Select Board - Regular Meeting

Okay, I Hold on one sec. Turn the volume off on your head. I sound like God. Oh, I don't sound like God anymore. Was for a second though. Okay. Okay. Okay. I would like to welcome everybody to the Box Select Board meeting. It is Monday, January 12th, 2026, and it is about 7:02 p.m. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. You need to take a Oh, I forgot. We have to do roll call vote. He's not here. Oh, he's not here yet. Okay. He's not here yet.

Nope. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yes. If Sam um if Sam dials in, Sam needs to join us from his home office. If he's Yep. If if he does join, do we have to do a roll call vote or we just announce his arrival? Any votes that you have that you do, you'll have to do roll call. No, but I don't have to call the meeting to order again or anything like that. No, because you already order. All right, sounds good. Okay, first up is public input. Do we have any public input this evening?

No hands. Nobody at the mic. I'm not going to jinx it. Okay. Um All right. Next up, we have a resignation from the Recreation Commission. Um Stacy Oonnell needs to resign for personal reasons. Um we thank her so much for her service. Um, do you want to read her note?

Yep. I regret to inform you though of my decision to resign from the recreation commission. It has been enjoyable to serve with you. She's referring to Hillary, the chair of the of the commission. Um, with with you on the commission for so many years, and I am proud of all the work we we have accomplished. However, recent changes to my work and school commitments have left me no time to continue on the volunteer important work of the commission. Therefore, I must step away from my work on the recreation commission. Best of luck to you and to the members of the commission. Sincerely, Stacy. All right. Well, Stacy, thank you very much for your service to the town and we accept your resignation with regrets.

Therefore, I move to accept the resignation of Stacy Okconor from the Recreation Commission effective January 4th, which was the date of a letter, January 4th, 2026, with appreciation for her services to the town. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Abstain. All right. And Sam just came in. Sam, you just missed our vote, but we'll get you on the next one. We'll get you on the next one. Next up, um, approval of an amended ABCC application for Thinking Flower Coffee Shop. And I believe her representative is here. Yes. Hello, Stephano. Nice to see you.

Good to see everyone again. Does everyone know Stephano? Everyone, Stephano Capera from Capra Law. I'm helping Thinking Flower with the ABCC application. Great. If you want to just describe why we're here. Yes, please.

Yeah. So, we were here in September uh with with the original application. It got sent to the ABCC um and there was a requirement that 50% of the directors on in the corporation because it's not a sole proprietorship. It is actually owned by a corporation that's solely owned by uh Divia the owner. Um because it is a corporation for for legal liability purposes. um 50% of the directors have to be US citizens and the there was a governor Morahily had released a governor's declaration or notice in 2024 with respect to allowing permanent residents and um people who have valid visas to apply for an ABC license as managers and that's the assumption was it would extend to the directors but if the ABCC says no it doesn't extend to director directors. So, we did have a board uh position added. There is a new director. Um it is a a family member of Divas. Um and it is a US citizen. So now we meet the standard of 50% um board of directors. It's been updated with Mass Secretary of the Commonwealth. Uh so the updates on the application are page two. Uh the director has been added. You'll notice that it's 0% ownership. It's just the position of director. Um to support that applicant, um the US passport and additional driver's license has been provided and then a quarry uh will also be conducted on the board of director as well.

So there's only so there's only two directors. There's only two directors which meets the 50% threshold. Thank you. All right. Any questions? All right. Then I move to approve the amended ABCC application for Thinking Flower Coffee Shop, Inc. located at 629 Massachusetts Avenue, Unit C, Box for Mass 01719 as an administrative change as presented. Second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those are going to do a roll call vote. Um Sam, we'll start with you. I Wes, you have but you have to make a motion, Kristen. I did make the motion. Okay. I and it was seconded right everybody.

Y said I can Bria send that I Bob Stample and Hillberg guy. Okay. Now we also have to vote to resubmit to ABCC. So I move to authorize the administration office to resubmit the amended ABCC application for Thinking Flower Coffee Shop Inc. located at 629 Massachusetts Avenue, Unit C, Foxboro, Mass 01719 to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. Second. Any further discussion or questions? Okay. All those in favor, please say I. We'll do a roll call vote. Sam Anderson, I Wes I. And Stumpel. And Hillberg, I.

