying Uh Town meetings about to convene here is the warrant Please notify and warn your inhabitants Of the warrants contained therein So I just point that out. I'm not trying to change that language But I never noticed that if you if you look at you know, I went online looked at our draft warrant Went in the very beginning that very first paragraph before it all the Warren articles are laid out. It does say to notify and warn inhabitants Um So and I thought that was kind of a cute historical little thing that's in there. That's it. Thank you, mr. Chairman Thank you. Mr. Of course. Uh, no new business Mr. Diggins so In the case of what mrs. Mahan just said It is words mean with respect to the assessment It is worth how many knowing that i'm not going to because oh i'm out But but I certainly look forward to following up on on on on some of the things that she just discussed you know, and and um So my new business is that you know the attack is formed subcommittee to look into the Kind of uniformity making this speed limits uniform You know that we had sent that to the town manager He sent it to tack and tack is moving was um with um great speed on this Me we we had a meeting last thursday. We're going to have another one on this thursday. Um jim's study who we Uh, corroded to full time. Uh, well full. Um, um, tack member is just doing phenomenal work. You know, and and it's a Yeah, I'm enjoying it immensely and I think we're going to be able to bring something back to the board Probably within a month, you know, so so that's the new business and a little bit of a teaser Thank you very much. Uh, I think we are through our agenda and in this case, I will welcome my motion to adjourn Move to adjourn second I'm motion to adjourn by mrs. Mahon seconded and my sister D'Corsi all in favor. No, it's a roll call Mr. Diggins Yes, mr. D'Corsi. Yes, mrs. Mahon. Yes, we are adjourned. Thank you very much