Good evening. Welcome to the select board meeting Monday, January 27th, 2020 My name is Diane and mahan to my right. You're left John Harry Joe Cura Dan done Steve DeCorsi Adam chapter lane town manager Doug Heim town council Ashley Maher admin assistant Thank you, and we have our board administrator. This is propelka Watching us from home.  So I don't want you to think it's not going to come out. It's in there good Okay, first we'll do the consent agenda minutes of meetings January 6th 2020 reappointments commission on disabilities all terms to expire 131 23 Karen Mathias in LGBT LGBTQIA plus rainbow Commission Helene Newberg open space committee Elizabeth card Jones pock and recreation commission Shirley Keneff redevelopment board Eugene Benson and Andrew Bunnell for approval contract a drain layer license McDougal brothers out of Marshfield mass a request special one-day alcohol license to 120 at Allington Catholic High School for quiz night Elizabeth Flynn a request special day beer and wine license to 120 Robbins Memorial Town Hall for the Allington Center for the arts blue gene ball Lisa Padula request special one-day beer and wine license to 2220 at Robbins Memorial Town Hall for a private event Daniel Vagle and for approval black history month banners Crystal Heinz Haynes, I'm sorry crystal Haynes Allington Human Rights Commission first is there a vote to Madam chair. I move approval sub 12 conditions as set forth and with reference to minutes of the meeting As revised and on our desks before us. Is there a Second second by mr. Herd. We all have been provided with a copy of the revised minutes So that will be included with mr. Curell's motion. Is there anyone here to speak to to any agenda items under the consent agenda that I just read out Certainly name and crystal Haynes Arlington Human Rights Commission So I Had the idea of when I joined the Human Rights Commission to make it more an inclusive community and to make that visible because we work Super hard to make sure everyone feels welcome here. So I actually commissioned artwork for banners to go up in town and identified 16 poles and so you guys may have gotten copies of them, but We had an artist create banners that go And so they have Figures in African-American history connected to Massachusetts specifically Including the 54th Regiment and our own Prince Hall who is connected right here to Arlington. So Just I'm just requesting permission to put those banners up and we have 16 poles So maybe one year we'll have every pole in town will have a banner on it, but we'll start with these 16 Thank you so much. Thank you Anyone else here to speak to items on the consent agenda any further questions or comments by my colleagues? If not an emotion by mr. Oh, I'm sorry Come on She's one of the reappointees re-appointed. Yeah, sure. Certainly.  Okay Thank you, I'm here because I was invited to come back and I guess try out for another term on the You can be a commission Disabilities I'm delighted to be here an exciting time too in the in the commission because we've just gotten our new Sheldon Harvey who's our new? Thank you, thank you, and we're really looking forward to working with her and I hope to come back for another Three cents three terms Whatever, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming out tonight and The Disability Commission every single member is on that board as a volunteer really brings Years and years of expertise and are very knowledgeable and learned it on the subjects they deal with and this board certainly Does its best to endeavor to? Hear from them because they really do think of things and see things differently than The rest of us do and it's really an invaluable resource So I want to thank you and thank you to your husband for bringing you out here tonight I thank you for your willingness to continue to serve Is there anyone else here for a consent agenda? If not on a motion by mr. Curel seconded by mr. Hurd all those in favor say aye unanimous vote we are at 722, so we'll go to right to the next public hearings CDBG first a performance update for program year 1920 Is right Yes, good evening everybody I'm Jenny rate the director of planning and community development, and I'm going to be actually doing two items If it would be okay, could I combine my remarks into one? So which is the first part is the mid-year report and the second part is just a sort of overview of The CDBG applications for the next agenda item And then I believe there are a number of sub recipients or applicants who are here who may wish to speak to both a Mid-year update and also their application that they've submitted So first and foremost the community development black grant has been operating in Arlington for 45 years We're very fortunate to be an entitlement community Which means that we receive funding directly from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development And my department has been administering those funds for the town for all of those years for a whole range of activities Mostly housing economic development infrastructure sometimes funding public facilities including improvements to public places and spaces that we all know about and Including ones on the civic block And public services in the community these are funds that if we did not have otherwise it would be very challenging for Organizations to continue their operations to be able to deliver really critical programs to Primarily low and moderate-income individuals in Arlington and serving low-mod populations throughout the town So we're very fortunate to be able to receive these funds and historically on average over all of the years We've actually received about 1.8 million dollars annually on average The last decade or so is when we started to sort of Go downwards in terms of the amount that we've been receiving year over year Which includes this past year where we had actually about 11,000 dollars less to appropriate through the CDBG subcommittee of yours But we have been able to actually achieve quite a bit even though we have limited funds in part because we serve so many Organizations that do fantastic fundraising and resource development have creative leadership I'm sure that they might frame it differently the agony of fundraising is I know Challenging and asking for dollars for critical community needs is not always easy But the community often rallies around these topics and that helps to keep things afloat But CDBG is really critical and this past year, which was year 45 the town was awarded just over $1.1 million we actually were able to leverage $260,000 just in this past grant program year through program income and some Unappropriated funds so that made for about a 1.3 million dollar program And of course as you can see from this program year We've got a lot of interest in the funding sources. So there's no problem spending 1.3 million dollars And all of the CDBG sub recipients are making really great progress in achieving their anticipated goals and outcomes Those are the things that they state in their application that they desire to achieve Which might include a certain number of people or individuals served a certain number of buildings Built or preserved there are a number of different metrics as you know for goal achievement And all of the sub recipients have made that progress. I'm going to talk about things by category now So in the affordable housing initiatives this past year the housing corporation of Arlington remains our primary Subrecipient of funding they continue to make capital improvements to their portfolio of affordable housing They actually had only three units allocated for this year to make those capital improvements They've made improvements to two of those properties and have one more to complete So they're nearly at their goal the second project that we funded with HCA was to install solar panel Panels at their capital square apartments on Mass Ave The project is currently out to bid and we're expecting that installations will be happening later this year I am not certain if Anybody from HCA is able to provide any update on that or any of the other items that I might speak to but My understanding is that that's the progress. They had some challenges in finding Instal I believe installers for solar panels and may have wanted to get a little bit more input in terms of Getting the best bid in order to make the best Investment in those panels for the long term for public service programs as you know, this is Limited to 20% of the overall grant, but we often have a lot of demand for this particular area Over 1,200 people have been served since July 1st of 2019 Just over half of the fiscal year is over but the Arlington Boys and Girls Club Operation success through the Arlington Housing Authority Fidelity house also they've already met or exceeded their anticipated outcome goals of serving 278 low-mod income individuals The council on aging also exceeded their goals for the transportation and volunteer coordinator programs both of them serving a total of 900 people and have also nearly reached their annual goal of 20 people for service through their adult day health program Two additional sub recipients are more than halfway to their goal And one more is just under halfway to their goal of serving the number of people they anticipated for public facilities and improvements as you know the ADA Curb cuts have been the primary area where we funded year over year this year. We installed or the DPW installed rather 45 ADA compliant curb cuts in the sunny side area, which is just off of Broadway in East Arlington the Wellington Park project, which is the park on Grove Street that actually the Trail access project was one of our projects funded in the current grant program year We issued an RFP for project design for an extension of that trail and are anticipating that we'll be able to begin work soon by June The Luciano Park reconstruction project which is headed up by the recreation department that had a couple of public hearings as part of input on the Design process my understanding is that they also will be Continuing to seek input from residents on that project and aiming to have a final design in place by June Food link completed their acquisition of their new headquarters on some summer Street, and I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about that Envision Arlington their annual survey as you know, we fund that every year also using some CDBG funds as well as town funds All of the survey is now digital and online this year as opposed to prior years where we were sort of easing into the digital I think last year it is now completely digital and as of mid-January. We had 2400 surveys So if you're listening to me talk again about surveys, I hope everybody is taking it or has taken it So that's the the overview of what we've done in this past year We also did a number of planning projects which included funding the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan a Portion of that plan was funded by the mass office on disability The other portion was funded by the CDBG funds and then also we've appropriated some funding Through CDBG this year towards the fair housing action plan Which will be something that will come back to you at a future meeting to talk with you more about And that sort of relates as a segue into the next program year so for CDBG applications for year 46 or do you want me to pause? Does anyone have any questions? Okay So we anticipate receiving approximately the same amount of funding for this next coming year You know, we don't know we we we project how much we receive based on past years I mentioned the average it's been in a decline state We did happen to have 1.3 million this past year My guess is that will receive 1.1 million for the next for year 46 We received 20 applications. One of those application of course is from my department Which includes four different or five different activities planning and admin The new applications include a number of new items often year over year You'll see a lot of familiar Applications and familiar funding amounts even This year I just wanted to give you kind of a spotlight of some of the new things One of those new things is the phase two of the Whittemore Park project When we did the planning for the revitalization of Whittemore Park, which was funded by CPA We went back to CPA for the first phase of that project which funded the first portion in front of the Jefferson Cutter House in the park itself The second phase is to fund the portion around the Jefferson Cutter House in order to make it ADA compliant And then the third phase is actually into the capital plan Which is for improvements to the rear of the of the building so phase two of Whittemore Park is on the Potential for applications for next year Town Hall Plaza improvements, which is the area at the Mass Ave entryway Where there are a number of improvements proposed in order to make it an easier much more accessible space. There are a number of Components to that walkway that are lifting or in need of repair And so the town hall improvements are also being proposed Arlington Eats is proposing two different applications One is for capital improvements to the fit out of space at 117 Broadway and the other one is for operational support so that they may carry out their programs while they're going through a challenging transition process in order to fit out their new space as a market an Energy efficiency program, which is being proposed by my department that Program would mean we would be able to leverage weatherization funds, which we currently receive from the state as the Department of Housing and Community Development as well as from utility companies and Leveraging all of those funds combined would mean for a much more Much more improved program overall and also being able to help lower income households Which is something that we can't always do using just weatherization funds We've also proposed a workforce development grant program This would enable us to expand upon our existing economic development programs that we currently offer and for this one it would be potentially serving five businesses annually and Starting it as a pilot program to determine if we'd be able to fund and finance workforce development for low-mod income Individuals to get into the workforce sort of a job training program as well as providing Subsidies for businesses who are willing to employ others to join the workforce and then the new plans that we've proposed in the document around the planning and administrative Components to the CDBG program include a housing production plan update We will be our existing housing production plan will expire in 2021 and so We are in the midst of doing this fair housing action plan We are hoping to utilize that plan as a segue into housing a new housing production plan and Also include community engagement process that we included the last time that we created the plan which includes new data new understanding of needs and demands in the community as well as the whole process to create new strategies for a new five-year plan and Then also we are proposing I guess lastly a neighborhood revitalization strategy area planning process for Arlington Center This is a very specific phrase. I it's hood terminology, so it's not wouldn't be mine necessarily my phrasing of it, but it is if we are able to create a neighborhood Revitalization strategy area for the center We would then be able to leverage additional CDBG funds in the future to help with Improvements in a much greater way than we can right now and without that plan We're not able to do that so we would like to be able to enter into that phase of helping Arlington Center So just to tell you a little bit about the next steps before I pause the application review the next steps in that as you Know every year we do