Thank you. Thanks for coming in tonight. Nice to see you. One quas was there any other um concern from the ABCC about anything or was it just that? No. So I did get a call from the ABCC an agent that was reviewing the file and um he explained that this is this had happened a couple times since the the governor's notice was released. So I you know we discussed is this an amendment that could be done without sending it back down to the town but he was it had to be sent back and that's the process but it it it wasn't uh process. It was really just sent back. So there was no rejection or anything like that. That was kind of my question. Yes. So he there was no determination on the file. He just did the initial review, made the phone call, and sent it back to the town. Great.

Well, I'm glad we could address it quickly and efficiently. Thank you very much for bringing all that information to us. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. All right. Next up, delegating authority to hire police officers andor constables for election days. Mike, do you um I think uh is Becky coming on? Becky's I don't see her. I'm squinting. I I think all we have to do there is is make the motion and then that gives the authority to the town clerk and the police chief to hire uh the necessary personnel, constables and police officers as necessary to staff the different elections. So I think that's all we have to do. It seems pretty straightforward to me. Any questions? And this is nothing new, right Mike? It

we do this every year. We do this all the time. Correct. Okay. Yeah, actually in the motion it actually says pursuant to um an act from from 2022. So yeah. Um all right. I move to delegate the authority to hire police officers andor constables for election days to the police chief or the town clerk as appropriate pursuant to chapter 92 section 72 of the acts of 2022. Second. Any questions, comments, discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote. All those in favor, please say I. Um Sam, Anderson, I. Wes folks, I Sundum, I Steph I.

And Hillberg, I. Excellent. All right. Boy, we're cruising. Um, review and approve the spring 2026 election calendar. Now, I would think that Becky wants to address that one. Otherwise, we can pull up what's in the um what's in the packet. The calendar is in there. I don't uh unless it's I didn't see it in the in the packet. I don't believe it's in the packet. Yeah, I was say I didn't see it in the packet either. I'm looking now. I don't see it. Now, granted, I read my packet on my phone, so if I missed it, I apologize, but I don't remember it. Let me see.

Do we have a a calendar that we could put up on the screen? Awesome. Thank you. Well, I apologize. I had seen the calendar. I thought it was in the packet, but obviously it's not. That's totally okay. I'm sure. Well, you've probably been looking at it in other places. Okay. Right. Wait, here it is. It is in there. It's uh page 11. Oh, of the Oh, that's it. I thought I had seen it. All right. Perfect. Okay. Well, why don't you walk us through it then?

Okay. So, as we know, special town meeting is on Monday, Maya uh March 9th. Um uh a week later, but on a Tuesday is the special town election, which is the which is the um the ballot election, March 17th. Again, that's Tuesday

um for the dead exclusion if the two articles pass at the town meeting on the 9th. Um and then let's see, there's the calendar getting us uh to it. um today, last day to submit warrants. Um and then you as a board will be voting the uh doing the final votes on the warrant on the next meeting on the 26th. And then um February 10th is the last day to give the um the language to the town clerk for the ballot election uh which obviously we already have scheduled. She has scheduled with the uh with the state. And then uh 23rd, as you can see there, last day for constable to post the the warrant. And then uh the 27th is the last day for people to register to vote at the special town meeting.

Okay. And I want I just want to jump in and say um I realize that the ballot vote is during spring break. So if you're traveling, you know, highly encourage you to get your mail and ballot um so that your vote counts. What? Not April vacation, spring break is the third week of March and we're the ballot's March 17th, correct? Yeah. So that's spring break. Yeah. Yeah. I've talked to a couple of people that are like, "Oh, I'm away that week." They're not always the same. Well, I just know a lot of people are on spring break that week. That's all. So, if you are going to be traveling, get your ballot. Yeah. If you want to be counted. Yes. All right. Keep going. Sorry.

Uh, okay. Let's see. Saturday, March 7th, last day to register to vote at the special town election. And um the instructions are on there how to to register. Absolutely. And then Monday, March 9th, as we mentioned, is the special town meeting. And then uh March 10th, last day for the constables to post the special town election warrant. And um and then also last day to apply to vote by mail uh ballot.

Um and then the wait back up uh 16th last day for in-person absentee voting for special town meeting uh at noon at town hall. And then again on the 17th is the uh is the special town election at the ballot. That's Tuesday. Uh, and the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Um, Mike, one couple quick questions. One is like the the voter registration forms. Is it only available at the Boxboro Police Station or even in town hall? I would think that would be Did it say only at the police station?