a CDBG subcommittee. They'll usually meet twice To review the applications the subcommittee that you created last year includes two of your members as well as three residents who participated last year and also Desire to continue that attendance and participation That we're proposing that we have these meetings to review the applications in early February And then to be able to come back to the board with recommendations by late February early March We're on a somewhat tighter tight frame for a couple of reasons The first reason is that we did the citizen participation plan that we adopted. I think a couple months ago That plan has much tighter time frames for input And particularly in a year where we have the annual the consolidated plan, which is a five-year required plan by HUD That we are in the process of doing We need to do that at the same time as our annual action plan Usually we do the annual action plan Much farther down even past town meeting because that's typically the process that our LinkedIn uses we do our recommendations They go to town meeting for endorsement. We need to move that up in the process this year Due to the fact that it's the five-year consolidated plan year We've done that in past years when you're in the midst of the five-year plan update So that's that need to do things simultaneously is pushing up the timeline The rest of our process of course will remain the same So with that, I thank you for your time and I'm open to any questions You have of me on either one of these on the first one to thank you for the mid-year report That's something that the board asked for a couple of years ago. Basically to keep track of What everybody's doing and get the word out but also on the off chance that there's a year that a program says We've already accomplished this we won't be using some remaining funds And we can give it to something else that we wanted to say yes to So that I do thank you for that. Could you remind me on the When we had the CDBG subcommittee meetings last year, I want to do it. So it's it's to the Everybody's Schedules especially the three citizens did we do that on a Saturday or do you remember when we had the meeting? We did it on I think Tuesday mornings Tuesday morning. So we were looking for times We have a couple that we floated out there. I think we'll solidify that So that that seemed to work The earlier the better for me, but just see well you mom is right through the planning department Yes, reach out and coordinate that meeting. So I don't have to work. We will be coordinating the meeting Mr. Dunn and I will continue to serve on that Any questions from my colleagues? If not, I'd open it up to the CDBG Request for 2020 2021 funding if you just want to come up to the microphone name and program for the record Hi, my name is Jack McGuire Excuse me, Peggy Regan. Peggy Regan. Yes, this is the team for operation success We are in our new building Down in binotomy manner This year we have 30 students Residents that lived down there between 6th grade in high school We're open from Monday through Thursday evenings 630 well 7 o'clock till 8 30 and We are the microphone. I'm sorry to talk right into it. Oh, thank you. Is that better? Yes. Thank you This year we have 30 kids that are participating It fluctuates nightly on their participation Also that the money that we are requesting goes to the supplies for the Center for each of the students and at the end of the year we get them backpacks and School supplies that they cannot afford for the following year. We are going into our 21st year of running this And I still feel and I think Peggy and everyone else still feels that it's been very successful And again, thank you for considering us for the grant We've been open for 21 years. We're open four nights a week All strictly volunteers and that's amazing to me Janet is the one that got started this whole thing. She dragged me into it whether I liked it or not But here I am and I understand why we go because we started it But I think about the teachers from Audison teaches from kids that work all day Come down there at night and they're all not local. I don't live in Allenton They come from other towns and also some of the Other people that on teachers that come and volunteer they've been doing it That's what's keeping us going. So I just want to give a little shout out to them Thank you. I'm glad you did because I was gonna say can you remind us who these volunteers are who work all day and Underpaid in my opinion This year I just want to say that we had a nice Addition to it. We had tough doctoral students That participated in it and they were doing groups with the kids For the fall semester of their doctorate degree So we're hoping that we can continue some partnership with some of the local universities as well That's amazing. I wish you all were there when I lived You couldn't even get a free hot dog let alone a free teacher or tough doctor. So thank you I also want to say thank you to everyone. We really appreciate it and hello to Marie Carpelka Thank you. Thank you Dn. DuPont with food link first, I want to thank the town and The CDVG grant that we received in prior years and for the town Making space available that we could rent for several months because we're in a year of transition We'll have one to two more moves before we're in our space a little bit of background of our status with our space is that we've applied for our building permit We're waiting for one more form from the MA a B That needs to go to the building department and we hope to start construction in March But you'll start seeing activity in February. So it's a little bit of background where we are What we're looking for this coming year is we've applied for a hundred and seventy five thousand under the public facilities and That is to help fund The lift to make our space even more accessible. We'd have a lift plus a ramp also a generator We're hoping to be able to Hopefully get incorporated into the town of Arlington's Emergency preparedness plan so that we'll be able to keep our cold storage operating during emergencies Then also we've requested Assistance with solar panels as well as the exterior some of the painting and repairs that need to be done to the Exterior so that we can make part of Summer Street look even nicer and more inviting a little bit about the a Little bit of numbers. So we provide about three hundred and twenty five twenty five thousand pounds of food to Arlington But we only source two hundred and fifty thousand pounds from Arlington So we get another seventy five thousand pounds from mainly from Lexington and Medford And we bring that into Arlington to help service Arlington We service about thirty three hundred individuals here in Arlington that are mostly low low moderate Older adults and those with disabilities so the ROI on the investment if we were fully funded is about fifty four dollars a person which Provides them about each one about a hundred pounds of food which equates to about eighty nutritious meals a year For fifty four dollars and of course what we're asking for or improvements that will last much longer than one year So if you look at it over five years, I'm an accountant. So sorry if you look at it over five years It's a ten dollar investment for each person for over the five-year period And just to let you know, you know, we don't always just get our money from CDBG We have many other funders that are out there the Greater Boston Food Bank has been very generous They see the benefit that we're creating We've also gotten funding from Eastern Bank from the Ludkey Foundation from Organizations in Lexington and Cambridge Strictly for capital. We're also fortunate to receive eighty five thousand dollars in grant money to For our operations in Arlington Lexington Bill Ricker Burlington and Woburn So not only does the town see the value and what we're providing But also the state is finding is seeing the value and what we provide as well as many Individuals from all over Eastern Massachusetts help to support what we do. Thank you. Thank you Thank you Hi there, my name is Andy don't and the executive director of Arlington eats and this is Lauren ledger The one of the co-founders of the original Arlington eats as well as a board member So we're here tonight to represent Arlington eats which grew out of the merger of two non-profit organizations Arlington food pantry, which was started in 1991 and the original Arlington eats which really was about serving lunches and Snacks to Arlington's most vulnerable and at-risk children and their families since our merger We become one of the largest social service providers here in Arlington We serve as about 1,800 in unique individuals that are low to moderate-income residents of Arlington So currently each week at our market, which is the new name for the food pantry We serve an average of 165 families and we serve over 3,000 meals through our summer and vacation lunch program This past summer we commissioned two Tufts University graduate students to interview our market shoppers And some of the things we learned was one 31% of those that come to the market receive all or most of their food from Arlington eats. That's a lot We also learned that 60% of those who use the market do not use any other community resource community food resource rather So Arlington eats is definitely a vital resource for those who are low and moderate income residents in Arlington However, we do know that there's 3,500 food insecure residents in Arlington And so we're looking at how we can connect to even more of these residents Because we know that when people have access to food they have access to learning they have educated they have access to employment So it's just an opportunity for us to be able to not only provide people's nutritious needs, but their long-term needs as well So in our 30 year history of being here in Arlington We have now the opportunity to have our own space at 117 Broadway So when housing corporation of Arlington purchases property back in 2014 It was housing corporation a group of churches as well as the town's health and human services department that kind of came up with a plan where if Purchase the property then the food pantry at the time could then have space on the first floor So we are asking for $400,000 for a fit out of our space This space we believe will offer a really dignified way for people to access food And most importantly will be able to accommodate a lot more folks So we currently serve 1800 people, but we know there's 3500 So how can we move that so one of the things is we need to be open more often Which has not been an opportunity for us in any of the other spaces because we've always shared spaces with other people We are also looking at ways that we can partner with other agencies here in Arlington So having a meeting space that's available as well as a private conference room where individuals and resources can get connected together So this will also be our headquarters So this will be the first time again of all of our operations under one Roof except for our summer lunch program, which we will of course keep at the schools So needless to say we are very excited and eager for this opportunity to move forward as you will notice from our applications We submitted two of them this year our main application our hopeful application our big application is associated with Property that Andy was just describing as some of you may or may not know there has been some confusion with HUD And it is unclear whether we can move forward with this application So I am just here to say that we have appealed to all of our elected officials Congresswoman Catherine Clark's office is helping us right now, and I hope That we are able to move forward with this really vital resource for our community I also want to thank each and every one of you on the board because you guys have been there serving lunches with us and helping out at the market You have all been great supporters of our organization, and we are really Hopeful that we are able to work together in the coming months So the two applications are Sort of the application at 117 Broadway, but sort of I don't want to say it back up plan, but lack of a better word well it It's a supplemental plan. So as Andy mentioned that our main application is $400,000 and our supplemental application is $10,000 to help with some resources so Certainly not apples to apples But We have submitted both Looking forward to delving into the app to applications Thank you. Thank you Good evening. My name is Lisa Urban from Fidelity house. I do have a cold. I apologize Just want to thank you. We run a program. We've been doing it Probably since the 70s we had started it kind of down running a program, but it's really emerged and Once Charlie Lions was able to really help the town get Community development block grant you guys have really helped us out and it's an awesome program the kids We do with three things we found really that transportation Was a key to getting kids to participate so we do a summer camp Where the kids come to we bring the kids to Fidelity house and then we go off-site and this year we went to Regis because Minuteman dropped their pool when they built the new building and the place obviously was Awesome and a little more expensive for us, but it turned out it was a perfect experience for the kids the swimming abilities With the use of that pool and the more Shallow end they became awesome swimmers So they we offered two weeks of camp at least if not more for kids to come to Fidelity house camp We pick them up we bring them to camp and we bring them back home And then during the school year we pick them up once a week They come to Fidelity house and participate in all our programs if not more on Saturday mornings We'll pick up also for basketball programs and then Then we also do an on-site program Once a week, so we really do try to make sure that we get all different ages and kids involved And we really can't do it without the CDBG and it's been awesome I know I asked a little bit more last year and it worked out great In fact the kids that really came during the summer have really been showing up during the school year Which is why we had a little bit more jump in the numbers too. We were worried when we switched day camps But it's been really nice and I thank you And then we also have the The high school staff that worked for us during the summer We call it the jobs jobs jobs and I know the Ireland boys and girls club turns in theirs also, but it's you know We're both looking to Have kids working and then they learn a skill and working with kids and it's a lifelong They're gonna be parents themselves And they've been great staff and then most of the time they work for us year-round It's been a great relationship and hope it continues. Thank you. Thank you Good evening, thanks for having me. I'm Christine Shaw the interim director for the council on aging And we have three Grant applications in the CDBG applications this year again One is for our adult a health program Which is every year has been very successful in getting Arlington residents access to adult a health programs that are very pricey expensive and People might otherwise not be exposed to it. So that's one of them and then the other two really focus on Our volunteers and transportation So I'll speak to them kind of as a whole is what a big part of the council on aging those initiatives are The select board has been very supportive in the past of our transportation programs and department But we have really expanded a lot of our transportation over the past year Our COA vans that are around town have almost doubled in how frequently they're running We have an extra van basically on the road four days a week, which has been very helpful the five housing authority buildings have been able to receive free van rides since the beginning of September just so that they could we had a big campaign for them to be more aware of The service that we can offer them to get them around town to get them out of their homes to bring them to the senior center soon to be community center And to get them meeting with their social workers visiting their friends go in grocery shopping getting to Arlington eats Really making sure we're getting them around town. So The volunteer medical escort program is still a huge part of transportation for us We're pairing Residents with volunteers probably on average 12 to 15 rides a week Getting them to ride to their doctor's appointments all over greater Boston. So not just Lady in Mount Auburn, but you know, we have volunteers driving people to Brigham and women's to Mass General at rush hour It's an it's a pretty unbelievable group of people that is supported by the volunteer coordinator position, but also as a part of the transportation program And I just wanted to say too for this past year We've reached out to a lot of the different Partnering organizations like Arlington eats to see what we can offer that our transportation can help supplement to get their People there and we've been able to offer Free rides to the food pantry for anybody that's going there and our office has been handling the scheduling for that and making sure that happens so Just wanted to highlight a couple of the things because those are our two Primary assets side from the health day adult day health Applications that we have in there. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you Thank you for everyone and continue to provide Explanations because a lot of us in this room. We're aware of these different programs and resources But just on the off chance someone else watching this at home might say oh, I didn't know I could get help with that so Mr. Leonard good evening John Leonard town meeting member precinct 17 Really the director mentioned a location called town hall Plaza. We was actually town hall Plaza located January director of planning and community development the town hall Literally right outside of town hall at 730 mass have the the area that is right in front of the main three Doorways that come into town hall. There's a I'm sorry the material might be concrete It might be granite granite all of that granite and then some of it is brick There's sort of a ramp that goes around and then there's obviously the steps all of that I believe is subject to the the entire reconstruction project in order to Reset bricks and granite Install something below it maybe heating that that's been discussed So we're still working on the details of the project, but that is where that is the location Thank you because basically it just took the wind right out of my sails, but that was what I was going to speak on because Between the years 2003 and 2007 I was lucky enough to be a member of the town day committee and it was one of those years that probably two three o'clock in the afternoon on town day I witnessed along with others our town administrator Marie Kruppelka fall and hurt herself Right in front of the front door My question is if you round it off and say hypothetically it might have been my last year 2007 13 years have gone by and nothing's been done in regards to the town hall steps. I Don't understand why maybe a couple of pennies couldn't have been set aside in 13 years To maybe make either studies or appropriations or a little bit of work to have it done on it and I Just I really don't understand luckily. She wasn't injured that badly, but Marie I know you're out there. I still remember it and how we all rushed to your aid and frankly I'll close by saying according to the definition of the CVG funds One of the comments made in the newspaper about what it is The money is to meet the needs that pose a threat to the health and the welfare of the community I can think of no better cost in the front steps out in front of town hall. Thank you Okay And I think that brings a close if it's appropriate with town council could we take a Joint motion to move receipt of the performance update for program year 2019 2020 as well as move receipt of The CDB g requests for 2020 to 2021 Yes, can we do it all together? Okay move receipt by the Does the town manager get a vote in this or only in the allocation? Manager just in the allocation. Okay. Thank you. I would not have remembered that Okay, so was that a motion by mr. Dunn so moved seconded by Mr. Kiro any further questions or comments? I just want to say on the workforce development component. I'm really excited about that. I have a direct link Into workforce development out of Staniford Street So was that moves along though if appropriate plug myself in on a motion by mr. Dunn seconded by mr. Kiro to move receipt on items eight and nine all those in favor say aye Those opposed unanimous vote. Thank you so much. We now have a Zoning Board of Appeals to voting member Kevin Mills I'm gonna wait just one minute. Oh They're leaving quietly I guess Okay, sorry. Good evening. Good evening Just say your name and any brief thing. We're all aware of what Kevin Mills longtime resident town meeting member for about 20 years precinct one You're now willing to go from an alternate to a voting member on this Zoning Board of Appeals which looks like it's gonna have a really sort of heavy calendar coming up and yes Appreciate that there's no learning curve for you coming into this position because you've already been totally immersed in this For quite some time and that's something that's very valuable and I want to thank you for Taking one less headache off my head Mr. John My colleagues are bored with the speech, but nonetheless, you'll get it which is the this new guard decision is so important and it's so important that Like it is going to end up in court We know it's gonna end up in court and the quality of the decision that the ZBA renders is gonna make all the difference in terms of how that court case goes and It's it's vital that you get all the support that you need to get to a good decision So if you need something call the town manager if you need something call one of us And we really want to make sure that you're equipped with everything you need to get to a good place I understood and thank you. Thank you. We've already received substantial support from Mr. Holmes office. Thank you Move approval move by mr. Dunn second seconded by mr. Heard Any further questions or comments if not on a motion by mr. Dunn seconded by mr. Heard all those in favor say aye Opposed unanimous vote good to see you again. We'll be seeing you. Thank you. I'm sure Did Citizens open forum except in unusual circumstances any matter presented for consideration of the board shall not to be acted upon No decision made the night of the presentations in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established It should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request and we have dianne duPont She was CBG up she out dianne already spoke so okay John Leonard did you want to speak? Thank you again. Just very quickly John Leonard town meeting member precinct 17 Anybody who's watched the democratic debates They've noticed all the candidates for the most part have like a little rostrum in front of them Which to present their paperwork look at their information etc. Etc It causes somebody to wonder why if you have that particular situation for presidential candidates if Even in town hall here in Allenton when the Allenton High School project people get up and have their meetings They are provided with one of the rostrums from town hall Even just recently in honor of the late Martin Luther King when they had the ceremony downstairs a Rostrum was provided for speakers up on top of the stage So it may be wonder and do a little bit of investigating as to why There is not any kind of a little rostrum such as we have three of them downstairs Behind the curtain doing absolutely nothing why couldn't a rostrum be put up here for people who come up and discuss issues in front of the board To answer some of the obvious questions, how would we get it up here? There's an elevator that would bring up one of the rostrums The rostrums to the best of my knowledge Way only about 58 pounds. They are on wheels Wouldn't that interfere with town meeting? Well, not really because I've been a town meeting member now for over 20 years Very seldom do I remember all three rostrums going at the same time and Lastly going over some past years all the way back to 2014 The most we've ever had for town meetings is six occasions for town meetings So that would be three Mondays so there would only be three Mondays Inconvenience if at that particular time those three Mondays coincided with a select myth meeting So I would like to hear from the board as to why One of those rostrums which again a collecting dust added to the fact to if the board is at the select board meets Twice a month. That's 24 meetings a year If you hear around at the Ducktown meeting Let's say nine and they got something like 15 times that a person could actually stand up here with paperwork And present their case without having to fumble hold their coats whatever so again It's just something for the board to consider why couldn't one of those rostrums again collecting dust downstairs Be wielded up here and make it a little bit easier for people to discuss their case in front of you I'll definitely look into that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. London Patricia B warden thank you madam chair and since my remarks are only Concerning they have their mitigation report. I Would like to ask your permission to make my remarks after the presentation of that report Do I have your permission to do that? No, we don't It's only warrant article hearings that we allow people to come up and speak on it So if you want to speak on it now Yes, although it did say in the newspaper That it would be allowed that these comments will be allowed after okay I will make them now if well, how long are they about you want to um, there's some over three minutes about four minutes I think with the presentation going give her an opportunity. Okay. You can do after the presentation. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Sorry So that's agenda item so I don't forget 11 Andy don't she was Here Beth Miloff check Beth Miloff check town meeting member Russell Street. I would like to express a little Perplexity at the fact that I see single-use plastic water bottles in front of me. This is a third time in town hall I saw them in August at the select board goal-setting meeting in the town manager's Conference room. I saw them last week at an event here in town hall and I see them now before me I hope we're a forward-thinking town and I hope we're going to disallow single-use water bottles in town We've got water fountains. Maybe they need to be updated with that spigot for personal water Vessels, but that's not setting a very good example Everything the town does should have at its core climate resiliency Tree canopy fortification and we should be asking does a particular project enhanced our commercial tax base We all want safe sidewalks and mature healthy trees in the ground not in pots Placing the onus of tree removal on the need for ADA sidewalks, which we all agree we want is both Dissingenuous and frankly offensive. That's what I understand the Department of Planning has done with the request to remove trees from both Whittemore Park and Broadway Plaza Also at Broadway Plaza. I'd like to question the use of Public funds to renovate a public space for the exclusive private use of cafes I'm curious as to whether or not you're increasing cafe space there I would like to know how much cafe Nero pays for the use of that Exclusive public space that they have even now when they're not using it They have it fenced off so that seems to be a public space. It's that's whose use is excluded Cooks hollow We have a potential nor'easter coming Groundhog Day and our one bio research biotech Business in town is right there on Mystic Street at the bridge and the bridge for several weeks now has had several large Trees branches refuse collecting there underneath in the culvert preventing water from getting through So I hope that's taken care of I already put it in the town, you know, this needs to be done Page I forget what it's called request thing But I think that's a hazard that needs to be mitigated. Thank you So, you know, I want Arlington to have a holistic town-wide plan to fortify the tree canopy to the to unite our Emerald necklace our pox parks pocket parks and green spaces planting not removing trees And I think the loss of 200 geothermal wells at the high school Would turn what should be a bright and shining beacon in Arlington the new high school into chapter lanes big dig So I hope that doesn't happen. Thank you so much. You're welcome I think I will take exception to your comment because I really think that You can come in here and you can render opinion and you can suggest ways that we can improve them And you can do it with a tone of charity and friendliness and it would be greatly appreciated as opposed to personal attacks Thank You. Mr. Dunn Next we have and right Everyone my name is Anne Wright. I live in East Arlington. I know some of you I'm a member of the local mothers out front chapter I also founded the town gas leaks task force with our town manager Which has been meeting for about two years. I'm here tonight with Amos Meeks of Sustainable Arlington to strongly encourage the select board to support a warrant article that would ban fossil fuel infrastructure hookups in new construction and major renovations This mood would move would be a logical follow-up To our heat smart contract which allowed many residents including myself to replace their oil or gas burners Fairly affordably with air source heat pumps The global science community agrees that we need to reduce our carbon emissions by at least 50% in the next 10 years To avoid the most catastrophic events Effects of climate change and we can all see that coming daily now We can't do this the scientists say without significantly reducing our use of methane gas for household use Including heat hot water and cooking although that's a minor a minor portion of fossil fuel use If we did this if we pass such a warrant article We'd be following in the footsteps of Brookline's town meeting that passed such an article in November We'd also be joining with a growing handful of other towns and cities in the area that are proposing similar things What we'd love is that each of you on the board of selectmen would agree to meet one-on-one with myself or sustainable Arlington members and Over the coming weeks or month or so and and discuss this. This is not an easy concept To understand I know I've been on a huge learning curve trying to grasp what it would really mean But Let's I propose that we educate ourselves as a town about it we use all the smart and energetic people in town and Get public input and hopefully take another bold move into a clean energy future for our town Thank you I'm Amos Meeks Hello, I'm Amos Meeks. Thanks for letting me speak I just wanted to so I'm the co-chair of sustainable Arlington. I live in I live in East Arlington I'm here with Anne Wright. I just wanted to sort of reiterate my support for this potential bylaw amendment and I think Had gave a lot of great justification and we'll be talking about more of that between now and town meeting I just wanted to Sort of make sure and advocate for making sure that the warrant article language is broad enough to let us sort of consider various Deviations or changes from the sort of example that Brookline has laid out There are a lot of things we might want to change some of the exemptions We maybe would want to do a fine instead of going through the permit process things like that So I just want to make sure as we're considering the language now That it's broad enough for us for us to figure that out through public input over the next couple of months So thank you very much Thank you, and I would just ask Ms. Wright and Mr. Meeks I'm assuming we have The contact information at the select board's office if there's an email or a cell phone or other contact number that We may not have if you could just call the office tomorrow and To make sure we follow up on those requests and that is Last person I have for citizens open forum See no one else. We will now go to traffic rules and orders other business gender item 11 discussion and approval hazard mitigation plan is this mr. Chaplain We pay you all that normally Who's is it miss rate our planning director? Okay? Jenny rate again director of planning and community development. I am here with Martin Pillsbury who is the environmental director director of environmental planning for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Also Emily Sullivan who is our environmental planner and conservation agent from the Department of Planning and Community Development So tonight you're actually I'm going to hand this over very quickly to Martin who is going to make a presentation to you To explain to you what the what the purposes of the hazard mitigation plan what it constitutes How it intersects with other plans that we have created or will be creating or might be updating And I think just a little bit more about the process between now and when we need this to be adopted and what happens next So I'm going to hand it over to Martin Thank you very much, and thank you for making the time to discuss this important plan once again I'm Martin Pillsbury I'm Martin Pillsbury the director of environmental planning at MAPC the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which is the regional planning Council for which Arlington and 100 other cities and towns in the area belong to Tonight I'm going to give you an overview of the FEMA hazard mitigation plan that the town is in the midst of Preparing in fact that the draft plan is before you and This is a plan if you're used to looking at comprehensive plans master plans open space plans This may be a plan that has been under your radar compared to some of those other plans Why is the town doing this plan is part of a federal program across the whole countries established by FEMA in the wake of the Disaster Mitigation Act back in the year 2000 to establish a process to develop local hazard mitigation plans the goal that FEMA has in every city in town in the country and then MIMA the mass emergency management agency takes over managing this program within our Commonwealth and helps communities to do this through a grant program And MAPC has been brought into this helping helping the town put together this plan under that grant program Now the town already has one of these plans the first one was put together and approved by FEMA in 2012 so the the goal before us this year has been to update these plans because FEMA requires them to be periodically updated both to keep the plan current the kind of information that's in there You know can can get old and needs to be kept current, but also administratively Having a plan in place that's current and approved by FEMA will make the town eligible for a number of FEMA grants So first thing to distinguish between there's a big FEMA landscape out there. I think earlier Jenny great mentioned some HUD language We use FEMA language I think we found out that every federal agency has its own distinct dialect if I use some terminology That's not familiar. Please let me know. I'm trying to put it into English The idea here is that there are a wide range of different kinds of plans that FEMA and MIMA have put together or and communities participate in this is a particular slice of Planning that only really deals with natural hazard mitigation So that's to distinguish it from hazards that might be human cause to like hazardous chemical leaks Infrastructure breakdowns etc. We were looking at all categories of natural hazards who ever flooding high winds and hurricanes winter storms snow and ice Crush fires even things that are less common, but possible earthquakes landslides extreme temperatures and droughts The other thing to note is that this the very important distinction This is what we call a mitigation plan a pre-disaster mitigation plan to for the community to take stock of what it can do Reduce its vulnerability. It is not an emergency response plan. You already have such a plan every community does It's there's a program across the street called a comprehensive emergency management plan or SEMP C EMP Which the town participates in and I believe the fire chief is responsible for managing So that's in place already There are a few areas where there could be some overlap between the two But the main thing if you want to switch the slide the main thing is to distinguish this is is we are looking at mitigating hazards before they occur And that's why FEMA Calls this pre-disaster mitigation. It's thinking about ways in which the community can make itself less Vulnerable to make itself more resilient And we if you look at those two questions at the bottom of the slide in yellow What preventative actions are being taken now to reduce future risks and damages of the community and What additional actions could be taken in the future and that's really what the core of this plan is to assess What your baseline is now and think about what additional things you could do to make the town more resilient? So the whole idea of this national program that FEMA put in place is to try to break or at least interrupt this constant cycle of Disaster rebuild disaster rebuild and every time you see the word rebuild there Think lots of dollars being put in both by the private property owners and the insurance programs that the flood insurance programs which are taxpayer Subsidized so they really wanted to get ahead of the cycle a little bit seeing that this is has been going on for many decades in some parts Of the country of course more more than others What do we mean by hazard mitigation well It's not a single methodology or a single approach, but it's kind of an umbrella termed that could encompass a number of different Tactics this is just a quick laundry list of some of the categories of actions that communities can take That will help mitigate natural hazards prevention can often be just by starting out looking at your land use in your zoning and your codes and Figuring out can you get out of harm's way to begin with can you not put? insensitive Development in places that you pretty much know are going to be subject to hazards based on history center Property protection the physically protecting property things like elevating in flood zones and that sort of thing Public education part of it is really important that you know people who actually own the properties whether they're small businesses home owners That they can do what they can as much as they can to be aware of the hazards and on their own properties mitigate them Natural resources protection and this is the one where we talk often to people use the term green infrastructure these days or Nature-based solutions using mother nature to the best advantage to help us mitigate this Protecting our wetlands and our buffer zones and our flood plains and letting them do the job They're supposed to be doing to help buffer the impacts on our developed areas structural projects and now you start to get into some of the areas where You may need to put in place Projects that will change the drainage pattern change the storm drain infrastructure to essentially make up for Past problems that have caught up with you and that you need a sort of a cumulative change to some of your infrastructure And some of those potential drainage projects that could potentially be funded by FEMA grants when you have an approved plan and Finally emergency services protection you want to make sure that the Capabilities that town has through its fire and police and public works and other emergency facilities that those themselves are not subject to damage and that they aren't the first thing to gets taken out because if they get Taken out that they can't help everyone else in the community. So how did this plan get developed? Basically the town coordinated the plan through a hazard mitigation team made up of multiple town departments and We have the coordinator for the team right there helping move the slides I cannot say enough about and I probably this is not news to this board The competency and professionalism of everyone who came to this these meetings from the town This has been a really wonderful time to work with at MAPC. We work a lot of communities And Arlington has been outstanding in coming forward and putting up the ideas and giving us the data and information We needed to put together this plan and make it useful for the town So as as your consultant more or less we put together The plan based on the information input we got from the committee And then in the process there are two public meetings One of which we held back in June at the senior center when has some pretty interesting participation there And the second one is this very one tonight And it's the second plan the second meeting occurs at the point where we have a draft plan available So the plan is I have brought a couple of hard copies that what more importantly it's up on the town's website So folks not only in this room, but anyone who's watching at home Can can take a look at this plan and see if they have any questions or comments about it The next steps in the process is that once the we've gone through the review process of this draft The plan will be submitted to MIMA and then to FEMA in sequence for their review and approval to make sure from their perspective The plan meets all of their technical requirements and they're pretty specific about what they require This gives you a kind of a graphic view if you look clockwise around the numbers that the steps that Are involved in producing the plan and we've worked our way all the way around the yellow items up to the red one Where we are today, so we've done identifying the hazards identifying and mapping critical facilities in the town Identifying risks and vulnerabilities We have our first public meeting as I said in June Then looked at the existing mitigation that you have in town already What's the baseline that you have in place already and then developed a set of recommended mitigation measures Which is really the heart of the plan so we're now doing the second public meeting will have outreach to stakeholders And then as I mentioned the last step will be MIMA and FEMA review for the plan So just a little bit of a very high-level tour of what's in the plan We map and identify hazards starting with federal and state Information and then quickly drilling down to local information that comes to us mostly from the team members We look at the state hazard mitigation plan one of the things that's an outstanding piece in this plan is a very thorough inventory of what we call critical facilities and We have a hundred and six of those that were identified by the local team that you're obviously we're not going to read this list Just to give you a flavor Lots of different kinds of facilities and each of these is actually on a map as well And there's a map and this map here. You're not going to be able to see a lot of detail at this scale But not only does it have all the critical facilities to have a little green dots speckled throughout the town But you'll see some of the FEMA floodplain areas listed here in some of the blue and orange Colors so you can see where the areas that are more subject to potential flooding for instance The town however go went beyond just looking at FEMA mapping and identify where there are local areas of drainage and flooding problems That you know, you've actually experienced and they came up with this list of about eight different sites Subject to localized flooding and also because it's an all-hazards plan They looked at the brushfire risk and found a couple sites there as well. Those are also mapped Here's an example of some of the kind of data we put into the plan. We look at One of the most recent the severe flooding incidents, which was in 2010 in the spring And this is a hydrograph that shows the level of the nearest Stream that we could find this information for on the alewife brook And it shows in the months months of march and up to early april A couple of different major storm events where this like went off the scale and you had like Levels of river of the river that we haven't seen in decades So just documenting what the hazards are the degree quantifying it where we can We're looking beyond just flooding though at a host of other hazards We're looking at extreme heat at earthquakes earthquake zones At drought and of course just 2016. We actually had a pretty significant drought Which we hadn't had one of that big since the early 80s. So We that's one of those wake-up calls. You don't get them that often When you suddenly do get one it can be a big deal and you remember. Yeah, we can get droughts. Can't we? Yes We were actually lucky 2016 was pretty significant but it was only about a year not even a full year Had it gone on longer, it would have been we would still be talking about it today Extreme precipitation that last one there What we're looking at there also I'll mention is The effects of climate change before I heard several speakers earlier tonight Many of these hazards that you've already historically been subjected to Are likely to be getting worse and more severe with the impacts of climate change, especially severe storm events So that's another thing that this although FEMA doesn't literally include climate change in their plan because it's a federal plan Right We can actually talk about those those data and put that in there as well Finally, this is a part of the analysis just an example of a Computer run that we did using FEMA's own software. They call has this hazard u.s That estimates the financial damages from different scenarios of hurricanes Earthquakes and floods and how just basically looking at the building base in a community and coming up with it and they have Computer modeling basically that gives you estimates and you can see for some of these of course They would be very high although those are very high events that you wouldn't very be likely to have in town But it gives you it gives you a range of possibilities including a certain worst case So the mitigation strategies We basically started with a previous plan And we looked at which of those measures have actually been implemented that some of them had been And which that had not yet been implemented to the team to the local team Want to keep them carry them through and into the new plan. So there's a whole list of measures That way they did and then they reprioritized and came up with cost estimates. Go ahead And so the next two slides again, we're not going to read all these It's just to give you a flavor and you can read them at your leisure and these are actually in the plan as well, of course But these are examples of the of the major kinds of recommendations For these this category here is for flooding and storm water And then we have a number of measures for some of the other hazards winter hazards wildfire drought Ascended so they're all in the plan Each of those measures has a cost range estimate It has the local department that would be responsible for it and a time range for it over the five year plan So where we are at the final steps in the process. We have a draft plan. There's the For what it's worth there is on the slide the the link to it