It doesn't. It says registration forms will be available at the Foxboro Police Station 520 Mass until 5:00 p.m. It doesn't say if it is. Oh. I know. I know. It's No. Where? She's asking where. Yeah, but that So they're they're available here, but not on the Saturday. So Saturday they can do it at the police station. So they can do it online. And that's the only reason it says that. So just on that day, but just on that day, but prior to that there as always at the town clerk's office. That that's it's wasn't a little clear here. And obviously people can register online, right? However, if some people do prefer to do it in person and with the actual registration form,

that's a good idea though to have it at the police station on a Saturday since we're closed. Very clever. Staffed on a Saturday because usually there's not someone I I know that the um I know that the town clerk and the police chief have been coordinating. So, I would assume this is her note. So, I would assume that's she's coordinated that with the police chief. I'll verify that. Okay, that's probably a good idea. And then one other question, would the now change in how mail and ballots are going to be processed? Like I think it's not the day that they post I don't know how that works for

our mail and for the town meeting. It might not be as as stringent, but I I don't know because for like um who sent that out? state elections. It's not the day that it is that we drop off. It doesn't get stamped the same day that we drop off. It the the day it gets stamped is the day that they process the mail, right? Not necessarily the day that they drop off their mail. So, I don't know if there is any any concerns about that with the mailing ballot. I don't know. You know what? Why don't you get clarification and at our next meeting we can just make sure clarify that. Yeah. We'll just make sure people understand Becky's available

because if there are any procrastinators out there, we need to know these things. It doesn't matter for you can stand up and talk. Yeah, you can. I know, but I'm not. So, I work the elections and I think we're different. Some states are if it's stamped by election day, it gets counted, but I don't think it does because at 8:00 we go downstairs like at like 8:00 exactly. Becky locks the door and they check the box and they bring so far as it's not on otherwise I don't think it's counted. That's just from my experience as an election worker. So it doesn't really matter the process date. It's is when we received it as long as we received it.

In some states there is as long as it's stamped by election day which is when people need to worry about that's why I said I'm not sure about this. Sure. But that's I that's the process we do on election. On election we go down 8:00 we clean out the box and we lock the door. Yeah. And that's what I was saying. It might not be impacting our town elections, but we're being as liberal, but we want to be careful. Yeah. We're just being as liberal as possible. That's all. Yeah. That's fine. That's fine. I sent her a message. If I don't get a response, though, we'll have to cut it at the next meeting. Oh, she doesn't even have to come. She could just answer the question and you can fill us in. Yeah. Just just to make sure we give voters the right information. Yeah. Luckily, we do have time. Okay.

Okay. Um, any further discussion of the election calendar? We We have one hand up. Oh, you have a hand up. Sorry, I can't see anybody. Whose hand is up? Diana, how are you? I'm good. How are you guys? Good, thanks. Very good. Nice to nice to hear your voice.

I have a question. Um, regarding the mailin ballots, how can you can you apply now for a mail-in ballot? when is the earliest you can apply and how do you apply? I think it would be good for people to know that because in prior elections we've all sent forms saying do you want one. In this particular case I think you have to be proactive. So it might be good to tell people how soon they can apply and how they do it. Okay. So um it was a little the sound's not great. So what I heard you say is can you explain further how to apply? Yeah. Is that what you said? Yes. For the general public because And how soon can you apply? Other words.

Oh, how soon can you apply and how do you apply? And how do you apply? Because I think in the past, can you hear me? And I hope now I can hear you better. Yeah. I can hear you now. Yeah. In the past, uh, in other elections, the town clerk would send out something saying, "Do you want one?" And in this particular case, I think you have to be proactive and ask for one. So, I'm just suggesting you might put something up so the voters know how they go about getting an absentee ballot and as soon as they can as soon as they can apply for it. There's a date where they have the last date, but it's not telling me the earliest date.

Okay. Yes. So, we've asked Mike to check in with the town clerk and if we don't hear anything this evening, we will and you know what, we'll repeat it anyway at our next meeting just to make sure all the information gets out there. I don't know if they're mailing anything out this year or not or for the special. Probably not. I would I would think probably not. I don't want to speak for her though because I don't know. So, but we'll um we'll get more information and definitely make sure the public knows. And just stick it on the website along with the other information. I think it would be good for people to know. You can do that. Put on the website. Absolutely. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Thanks, Taylor. Okay. I think he's going to be on in a few minutes.

Oh, all right. Well, then we'll just um why don't we go to property tax billing concerns then and when Becky We won't move to do anything yet. We'll go back and do it after Becky has a chance to address the questions. Awesome. All right. Do you want to explain what this is all about or would you like Emily to explain? I see Emily is on. Sure. Um how do you want to handle it?

Emily's here. She could probably explain it more succinctly than than I can and I'll, you know, chime in with her as appropriate. So I'll just kind of set the stage. Um my understanding is that some people received tax bills saying that they were in a rears when they actually had paid their taxes. So there was a little bit of a kuruffle about understanding the process of how tax bills are or tax um taxes are collected and recorded and passed between departments. Um so Emily, if you don't mind, Emily is our treasurer collector. if you can take it from there and help us understand the process um and what happened and how we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again. Okay, can you guys hear me? Talk loud.

Can you turn up a little louder? And let me just preface by saying that this is something that Emily's going to get to explain that happened before she got here. But but she understands the situation and can explain what happened and what she has done to avoid this happening again in the future. Absolutely. Yes, you are our expert. So, thank you. Can you hear me now? Now we got Yep. Okay. Yes. Stella thumbs.

Um, all right. So, the quarter three bills were created prior to my arrival. The bills went out uh with the January 1 issue date, due date February 2nd, 3rd, the first Monday in February. Um after the bills went out to residents, we started to we got a few phone calls saying, "Hey, I paid." Um this was the day after New Year's when I was in the office, um took the residents names, you know, looked at their account history, said, "Okay, give us a little bit of time. We'll get back to you." And then that Monday and Tuesday after the new year, um my assistant Marcia and I were like inundated with phone calls and um people coming in saying, "I paid. Why is it showing a past due balance? Um, you know, here's my cash check. So, obviously when the the most helpful really clue for us what to what happened were the residents um that brought in the cash checks. We could see where it was endorsed, which was our depository account, which was to our lock box. So then we're going back and we're seeing what date the the check was cashed and then finding that it was those lockbox dates within that sort of 103 to 109 date range that weren't posted.

Can you explain what the lock box is cuz people are going to think it's literally like a metal box you put things in. It's okay. So the lock box is the um the remittance address to reading mass. It's a third-party payment processing system. They receive the tax payments on the tax bill remittance slip itself is a scan line. They scan that uh scan line with the check and then it generates a file that they in turn mail to us, email to us and we upload and our software system then posts the payments to all of the accounts where payments were made.

Okay. Thank you. So the it's okay. So the only people that this affected were the people that chose to mail their payments to the lock box. It did not affect payments um that are done through escrow or payments that were dropped off at the town hall. Okay. So right I understand. So I'm I miss what the problem was with the lock box.

Okay. So it was those files, those individual daily files um from 10:30 to about 10:9 certain days within that time frame, the files weren't posted to the accounts. The file was not physically uploaded into our system and the payments applied. So while yes the residents paid you know and the money was taken out of their bank account it wasn't credited to their account during that you know the 103 to 109 date. Okay. So good. When the bills are created for quarter 3 that's what was the balance showing.

So was it not uploaded by the third party vendor or by someone at someone here in town hall? It was my office. Okay. um that the files were not uploaded. Got it. Great. Okay. Okay. And and again, let's reiterate, it was before. So, and this isn't about fingerpointing. This is about making sure it doesn't happen again. Right.

Um we did have some resident concern about um how did we not notice that a large chunk of money was missing um from from the funds? and they wanted to understand the the path between the treasurer collector and the town accountant. Does that does that help? Yes. Um so I'm trying to like ask the question in as clear a way as possible so that people that are concerned that money is just disappearing to assure them that no money is disappearing because Yeah.

So I can answer that. Um, so we have had uh an ongoing lag problem with getting money posted in the in the treasur collector's office um and and and going over to the accounting office for reconciliation

and and that lag um didn't give an opportunity for this to be caught um you know in the accounting office. this with with what Emily is coming up with and working with uh Hungwa in the accounting office, they have a process now that is not going to miss thing. There's there's going to be no lag. And Emily can probably explain a little more as she did to me on how we um you know post things daily and catch that. So it's like an instant transfer over. Great. I'm not giving it justice in my

I was say can you explain it to us Emily? Mike did a great job, but you're just going to fill in a little, you know, fill it in. That's okay. So when we create a payment batch, we enter in, we apply all the payments, we post the payment batch. There's the second step is basically turning over my payment batch as a turnover to accounting. So that we're doing these daily now. So, we have daily lockbox, daily city hall systems, and daily um payments that are just either brought to the town hall or mail-in payments.