If folks can see this at home, maybe they can find it, right? And We're asking that if there's any comments or questions folks have about this to to submit them to emily sullivan by february 10th After that we will submit the plan to mema and fema for review and we'll be in the home stretch Just as a heads up. We're not asking for an action tonight from this board But when it comes back from fema and fema approved approved at that point You'll be asked to simply vote to adopt the plan The the approved plan because fema likes to see that there's a nice Formal into the process that that the leadership of the community like the officials are actually Aware of the plan and actually sort of put their their their stamp of adoption on it So you'll see that at some little bit later point And with that If you have any questions Thank you very much for the presentation. This is fascinating. This is one of these Types of agenda items which is torturous to my wife. She'll be sitting there trying to read and I'll be Hey, listen to this listen to this. Yeah, right a lot of nuggets in this this report are really Appreciate I Sent along him is right a few questions. Yes after I after I read it I appreciate you addressing one of them because I was curious in the The plan there is a definition of Hazards as being natural and man-made and I was thinking of some of the things we've experienced in our linkedin with The failure of the mwa infrastructure and the need to supply bottle water and Also the threat of gas leaks, which I think has been hanging over us Since we you know saw our neighbors to the north So thank you for addressing that at the outset one of my other questions that had been Amongst the the types of natural hazards that you outlined Why are micro bursts not included? That's something that we have experienced here right and actually I did see your comments in by email this morning And so my thought with that is we we would and should include micro bursts If we have any information about have the where and when they've occurred It just didn't seem to come up in the meetings, but in fact if they have happened It's that's why this is still a draft plan We can go back and get that information and add it in because that's a category of hazard that we would normally include It's just it in the discussions part up to this point. They specifically hadn't been wrote up Okay, so we can do a double check on that and and add those in Yeah, okay. Absolutely. Yeah, that's that's great. That's great fantastic And I think I had sent along a couple of observations I had for some areas that might need some updating on Turnatic activity. That's right. I noticed a couple other things too that maybe I can get to you Emily like if you have any further updates Sent feel free this that's why we have a draft in a comment. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's difficult with the the list of It's a moving target, but this large list of critical facilities. They change all of the time So I see some things that have probably changed since the list was put together That's why you redo the plan every five years or so. Can you imagine how much changes in five years? Right? Yeah, that's great Thank you very much. Really appreciate this Mr. Herd, sorry if I missed this, but can you just explain what the role of the 106 critical facilities is in the yes, that's a good question because that list is actually I like to say it has Apples oranges and pears on it. It's not all the same thing You can basically break down the items on that list into three kind of buckets or categories one is facilities that provide utility to the town, especially in its ability to respond to a disaster so that would include Your foot, you know emergency operation center police and fire and public works facilities and Communications tower and that's all of those sorts of things then there's the second category of facilities that might require assistance Especially because they have vulnerable populations. So that might have elderly housing Daycare centers schools and that sort of thing and then there's a third category. That's general infrastructure things like dams critical bridges Things of that sort so those all of those are in that list because they're critical But you're you make a good point for different reasons actually I was wondering if there's any way we could incorporate I know you have Some verbiage in here regarding sanitary sewer overflows, but the remaining three CSO outfalls That we have that discharge into the albite brook It seems to me that Perhaps that's something that could and should be included in this originally before I even got on the board I think they were like either seven or 11 when we first started out in the mwr I did embark on a program where every 10 years they went and got a variance Cambridge they so slowly eliminated The majority of this CSO Outfalls that experienced the discharges into the brook, but that's sort of stalled. So my question would be Is this something that could be included at least for consideration? And we don't have to answer that tonight unless you know the well, I would say that you know It's one of those infrastructure questions But there could be a link to natural hazards in the sense that if it's high rainfall events That activate those overflows then there's a there's a connection there that makes that a relevant thing to consider Yeah, so just like the other point if we get that information from folks on the team And we can maybe go back and just put that ask out We're glad to put that into the plan, but you know just a quick characterization Are there a certain number of sites? Where are they? And and the question is in in terms of the plan's recommendations That category is not likely to be something that town is going to take an action about Because I know that's something that really is under mwr a's auspices to to do something about and it's part of their long term CSO control plan that's under the court order and that goes all the way back to austin harbour So there's a lot of connections there But it doesn't to refer to something like that in your plan Even if you're not going to end up at the end of the day having a specific local town action related to that Because it's stalled out about 10 years ago mwr a and and my Sort of another tactic on how to address it is um Through this has a mitigation plan. Um, yes, it's mwr a but it's also the cities of some level in cambridge So maybe that's an avenue there and then um I don't know if it's appropriated here, but I know going all the way back to The citations you gave um, there's always a lot of debate around the um, amalia air hot dam What the procedures and policies are when they do release it? Um Allington from what I've been told that by people will well versed in this We really bear the brunt of it. It used to be over. I think in winchester hornpaw Is that where they used to get a lot of funding? But that has gotten mitigated um by uh Was it town of winchester or city of uber? Winchester did work on the aboriginal river I don't know if that's something um, because I know it has detrimental effects In terms of when we have the hundred year storms the three cso's discharge And all that goes into the backyards along boulevard lafayette sunny side, etc um And then I think I heard from uh, mew by questions from my colleagues that this is something that will be revisited Maybe there's sort of a placeholder Whether it's in this plan or in the process Something that we haven't even foreseen yet that may come up in the future Obviously, that's something that's doable that can be worked into this if if applicable and if it follows the framework of Being applied in this way So i'm saying we have that just in case there's a future placeholder somewhere process in there I know i'm not i'm not I think I understand and I could also suggest that another place For this issue to be considered further on is uh, as you know, you've completed a municipal vulnerability preparedness project Which is a little broader and it's what it's looking at. It's not so constrained by FEMA requirements And they can look at these longer-term trends and it can it can in does include the impacts of climate change as rain Rainstorms become more You know stronger and you may have higher higher tides and higher storm surges all of those get considered in that effort And so that may be the real place where you can have the the leverage to Think about some of these bigger picture longer-term issues that They're not quite so fitting within the FEMA framework exactly but are important to the town Okay, honestly that poorly phrased question There really is a reason that i'm asking it just in case but we'll we'll get further down the road Any else my colleagues mr. Decorson. Yeah, thank you madam chair If you comment state first, I want to thank miss Sullivan There's a resident who sent a question in over the weekend And in the answer I had to do with the difference between the the hazard mitigation plan and the comprehensive emergency management plan and thank you for responding to her so promptly and giving a real good Discussion as to what the differences are and maybe that can go on the website as well in terms of One is before natural disaster the other is While we're in the middle of it or afterwards. So thank you for that Just a question. I know this plan was funded through a MEMA grant Is is this necessary to qualify for MEMA funding as well in addition to FEMA grants In the future in other words, we're doing this plan partly because it allows us to qualify for future FEMA grant funding Is that required at the state level as well to have to have an updated plan? No, but this is a FEMA requirement The only thing I'll say is that that when FEMA grants are come into Massachusetts. They are actually administered by MEMA. Okay, so And it was a MEMA grant really part and parcel of the same process. Okay, but it was a MEMA grant that actually funded the study Wasn't that's right. So in here's a case where it's not completely an unfunded mandate They say you should do a plan and we'll give you a grant To cover 75 percent at least of the cost because all FEMA grants cover 75 Okay, thank you. And and just a question on the draft And and there are a number it's online as you said and there are a number of The various hazards that are identified within the areas And there are a number that are high priority and high estimate cost Are they laid out by in order of this is the most important one or is it Is it just laid out by areas across the town that have been identified? I don't believe that they've been prioritized against each other These are all like the fairly short list of the top concerned areas in across the whole town But not necessarily relative to each other. Like if there's a list of one through nine It's not a list in order of priority. Okay. Okay. And and this may be a question for the town manager Some of the projects I see here are actually We're in the planning stages. So the DPW facility is here as a high priority. It's also in the capital plan Is there any coordination that you see going forward to that To try to coordinate CPA capital plan in the in the needs that are identified here Yeah, absolutely Going back to the last hazard mitigation plan There were capital planning requests that were made coming out of that. So I know that dpw working with jenny and emily Will they will do that coordination now that we have the cpa as compared to the last time We'll have more funding resources that might be available To implement the recommended projects. Great. Thank you. And just a specific question on land protection and flooding hazards One of the measures is to identify acquiring open space parcels Are those just in general or is it there are any specific Recommendations that will come out of the the plan So this plan didn't identify specific parcels It's it's it's proposing or it's recommending that you use your open space Acquisition which you do for many purposes historic and recreation that one of the factors that you consider Is that some of this open space land will help to absorb flood waters? And so This would be something you I would say you would actually implement in the course of your open space plan And your and your ongoing open space acquisition program So it gives you that priority, but it wasn't prescriptive in this hazard mitigation plan about this exact parcel or that exact parcel Okay, okay. Thank you Um, mrs. Warden Patricia warden precinct eight Thank you, madam chairman For the opportunity to speak and thank you miss southern for your Answer to my questions about conservation considerations and to mister security for his very important questions This hazard plan tonight should help prevent harm to people and properties from natural and man-made hazards Arlington's flood problems will get worse as climate change progresses rainfall associated with the worst storms in our region is now 71 percent greater than it was 50 years ago And so thank you to metropolitan area planning council and other creators of Um, this hazard mitigation plan for their very helpful maps Unfortunately, the creators have done a good um a good job checking boxes, but as um regards providing improvements from protection of people and properties Not so much many important factors are ignored and there are errors There is a lot of repetitive boilerplate In table 31 Arlington high school is cited as having zero infrastructure flood risk And monotony preschool is cited for significant flood risks But monotony preschool is inside Arlington high school. So that makes no sense Another mistake the report said that Arlington really created the town common Well, no Arlington has never had a common the only land that might have resembled A common russian green was entirely paved over for a parking lot long ago The report says that public participation is very important for this plan But prior to tonight there has only been one such public session Just one in seven years A much greater concern Neglected in the hazard plan is the failure of town leaders to prioritize higher hazard mitigation over attempt to develop developer friendly zoning changes for dense residential development Removing usable open space which in many cases would worsen hazards Zoning should be used to reduce hazards, but recently town leaders have been doing just the opposite Fortunately, they have so far been stopped by town meeting The report indicates the importance of trees in avoiding heat island effects that are dangerous to our seniors But the planning department plans to remove shade trees from Arlington centre to facilitate a lucrative landscape contract In fact, there is a tree hearing tomorrow where a pea will be made to save the trees Flooding problems are most severe in the Millbrook Valley The firm Western and Samson determined that Arlington should develop a capital improvement plan For Millbrook essentially so that it can run all the way to Mr. A without being blocked by the undersized covered at Arlington High School that causes the frequent expensive dangerous back up flooding problems upstream Solving the Millbrook's flooding problems would need the undersized covered for the Millbrook that runs beside not under The high school football field to be replaced or opened up Dailyitis, but the report completely ignores this so the problem will go on and get worse There is no plan nothing to improve this Even though it is at the site of Arlington's biggest ever construction plan the new Arlington High School There is little or no mention of the FEMA designated floodways at Arlington High School fields And the large culvert under the high school that may need to be redirected or expanded It carries stormwater from 400 million square feet of watershed From Massachusetts Avenue under the high school to Millbrook