So, these are all happening now daily. Um so that my my hope would be that, you know, accounting would be like, oh, hey, we didn't have a lockbox payment on, you know, last Thursday, whatever date that was. I don't even remember this morning. Um, I get it.

So, and then it would be a conversation to have with me saying, "Well, actually, the lockbox didn't receive any payments. It's okay." If I missed it, be like, "Oh my gosh, I missed it that day." We go back, we upload the file, and it it's really just about increasing the efficiency of information from my office to accounting. But conversely, accounting, you know, and I'm certainly willing to help them, you know, with the sort of processes behind this, you know, questions that accounting needs to know to ask me um in terms of is everything posted? Um, you know, is cash good for the month? And I mean, right now, my cash book is is entered as of 18. So, that's that's pretty on top of things for um having just started. in in my cashbook, you know, you can see the daily lock box, the daily city hall systems.

Um, so it's, like I said, it's just increasing the overall efficiency and accuracy uh to to avoid something like this where we're doing daily turnovers to accounting, not once a week, not once every 10 days. Um, that's that's where the room for error increases exponentially. So, I like how you kind of put a check and balance in place and that you're working together. You know, you got each other's backs. Let's put it that way. You've got each other's backs. You're making sure it's going to happen on a regular basis. Any

Yeah. Um Emily, I have a couple of questions. One is, is there a redundancy now? Now that because it you're doing it in your absence, say you're you're off for a week, who's going to be your backup? Uh my second question, well, let her answer one at a time. That way we can get them all answered. Okay. All right. Go ahead. That's okay. So, if I'm out, um, my assistant will do it. If my assistant is out, I do it. Okay. All right. So, at least there's two of Um, second question is more for Hangwa. Um, I understand what the residents are asking. So, this happened in October, right?

So, yes, we forgot to post. We missed it. But the accounts, the dollar amount was still remitted to our town, right? So it should have been caught somewhere in the accounting if not in October. By November or December, somebody should have looked at and said, I have excess of like say 10,000 or whatever amount, but there is no like uh reconciliation. Yeah. reconciliation for that amount. Like how do we miss that? Like is there a way to figure that out in the future?

Yeah, in the in the future it's figured out and Emily just explained it with a daily reconciliation. Yeah. In the past, we've struggled to get things reconciled in a couple of months, and that's just not acceptable. And that's why we're changing the processes and why Emily and and Hunga were working so closely to get that check and balance. And in the past, you know, we have we've struggled and and to go a month without reconciling is is too long. And in the the system they're going to, in fact, have already gone to which is daily. That's the right way to do it. and that would be caught and and it won't happen again in the future. But I can see how this did happen in the past and it's it's not excusable, but I can see how it happened because we weren't reconciling in time. And this is, you know, this is an issue that's it's not new to this year. We were we were having trouble reconciling in a timely and accurate manner a year ago, more than a year ago. And that's why we've had to change some things.

And and are there other accounts? Again, this is more probably for Hungwa. This is one one remittance, right? Like one way like the taxes. Are there other things that are coming in that we are not sure where this money came from? My fear is like I mean at the end of the year we say okay this is how much we have left like the balance sheet right is that like accurate now or is that do we have to question is there some things that are not accounted for? So through the end of the year has been accounted for but you know Emily is that do you know what uh Pria is asking and and do you do you see any other areas that are you think are problematic?

So I do know that the consultant that we have um sent an updated uh FY25 um cashbook to our auditors. So my understanding is that through June is good. Um I know that she is working uh she's about midepptember right now. Um cleaning up the cashbook. Uh you know we are kind of putting out the fires as they come in. Um but to the extent that the you know missed lockbox files it it it's not to that extent. Um, so I mean as of right now, I know the consultant is about midepptember working on reconciling cash.

Since you brought up our auditor, I I had a resident ask if we should consider having an audit of our books. Mike or Emily, can you explain how we manage auditing because my understanding is we do have it audited. They were asking if we should have a special audit.