There are no permits or order of conditions for this construction nor have any even been applied for The report ignores this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Warren And I forgot to mention this at the beginning if anybody Has any remarks that they want to officially enter into the record? You can leave it with mismar and or if you feel like you didn't want to get up and say anything Or you thought of something later you can get them to mismar who will get them over to Mr. Pillsbury or Ms. Sullivan Okay Who's right did you want to I just wanted to close out our section and just thank Very much all of you for listening to the presentation for all of the questions that you asked Particularly those in advance, but also the productive discussion this evening And also of course to martin and emily. I really appreciate them ushering through this process and Particularly emily's ability to organize the internal team to help with this whole entire process We really rely on our partners at dpw and engineering in order to make this all happen As well as of course our public safety and other personnel in the community who really have a hand In carrying this plan forward. So thank you to all of all of you and and I just want to check I didn't realize that this was a public meeting Yes, that you all are calling it a public meeting So I don't know if anyone else came that wanted to speak Thank you, okay, sorry I apologize. I wouldn't have had that confusion. So Thank you like name and address. Hi, I'm zavid pretzer at 44 grove street And I just wanted to say with reference to this plan that I'm really glad that it's talking about the dpw having floodwater storage because flooding Effects a lot of the homes along bridal street and grove street and it's an increasing problem And so anything we can do to mitigate mitigate that I think is very valuable And I do think as part of that I would appreciate if the relevant party is considered options for increasing the ability For water to flow on their grove street the culvert there Gets backed up during floods. And so if there's anything we can do To sort of remove that choke point or increase the capacity For water to flow on their grove street could be very helpful for homes along grove and bridal streets Thank you. Thank you And mrs. Sullivan is taking all of this down. So Just name and address everybody. Thank you very much. I'm arnd france in 81 oakland avenue I think I haven't looked at the report. I haven't seen it online. I've just took a just Thumb through it very quickly. It looks like a lot of work has gone into it I can I can see that there's any number of issues that could be addressed But I I agree with mr. Decorsi's Evaluation of my priorities. I don't see the priorities here We've listed a number of issues a number of things that could be addressed should be addressed Some of them are ranked high medium and low. There are a lot of high Priority projects here. I'd like to see a prioritization of the projects in one of the slides We talked about the number of the number of flooding issues. I'd like to see a prioritization there It also be helpful in terms of the recommendations of the report If there was more of an aspect of a report card to it The last report was done in 2012 if you look at Section seven in the report where it lists all the changes that have happened since 2012 In 2012 there were a large number of high priority projects that had to be addressed And if you look at what's been happened since then Often no action or nothing's been done. So it'd be good to know What is the town doing? What is the plan? What it what's what's the report card, you know, where do we stand in terms of the process? So, um, I think that would be a good component to include in the recommendations. All right. Thank you And perhaps similar to what we do with Other endeavors Maybe there's some sort of like a matrix chart That lists everything in the different categories. I Assume that's something that you all already have a handle on it But I do agree with that. So, um, I think you said you weren't looking for approval. So, uh A move received by mr. Cairo Is there a seconded by mr. Heard any further questions or comments? If not a motion by mr. Cairo seconded by mr. Heard all those in favor say aye. Aye those opposed unanimous vote. Thank you so much. Um Next we have the Debrief and follow-up from joint meeting with redevelopment board on 113 2020 I'm just gonna let them clear out My nervous jumped back to december 2nd's meeting. I don't know Mr. Chappell manager mr. Chappell Thank you, madam chair So provided for the board's review and comment is a memorandum Sort of restating in a calendar format the process that was discussed between the redevelopment board and the select board of the Joint meeting that happened several weeks ago as well as an updated outreach plan Also incorporating the recommendations and suggestions of both boards So I not to read the memos to you if the board has any questions comments concerns Or changes that would like to be seen. We'd be happy to to discuss those Mr. Heard Just one comment. I don't think we flushed this out at our joint meeting, but We had talked about reviewing the article. So we'd review the zoning articles I am not convinced I can be that it's a good idea from both boards to take votes. Is that what This This timeline is saying that both boards are going to take votes. So we would take a vote based on For on the zoning articles as proposed So my recollection of the conversation was that The board's either board could certainly observe it's right to take a vote But that the preferred course would be comment right on it But not you know, not having a again a dueling motion or something that would be rivaling The the sort of the the main board's motion on it. So if we can just clean up that where it says review and votes on recommended actions My opinion that we shouldn't be taking The dueling votes, I think we can come up with You know our comments and summarize for town meeting what our individual collective thoughts were but To have oh, you know the redevelopment board voted Three to two in favor suck board four to one against. I think it's confusing for town meeting So if I add some language that suggests that votes It's recommended that votes only be taken in each board's respective jurisdiction. Is that something along those lines? And I'm I think we should open up for input too That's just my feeling So I guess um I would prefer that at the right time when the board when When the ARB in particular on zoning when the ARB is ready for the select board To give an opinion and the select board is similarly ready to give an opinion I would prefer the select board take that vote And make in and make that case I'm definitely not saying that we should be doing it for everything and I'm and we shouldn't do it when we're not comfortable And we shouldn't do it when on their you know on their turf so to speak when they don't invite us But there are things that I think that the the leadership of the select board can really help Push across the finish line and I really think that this is I feel like the reason we're trying to do this process Is because that was missing last year from some really important The things and if we talk about the housing crisis the presentation, I really think that that is something that we As the select board should take a position on when the time is right. I'm I very much respect the caution that you're feeling but I don't want to say don't vote. I want to say vote when the time is right Would that be something that gets fleshed out in the meeting between the chairs to say all right As you look at the actual articles you say these are the ones that I think so and I also think that like at least in my experience both on this I'll give you a few different examples one is The select board and the finance committee which I've experienced from both sides Then there was the long-range planning committee and the school committee and the finance committee and the retirement board There's this like iterative dance where like one board has a conversation where you know You talk about like there's a public hearing and you can see where the sense of the board is then another board has to come up Where's oh, yeah, where the slackman leaning and stuff like that and you kind of like close in And if you get to this place where you aren't going to reach consensus then one party or the other You know would appropriately I think bow out, but I don't think so. Yes a joint meeting is a venue on that But I think about for instance, um like on the override, you know We didn't have a joint meeting with the finance committee, but we were dancing If I can just provide one thing that might be of some comfort to the board Um, there can only be one legally operative motion in the zoning matter So under chapter 48 only the ARB's motion can actually be before tau meeting As the operative vote so in some ways that does provide some clarity and security There have been occasions to my recollection where a body has commented I think in particular the finance committee in support of adoption of for example a local option And so we could look at the models used by the finance committee in those circumstances for Language that might make sure that it's clear that we're that no one's infringing on somebody's turf or confusing. Tell me In just on on the memorandum, I think part of The word board is used interchangeably between select board and redevelopment boards I think that needs to be flushed out in terms of who's doing One of it's the respective boards and and Um, so I think that that that may clarify things and and um I think one of what we had discussed at the joint meeting two is separating Like the joint the meeting that's going to take place between our chair and the chair of the redevelopment board is really for War nauticals this year that are submitted by the 10 registered voter articles probably As opposed to what may be developed next fall Into the winter and I think that's the iterative He called it the dance and mr. Dunn, but that I think that's where the redevelopment board is probably looking for feedback from us But I agree with mr. Herd to the respect that I don't want to get down into the weeds of every single item That's being proposed because that's that's not our Function, but I don't think that was the intent. I think it was at a higher level of the support Yeah, I mean if I'm hearing what you're all Saying I I think you're actually saying similar things I I think mr. Herd was suggesting He doesn't want to take Detailed votes on zoning articles that mr. Dunn is saying he'd like to vote support for but consider support For things they are doing and I don't think those are mutually exclusive. I think I think my Point is I don't want to confuse town me and I think attorney heim has clarified that and I also I mean I mean Both the boards and the citizens who are active with regards to these zoning changes what you're for against You know time is important. So I think people We just want to make people understand that we're going to review it and we're going to comment on it But you know if you are for against the zoning article as you put your presentation You're going to get the most bang for your bar get the a rb and you know vice versa for the The warrant articles here just so people are aware of that. Yep And to be crystal clear Not to beat the stead horse that what I would expect would be voting on Is whether or not we concur in the recommended action? Not the article itself. So it's a vote of concurrence question of whether we concur To to avoid the the dueling situation and that assumes that we're going to review it We're not going to put we're not going to put forward an alternative set of language. I wouldn't anticipate right I guess I would add just to repeat what I had said at the joint meeting is It's similar to what my colleagues have all commented on What we're discussing here in terms of any joint Conversations and concurrence agreement, etc To me that would be a rarity We could go a year or two that There really isn't anything and each board can Basically sustain itself and move forward without the other. I I just wanted to have something around The warrant articles we just went through in any future common global Concerns of the town I don't know vis-a-vis mugar if that you know, I know when I first got on the board There were several boards and commissions that Even even though one had sort of the main balla wick of being the reporting body board commission committee We did bring in other town Boards and committees as well as our counterpots over in Belmont. So so that's what I'm thinking for this Because I agree. We don't want to get really bogged down and And I would anticipate however the process it will be a future chair That's planning for the goal setting meeting in july and you know how That'll be a good meeting and and form that way But it really setting out I think we need to have the discussion to see where it goes But I think you're getting the sense from the board in terms of what our feelings are. So I'll stop there Mr. Curell. Yeah, the only other comment I would have on this which is a different topic is I noticed that this timetable has July for a joint board goal setting meeting and a timetable for more moving forward with the goals A fall joint board meeting to provide update on the goals Three or four months. I mean maybe there'd be movement on goals, but I assume that that that's a little Is going to have to be a little bit flexible depending on what the timetable is That's set in july Yeah, that's a good point. I think that Reads as though we were already into a cycle where goals have been established in the previous year. So let's make some I can make an amendment to that. Yeah Okay Everybody else it. I don't think we need a vote on that. I'll set Thank you so much We now go to agenda item 13 fiscal year 2020 quarterly budget report Mr. Chathaline So I am going to turn that over to deputy town manager sandy pooler to report to the board Even ladies and gentlemen for those of you watching at home. I'm sandy pooler deputy town manager First thing I would like to do is I noticed as I was going over the report that was sent to you that I had inadvertently left out the general fund revenue pages. So I'm going to pass those out with The numbers are contained within the report, but the backup material is what is being passed out now I gave you five so Actually, I have one better for you now And I will update the electronic version. So So This is the second in our new forms of quarterly budget reports To the select board and the finance committee. This was report report was prepared by me and eda kodi Our comptroller Unfortunately, she had a family obligation and couldn't be here tonight But I'm happy to represent us both I think the news here is Very good. Generally, everything is on target. We are 50 percent weight Of our way through the year and this report shows that on the expense side in the general fund We have expended about 57 percent or encumbered 57 percent of people's budgets And on the revenue side, we have Collected about 47 percent Just on the face of it. Those numbers might not seem good, but they actually are they're fine Because there are a number of things as explained in the memo. I'm not going to go through every line of the memo That show that for many departments particularly those with some very large accounts like public works with our trash accounts and And facilities with our fuel accounts and so forth. They encumber those funds early on in the year So on the reports that come out of munis it looks as if It shows that those resources have been accounted for either directly spent or encumbered so that they don't inadvertently get spent later On things other than what they're meant for There so there are explanations of some of the major deviations in this report if any Department budget was off by More than 10 percent or in a couple of cases where I thought the numbers were big enough if it was less than 10 percent We provided an explanation I will not go through each of those I will say we did try to present this in a format for the first time where We listed the departments on the town side in alphabetical order As opposed to the order they show up in our accounting system Since I think most people are better at alphabets than they are at accounting systems Then we separated out some other things like our big Accounts like debt and insurance accounts for health insurance and property insurance Minuteman and pensions and then all the smaller warrant articles and then went through The revenue a couple of things I do want to say about revenue Why it is at 40 percent instead of 50 percent? Two factors one is that our biggest source of revenue is our property taxes and as you all know From seeing property tax bills go out in the past The first two bills of the year are estimated bills and the second two are actual bills And those actual bills invariably are higher than the estimated bills So and this year will also see those End of the year bills have the override on them what the first two bills didn't The second factor in the second part of the year that brings in more revenue Is that when we get the bulk of our motor vehicle excise revenue in? So I've looked back at previous years At the same time and what our tax revenue has come in and as a percentage and it's consistent What we've been doing in past years, but just want to show you that that is good and we are on target It will also note that our interest rate collection is What we get on our earnings is very good We budget 65 thousand dollars and so far we've taken in 406 thousand dollars The 65 thousand dollars comes from What we actually brought in about 10 years ago at the low at the trough of our interest collection So that's one of the reasons we keep that estimate low But it does mean that we are building up The resources to replenish our free cash every year by having a gap in that What is the collection rate of 626? percent mean under interest that means that 406 thousand is 626 percent of 65 thousand Okay, in other words, um say that one more time. I didn't write it down. Sorry That 406,000 is 626 percent Of 65,000 in other words, it's about six times 65,000 all right 36 yeah That is the the um the general fund the enterprise funds all are Collecting revenue and spending at the rates we would expect to see them The only one that i'm a little bit concerned about is um that the aycc is Is doing a bang-up job? Responding to some very real needs out in the community So they've seen more and more people coming in it means that more and more there's sufficient revenue coming in to meet their expenses But they are running ahead of what they're authorized to spend during the year. So we will we've been talking about Uh In other words, they can't spend more than time meeting authorize them to at some some point we well We may have to do something about that Um, I just point that out because it's the only one that I think is Is something that we really need to look at at this point I have been talking with pristine bunjourno about it and pristine le chair So I think we are on top of it. Um But that is of all these other numbers the only ones that uh are somewhat inconsistent From what they've been before because there are growing needs in the community for these those kind of services and Fortunately, we've been able to provide them and collect the revenue for them um Pages four and five are all the number details for the general fund and page six are The summaries of the work of the enterprise funds and then the rest of the report are the munis reports Munis reports because they're for munis are not in alphabetical order. They're in accounting order But I think for for most people The first six pages are are where most of the valuable information is going to be With that I would be happy to answer any questions people may have Mr. Heard if one question about the hotel revenue Yeah, it looks like we have about a hundred percent of what was projected. Is that does that mean occupancy in our hotels is What higher than we thought or is there other sources? I think the I think the hotel in east arlington expanded and so what our previous estimate was based on What we saw as a pattern and now what we're seeing is they're larger than they were and so you're just bringing in more revenue Than they had in the past. Okay We've just limited hotels. I didn't want to expect that to be ahead of schedule, but that's good The other questions Mr. Of course, yeah, thank you. Madam chair just a couple questions on on revenue on like You already mentioned the investment interest being up so much, but That the penalties in interest It What is what's included in that revenue? I know it's you late tax payments and that's exactly what it is It's a late. It's late tax payments. Okay. All right and then on the Licenses and permits and this is the first year you're doing it. So I don't know if this there's a way to That does that indicate any trends in in terms of If you've looked at prior years in terms of what building has been in in the town in terms of building permit fees or is it's This may be an appropriate percentage at this time of year I'm just I'm just curious if it reflects any more or any less than what you've seen previously I do look at that every month and And do a year to date comparison from over the last 10 years just to graph it out and just take a look I would say that we are and it can fluctuate a lot month to month depending on What projects come in so it's not always smooth? I would say this year we are Within a range of high Building and license permits that we've been in for about the last five or six years We're a little bit behind where we were the previous year at this time but We've had a period of about five or six years of heightened revenue from that area Which goes to show that the economy is booming and so forth It also goes to show that at some point if the economy cools down that could dip again So we're kind of consistent Not but it's not Ever increasing either over the last few years. It kind of goes up and down a little bit But we're we're in that maybe the seven good years Thank you. And last thing I want to say is in response to what you're saying about AYCC it seems It there's an incredible demand for their services and I think It while it may be reflected in higher expenses that the need is there and I think we certainly should look into um Ways to to to to address that and and um, you know help to help them provide those services And just sort of a follow-up on that because I know Intermittently over the years and I think this might have been one of the years Using AYCC they do get sometimes one-time grants from the state whether it's a supplemental bond or an actual Appropriation Does that also? Is that something that you're also tracking and factors into that when you come to the question of as mr. Decorsi raised? Is there a need for more services out there? And there's truly no more money anywhere else That's exactly what what we've been talking about With the director and with the where the department head is how to use all the resources Because what you're seeing on this report is just what's in the enterprise fund And they do have other other funds that they can tap into so That's part of the conversation We're having as we look at this going throughout the year I would just to expand on that perhaps around that particular issue in having the conversation Sort of do a cost benefit analysis of What if any increased services are being offered if they are being funded by the state? And if it is an only a one-time allocation and or follow-up To find out that that isn't the case and then I would leave it to Mr. Poole or miss bar general who and whomever else to sort of say How do these programs sustain themselves in the future? Maybe it is you know increased funding from the state, but I certainly wouldn't rely on that So you understand what i'm saying? Okay, I mean I I would add I the AYCC As far as I understand it isn't looking for more general fund Revenue the issue is that they make their best prediction at budget setting time every year of how much money they think they're going to spend and collect And what they're hitting up against is the need to spend more than they've been allocated If they spend more they'll collect more because they'll bill for those services or Access those various pots of grant money or state airmark money based on the populations that they're serving And this actually has happened I think two or three maybe two times over the past decade where they've just They've hit up against their their appropriation cap So just to put a fine point on it. This isn't a situation where they're coming back to the general fund Looking for more tax money. They're just looking for appropriation flexibility. Okay Move receipt by Mr. Carroll seconded by Mr. Dunn any further questions and comments if not our motion by Mr Carol seconded by mr. Dunn to move receipt all those in favor say aye. Aye all those opposed unanimous. Thank you, mr We now go to gender item 14 town manager's budget presentation Does anyone need a break You can hear my stomach testifying over here I apologize Soft some liquids It's like Trying to hide it We're taking a break or we're go right it. Okay. All right Thank you. So I'll be cognizant of the fact that this is the third or fourth presentation the board has heard tonight So Pay it their respect that it needs and deserves but try not to linger too long So we go to the first slide dug I'll start with what we do every year and talk A little bit about what we're going to talk about tonight and talk about the budget process How do we put together the budget and then what public process does it go through? For consideration and then ultimately approval by town meeting I'll give an overview of the budget. We'll take a look at projected revenues in f y 21 versus f y 20 And then do the same for expenditures I'll talk about some highlights in this year's budget I think particularly I want to highlight How this budget is really focused on maintaining the commitments that this board made in putting an override on the ballot in june Of 2019 and I want to talk about the investments that this budget is proposing for general government We then we'll move into a long-term outlook of where we see The next three to five years For the town's budget and then talk about the next steps as we really launch the public part of the budget process here tonight For the next So I know the board knows this well, but for those here tonight or those watching on tv The town follows a fiscal year that runs from july 1 to june 30 So a fiscal year starts in july 1 And that's all starting from the prior years budget process So then internally starting in september We ask all departments to return their capital budget request to the town manager's office for processing through the capital planning committee Then we similarly ask all departments for their operating budget requests for to be delivered to the town manager's office by november And those are processed by the deputy town manager and the management analyst all leading up to the delivery of this This budget book here And this budget book is due on january 15th It's a part of the town manager act that it'd be delivered to the select board and finance committee on january 15th Then late january more like early february through april the finance committee will hold hearings public hearings On all of these budgets and other financial warrant articles in march The town manager's office puts together the annual budget and financial plan and provides that to the select board And the finance committee we we wait till march because that's when we get our updated health insurance numbers In april the finance committee submits its report To town meeting like mid to mid to late april but within hopefully a week's advance of the start of town meeting In may what we hope for is that town meeting adopts both the operating and capital budgets And then we get back to the end Or the start of the cycle and the fiscal year ends on june 30th and we started all over again So what are we looking at this year? We're currently in fiscal year 20 which sandi just gave An update on and the budget that we're talking about is the proposed fy 21 budget So what you see before you hear are our projected revenues These are these come from the long range plan that has been reviewed by the long range planning committee I'll start with property tax. You can see we're estimating an increase year over year of 2.8 So that's basically uh, two and a half percent Under proposition two and a half and six hundred thousand dollars 600,000 sandy Yes, 650. Thank you In new projected new growth Local receipts we've stayed with our tradition of increasing that line item by 100 thousand dollars a year State aid you see we have we're predicting a 2.8 percent increase What you see here before you is what our projections were before the governor released his budget on january 22nd Now we do know that the governor releases budget then and the numbers are not what are before you tonight But in sticking with past precedent We'll update the long range plan present it to the long range planning committee on february 5th And then provide those numbers in a more updated fashion back to the board finance committee and so on The good news is not to bury the lead We received significantly more chapter 70 funding in the governor's budget than what we had predicted or projected In this fy 21 budget submission Below that is school construction aid. Those are reimbursements from the old msba process the sbab where they give us their share of debt service payments You know, you probably recall that that number has gone down down down as the town has retired debt associated with prior school building projects Under that you see our free cash allocation for those That is quite as familiar with this process Part of the long-range planning process for the town is appropriating 50 of the prior years certified free cash as an operating revenue So you can see this year it's going up by about $340,000 as free cash was certified at a higher amount than what was certified last year Other funds represent overlay overlay surplus So the money that we set aside every year for abatements and exemptions By the assessor's office. We also asked the board asked the board of assessors to Tell us what they have extra what what are they not using they can surplus and we can use as a revenue And we program $200,000 a year as an operating revenue Sometimes as we get further in the process they may give us a different number Hopefully always higher than what we've budgeted but we We see what they have to say as they look at what abatements they have before them And then finally last year We did not make a withdrawal from the override stabilization fund as an operating revenue But in fy 21 per the long-range plan. We are making a $2 million withdrawal from the override stabilization fund Below that you can see the total The total of those above amounts and that we've also started adding for the past two years The money we take from the enterprise funds as offsets for the general fund service that is provided to those Enterprise funds and we show those as a revenue per department of revenues request I'm going to stop here any questions about revenue So this slide's even a little bit tougher to see but this is the expenditure forecast for fy 21 You can see if you go to the third line the municipal department's taxation total So