Um, the answer to both of those is yes. Um, so when we were going through our annual audit, which we do every year, um, I asked the auditor while he was here from Roseli and Clark, um, we have a new treasurer coming on. Our our past treasurer has left and I would like to get an audit of our cash for the treasurer's side looked at and cleaned up, you know, so that our new treasurer or collector has a clean start. Um I said, "Is that something you could do um either as part of our annual audit or in addition to our annual audit either separate or you know together at an additional fee

or if not is there someone you could recommend and he said yes that is a good idea and yes he had somebody to recommend and that's the consultant that Emily just mentioned. Okay. So, we brought this consultant in who is a a CPA um and has worked in municipal finance and now is a consultant and and we hired her to come in and look at all the cash and um we were looking to um to reconcile the months from from July through when Emily started. Mhm.

Um but as she started looking and then and she also spoke with our auditor, our annual auditor and he recommended go back and look at FY25. So that's what they did first. They first reconciled FY25 and then they've gone month by month um through FY26 uh up through what Emily just mentioned. And so we we wanted to make sure one that we knew where we stood um that we get it up to date and accurate and that we give Emily a clean start which we expected this to be done before Emily started um and it wasn't able to be finished by then but it but it will be wrapping up soon. So so yes we we are actually uh at the end of a special audit in addition to our regular annual audit which looks at all financials and management across the town. So, we've already had our audit for FY25.

Yeah, it's not. It's They've done their in-house stuff, but they're waiting on Well, they should have just sent I think that that she just sent the FY25 cash close out from what Emily just mentioned. And that'll that'll wrap up the FY25 annual audit and then we're just waiting to wrap up the last couple of months of this special treasurer uh the collector's uh audit. Okay. Any other

um wait only last thing is is this something that we can share with our fincom just so that they can also have a pulse on this like they know where if we know where errors happen right it might be an additional set of eyes for them to ask us questions in terms of okay is this still happening or is that yeah absolutely um and I I don't think this is anything new to um to incom and they will certainly get a copy just as you will of the annual audit when it comes back um and of the results of this special audit. Great. Yep. Awesome. All right.

I just wanted to say one more thing. Sorry. With the lock box. So, this was resolved literally within 48 hours of us finding it out. So, once we uploaded the lockbox files, we honored the date. Obviously, these residents paid well before the due date. Nothing was punitive to the residents. So, this expuned any interest that was owing uh that appeared on their tax bill. So, when we've had conversations with residents, you know, we're giving them the the base tax amount that's owing um you know, contrary to what their their real their actual real estate bill said that showed the past due plus the interest. So, once the payments were applied, this took out any interest that, you know, I'm not here to, you know, be punitive to the residents. We want to make things right by them. Um, so that really solved quite a few of the problems in the, you know, in the conversations that we had with with people that came in.

Emily, is there a way to make sure that, um, every taxpayer that was impacted either gets a phone call or some sort of acknowledgement if they haven't already called you to say, "Hey, I paid my taxes." Is there a way to let them know if you open this in a month, you are okay. Don't worry about it. I mean, we we've just been dealing with the phone calls and walk-ins as they've happened. Um, the payments that we've posted, I I want to say maybe 30 or so. I feel like we've fielded the majority of the phone calls and complaints that have come in. We can certainly go back, you know, through the payment files that we did post payments and get phone numbers from the clerk. I don't know if that's gonna cause panic or, you know, I don't I don't really know the best way to approach that, but I I feel that the majority of the phone calls that we've had about it were reflected and taken care of in the files that we uploaded and posted.

I guess I I just kind of see this as customer service that I don't always open my mail immediately. And if somebody does open it in six weeks, you know, maybe get ahead of it and say, "Hey, by the way, you may notice a charge in your tax bill. That is an error. We've taken care of it. You are not in a rears and you do not owe any interest or penalties." I I I just think it's probably an important step to take. And that that's me personally. I don't know how the rest of the board feels. No, I I think if we have 30, I think we should reach out and and find out who is showing according to our records two one that they owed interest and now that they don't owe. This is the 30 that is according to our records. So yeah, so we should

Yeah. And like I said, you know, it could be very high level. Just, you know, when you open your bill, I don't want you to be concerned when you see this, it's been rectified. Please know that your taxes have been applied is appropriate. Yeah. Whatever feels comfortable for you to say, but I I don't want, you know, otherwise you're going to get a panic call when that person does open their mail. So get ahead of it. Anything? Um, just one, Emily. So basically, I think what you're saying is there's going to be a daily transmitt from the treasurer's office to the accountants office of cash every single day. It could be zero, but there will be a notification every single day of cash that that's been that's been received. Is that correct?

If it's zero, there's nothing I can create in our system to to tell accounting it's zero. Um but there are daily online city hall system files, lockbox files and then payments that we process. So it can the it can range from zero payments posted one day if no one pays online, if no one pays via the lockbox, if no one comes into town hall to pay, you know, that's that's a zero payment batch day, right? But it can be, you know, upwards of, you know, multiple payment batches a day that we we are now turning over to accounting. Yes.

So on any given day, you could have three different types of payments. One through the lock box, one in one in person, and I think there's a third option, too. But so yeah, on any day, you could have three one of each one of those types, or you could have multiples of those three types. Correct. Okay. Good. Well, no, I you know, we appreciate that you have set up this check and balance kind of system. So, it's good. Any other select board questions or comments? No, I just um I want to thank you, Emily, for at least like figuring out where the issues half the panel is trying to figure out where the problem was and you've figured it out. You've come up with the plan. So, I'm Welcome to your new job. Yay.

All right. We do have a couple of people that might have questions or comments. So, we'll start here. Maria. So Mike Fin Fincom is aware of this. We discussed it at a meeting last week. Hungwa gave us some answers, but it was brand new last Tuesday. I don't think we were aware that the consultant went back to last year to reconcile. So do we know if that in any way affects the reports and the certification from the state on the free cash? And could you confirm that for tomorrow night because that's really important. I I will please because you know we're basing a lot of our budget and more importantly our Warren articles on the fact that we have a significant amount of free cash just confirming that we still have a significant amount.

Maybe we have more. Maybe we have more which would be great. Wouldn't that be nice? Can we just double check that? I will I'll confirm that. I I would think that that that this would have no effect on the free cash. This would have more effect on um accounts receivable. Uh but I'll verify that. But I think all of that stuff plays into how they there's a form that you fill out that puts in your taxes, your receivables. There's like there's a whole bunch of slots that you have to fill in to get to that number. So, if you could just find that out to put all our minds at ease. Um because that that part we don't know about. Thank you. I will confirm that. Sure. Diana, I see your hand is up. Do we have to unmute you? No. Okay.

Here we go. Um I apologize. This is a little off topic, but I thought it was germaine when I read the agenda item. I thought you might be talking about the sticker shop that people have had opening their new tax bills. Um, and I realized that a lot of it has to do with a slight raise in the rate, but also a lot of reassessment that's gone on in the town, which I totally understand and I actually think is necessary. But one of the things I wanted to bring to your attention and I'd mentioned this to Mark to Mike several months ago and I believe uh somebody mentioned it to Tony on the fincom. I went back and I checked some of the commercial properties and they have not been reassessed and I'm I'm not going to give you the address because I don't want to spread that out publicly. But as an example, there was a property which sold in 2022 of July, a commercial property for 1,925,000. It is still currently assessed and it was assessed the same last year at $527,600. That is a gross underassessment particularly for a recent sale. and I have looked at other commercial properties and seen the same pattern. So my question is is the assessor paying attention to the commercial properties because I think that is a source of funds and it is important to the residents of this town but I don't see that moving not one bit and as a matter of fact it is grossly underassessed. It has been even if you look and say well we had to wait a year or two for the comps and so forth that is a recent sale and that should be much higher that assessment. So I'm bringing this to your attention publicly

so that you and the finance committee can look at this issue and start reassessing and really looking at the commercial properties in town. I see Maria taking notes. Perfect. And um Mike, can you just address this with Jim? So, so Diana, do remember that we've been without an assessor for a little while. We have a part-time assessor right now. He's he's been great. We will bring it to his attention. And Mike, could you update the board at our next meeting? I will. Yep. And thank you for bringing it to our attention. We wouldn't have known otherwise. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Anything else for Emily before she signs off?