that's the total expenditures of municipal departments less the offsets and indirect costs from the enterprise funds And you can see this chart here Shows a 2.6 increase We actually the municipal departments are actually growing 3.21 percent Which is just below the three and a quarter percent that's allowed under the long-range plan The reason that's showing up as 2.6 percent is the board will likely recall that 200 thousand dollars Was part of the override commitment to be put towards mobility improvements And that was put into the dpw's operating budget Because those improvements are likely to be capital in nature For fy 21 we've moved that 200 thousand dollars into the capital plan So it's created not in apples to orange comparison on this particular chart Just just for the board's information on that. Does that mean the capital budget is going to be over the five percent? Like in 2011 There was a 400 thousand dollar amount for roads And capital planning committee made the policy recommendation that that 400 thousand be above and beyond or outside of the five percent And they've also adopted that same stance for this 200 thousand dollars. Thank you Below that is the school department the combination of three and a half percent general fund or general education excuse me growth seven percent special education growth 50 percent per pupil expenditure funding for new students or enrollment growth as well as the 600 thousand dollars Additive that was included as part of the override commitment adds up to that 6.4 percent increase Minuteman school. You see a pretty significant increase there 21.3 percent We're going to a meeting on friday at minuteman. We have an expectation that number will come down some though not Not entirely The good news is their applications for enrollment for the next year Have them with a waiting list. So Predictions of their being you know, not filling the seats of this school do not seem to be coming true In fact Arlington included many districts are wondering if all the kids are going to be able to get in based on the competition for the school Below that we lumped together in this chart health care costs and pension costs This year health care is going up a little bit more than what we had expected We budget a five and a quarter percent increase based on what we think premium growth will be However, we we've been tracking for several years that A number of people Prominently in the school department would be hired But because of the affordable care act would not be taking the town's insurance because they were still in their parents insurance And what we're seeing is those people are aging in to the benefits. So we're seeing a larger subscribership in benefits Last year and this year than what prior previous previous years had budgeted So we're seeing a little bit of a larger increase in health care pensions as part of this long-range plan and Negotiation and discussion with the retirement board. We've increased the pension Annual increase to six percent from the previous five and a half percent that had been part of the prior long-range plan Although that you see the capital budget, which is only going up by one point six percent But is in conformance with the five percent of general fund operating revenue We then have warrant articles That those are all the miscellaneous warrant articles Some of which Sandy just highlighted in the quarterly report the lion's share of that amount Is excuse me the lion's share of that amount is our dedicated funding to op-ed Retiree health care. So just about almost a million dollars of that amount goes towards op-ed Under that I should mention under warrant articles One new warrant article we included this year, which I think Will merit a further board discussion as a standalone agenda item is funding for blue bikes So the I think the board knows line bike has ceased operation We also believe the line bike has told us that there is demand for bike share in Arlington So we are we've applied for grants to become part of the blue bike network But we've also asked for consideration of a warrant article and the amount of 100 000 dollars Which is a far better deal than what it would have been several years ago Now that lift to the rideshare company has bought bull bikes. They have a different funding model So again, I don't want to belabor that I think that's a separate agenda item But that is part of this warrant article request Below that is reserve fund and elections That the reserve fund is one percent of the operating budget And elections are just what we know will be held for elections If there's special elections, we you know might have to go back to the reserve fund But for what we know, we'll have for elections next year is included in that line You can see last year there was a deposit to the override stabilization fund Going back to revenues where we're withdrawing not depositing this year And so you can see our total expenditure growth this year of 4.2 So any questions about expenditures before we go on So maintaining the board's override commitments So Sort of top line, I would say this budget is maintaining all of the board's override commitments The budget's definitely maintaining the board's commitment in terms of exercising fiscal discipline while maintaining quality municipal services And what that really means is the commitments to controlling costs and growing school costs at The agreed upon levels and town costs at or below the agreed upon levels has been maintained So we feel that we're able to maintain quality municipal services at those levels while keeping our costs in control and sticking to the financial plan Below that the budget also maintains the board's commitment to respond to the ongoing school enrollment pressures We are funding the 50 of per pupil expenditures for their For last year's actual enrollment growth. What was certified in october? Well, I should say this year is for next year What was certified on october 1st The budget maintains the board's commitment to building arlington's future What that meant in the details of the board's commitment was Putting aside or investing money in the school department in f y's 20 21 22 and 23 in the amounts of 600 600 then 800 and 800 To try to meet the five main points of what the school committee has committed to achieving in the school department And it also maintains as I mentioned a moment ago the 200 000 commitment to mobility improvements and a 50 000 commitment to Senior transportation and I think you heard christine shah under the cdbg item talk a little bit about the enhancements They've already been able to see from those funds in f y 20 Next the budget per se doesn't carry any of these measures But I think it's important to mention that this board has already started to take action town meeting has taken action And the board is certainly considering further action to minimize the impact of last year's override and debt exclusion on taxpayers I think the next big thing this board will be doing is considering reduction in the debt shift when we come back likely next month or in early march to make that request And then finally this budget maintains the commitment to keep a five percent financial reserve for the duration of this four-year plan Which is very important for the rating agencies in maintaining our triple a bond rating and thereby getting favorable borrowing rates when we go out to issue bonds So next what what are we making investments in in town departments? So first we're making a significant investment in public work staffing Uh really over the part of the past uh six to eight years We've made investments across departments, but really no significant staffing investments in dpw we've added a tree warden and and And maybe and maybe at the start of that six year six to eight year window added created a recycling coordinator But not really a lot of additions to the public works department But this year working with the dpw director We're recommending the addition of two positions one is a permit engineer position This would be somebody in the engineering division that would be solely focused On tracking all of the trench permits and the trenches that are issued by the engineering division Whether they'd be by utilities or developers and making sure those trenches are maintained Or roadway repaving is done whatever whatever's agreed upon as a condition of the permit We want a dedicated resource To be tracking that down That ties in with the goals of our gas leaks task force making sure we have The best coordination possible with national grid the gas utility It'll also it'll also allow the existing engineering staff to Move projects faster. So at the time they currently spend on this They'll be able to dedicate to water and sewer infrastructure Roadway repavement ADA curb cuts all the work that the engineering division does Next is we're talking about adding a systems innovation manager This position came out of a discussion with the public works director Where I frankly said to him if there's one thing one position you could add That would most benefit dpw and getting its job done What would it be and what the public works director said is having somebody that could be dedicated In a role quite similar to adam karowski, but focused on dpw to work with the division heads and dpw To upgrade and update their workflow processes to put in place an electronic fleet management system To put in place a more updated work order system to work Individually in focus from start to finish and implement these projects. It's unfortunately been A task that's fallen in between the cracks as other larger projects have Have taken priority, but My grata marker had suggested and I agreed that this could be a very impactful position in terms of our Providing public service to the residents of town Next at the request of the police chief in coordination with the school superintendent We're recommending the addition of an one police officer's position so that we can create a second school resource officer I've learned through this process that The needs and duties of a school resource resource officer are growing more and more complex With growing with the growing needs of the school population What this would allow is for a dedicated Police officer, I believe to be at the high school and then another officer to spend time between the middle school and the elementary schools This is something the schools are interested in and acting chief flarity really felt strongly about being An important step forward for the department Next mentioning an investment in community services Over the past, I think it's basically the past decade. We've gone from having three days Open at the fox library and having five days open circulation has skyrocketed at the fox library And through that time we've had one full-time librarian at the fox library Through the work of the library director as well as the board of library trustees They asked that we create It was taking basically a seven hour position and making it a 35 hour position A second full-time branch librarian to report to the full-time branch librarian at the fox library So that investment's included in this budget And then finally there's a recommended investment in communication and transparency So what we see actually in the town manager's department In this budget is moving the public information officer from a part-time position to a full-time position And the addition of funding for part-time staff support to manage and respond to the growing number of public records requests that the town is receiving I'll say in terms of the public information officer We um, I think arlington was on the vanguard in creating a public information officers position some time ago and Thankfully it's caught on and many communities now are either have or are creating public information officers And they're all full-time positions. There's there's plenty of work to do to communicate with the public So I think the time is now to to upgrade our position to a full-time position Can I um I'm in agreement with moving it till full-time, but um Is there is some way we can when appropriate if appropriate Sort of get an analysis because I've been following the public information requests as they come in I'm in a depth. There definitely is a need for a full-time person there But I'm I'm also looking at the branches. It sprouts from What the actual employee town hall does and then a council review and then Sometimes there's even a third party involved As as this goes to full-time and it gets defined I don't know how but like Same Diane Mahan put a request in on Mugar and from that request, maybe there were 20 Total of 20 requests and that request that Mugar request by Mahan What basically was done in-house in terms of whether it's number of hours devoted by The town employee as well as what were the other Ancillary unexpected cost when it had to go beyond that. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes I'm wondering if we could sort of somehow track that not to Discard anyone from Taking steps and putting in requests, but if everybody can sort of see a handle on it in terms of What it looks like right now And it may have some people look at it to say I'm kind of recreating the whale And I'm going to double that expenditure again or something like that or are just so people are aware I don't think a lot of people I think very few people I should say Really aware of Following that through when it bounces to two or three other departments and two or three other costs Sometimes outside of the town hall. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I I want to limit people putting in requests I just would like to get a hand because I'm doing the math in my head and I'm like, please someone tell me I'm wrong sometimes So let me I know we track the amount of hours that staff Works on responding to public records requests Um Let me see how we can put that data together to share with the board. I feel the same way as you I don't begrudge anybody's opportunity under the law to access public records What I don't think many people understand is that it takes a lot of time, especially when they're wide ranging requests We have to use it consultants to search Out emails from any number of parties and it can it can get quite expensive to do these searches and very time consuming And sometimes when you go through those exercises If you see something enough you may find a more cost-effective way um To handle something like that so so tracking the expenses and the Extra cost as well as sometimes going through that it um it sometimes bears fruit on a positive trade Mr. DeCourts, yeah, thank you, madam chain and just on on that point um, and I understand the need for for additional resources for public records requests, but I'm hoping later this year We're going to have a new clerk elected in town and in a number of communities The clerk's office has a role in public record requests. So Um, I hope there may be a way to to work with the clerk's office Later in the year to see if there's a way to maybe relieve some of the burden from the town manager's office So just allocate The way these requests are routed if possible. Yeah, I think it's a good suggestion as well Thank you I need your questions on this before we move on All right, so the next slide So moving on to the long-term outlook and in short This override maintains Again, the commitment to have this override last for four years through fiscal year 23 It maintains the investments in our long-term liabilities both pension and op-ed. We're slightly increasing our investment in pension to stay on track and maintaining our investments in op-ed Um, we're going to have to continue to monitor enrollment trends Excuse me Where we we we have our our forecasts of growing enrollment and what impacts that will have in the plan Bu