Nope. Thank you, Emily. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your hard work and welcome. It's okay. You're welcome. Have a good night. All right. Good night. Thanks, Emily. All right. Next up, review of the draft 2020. Oh, sorry. Do you want to go back to Becky Harris? She's Oh, Becky, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were here. See if she shot at some of those questions that came up. So um so we were going through the calendar

and I think that the biggest question we have was for um absentee ballots and Diane had asked a question could could you explain the process um if you want an absentee ballot or want to do mailin ballots how do you get them? What's the process of doing it where this is a special you know is it any different than the annual etc etc etc. Does that make sense? Ah yes um sorry I wasn't here for that. Oh we've been zipping right along. You probably thought we weren't going to get to it. Um, yeah. So, with the vote by mail, um, there's going to be a couple different ways to apply for a vote by mail ballot. I think you're talking about vote by mail. Yep. We

would just be as usual as soon as the ballots are available, which should be a few weeks before the election. We hope more than that, but that's a little up in the air as to exactly when they'd be available. Um, but as soon as they are available, you can vote absentee. If you're not able to make it on election day, you can come to the clerk's counter and vote anytime during business hours up until noon before the the day before the election. U for vote by mail, if you want to, you know, you're going to be out of town, you want your ballot mailed somewhere else or you want it um mailed to your house, either way, you can apply online. And um ironically enough, today is the one day that you couldn't do that because the state system is down. Um there's actually going to be a new bar, the voter registration information systems. It's like many many years in in the making. They're actually um launching it tomorrow. So if you went to apply for your vote by mail ballot today, you couldn't, but hopefully tomorrow you can. And then we'll start compiling those online applications which is just um you know through the secret secretary of state's office and we have that link on our website. Um you can come to town hall and fill out a paper application. We have those available. And then supposedly the Secretary of State's office is sending out postcards again because we have an election year this year, the the state primary and and state federal election in the fall. So they're required to send out those little vote by mail cards. And if you send those back as soon as you get it and check off vote by mail in all elections, that includes the special and the annual town election. So, we would be mailing you ballots automatically if

you return those cards. So, those are the three ways you can apply for vote by mail. And that applies for both the special and the annual general election.

All right, I'm going to show my ignorance. I want to vote by mail. So, I apply. You send me a ballot, but then what do I do with that ballot? Mail it back to you. You can mail it back or you can drop it in the little slot that's outside town hall that will be labeled with an arrow saying ballots here, but you know, normally it can accept all kinds of mail, but it will be for ballots. Um, you can bring it to the town clerk's office and hand it right to us. Um, so it really depends on how close to the election we're talking. I would recommend if it's really close to the election and you're worried about it getting here that you actually do drop it off in person.

So, vote by mail gets mailed to your address of record. Yes. Or whatever address you you put on there. So, if you're um going to Florida for the winter, you can put your Florida address. So, what's the difference between vote by mail and an absentee ballot? an absentee ballot is technically. So now they're they're they used to be sort of interchangeable. Um I thought they were the same thing. That's why I'm asking this question. You know me, I'm not afraid to show my ignorance. I'm like, okay, what's the difference?

It is it is basically the same thing because it's a ballot that is being voted not on election day. But for the purposes of kind of distinguishing between the two and and really that comes down to how I'm going to enter it into the state system, if it's an in-person absentee ballot where you come into town hall, you apply right there in person and you fill out your ballot right there in person and hand it to me, I'm going to call that an absentee ballot just because that's the traditional way we used to vote absentee before we had vote by mail, right? like

you can't come to town hall because you're away on election day, but you can vote absentee, but you have to come and do it in person at the counter. So, that I'm still going to call absentee. And when I enter it into the state system, there's a there's a separate notation about the fact that it's absentee in person. Vote by mail is we are going to mail you the ballot. We cannot hand it to you. And if you apply for vote by mail and then you say, "But I want I want to take it home with me. can't you hand it to me? We're going to say no because that's not legal. So, it's a weird distinction that you can't just walk out of town hall with a ballot. We have to put it in the post office box and it has to go through the mail to get to you, which is sort of annoying, but that's the way the law works with with vote by mail ballots.

Okay. Does everyone understand that? I I I'm I'm a little gray, but that's okay. As long as people know that they can still vote, they're not going to be here physically. And those are your two options. A lot of a lot of times people just they get that little postcard in the mail and it says uh I want to vote at the top and so people just see it and they say of course I want to vote and they check off all elections and they send it back. They don't even really pay attention that it's vote by mail. And so they're going to get a ballot and then they're going to be like well I didn't really want this but I I'd like to come to vote on election day. So they can just ignore that ballot. It it won't it nothing will happen to it. It's fine. just leave it at home.

Okay, that was my next question. If you mail me a ballot and I don't give it back to you, it's not like you're like, "Wait, Kristen, where's your ballot?" It's just we don't care. We only care when we get You say with love. We enter it into the state system. Once it's in the state system, it's accepted and you can't vote in person. But y if you don't return it, whatever happens to that ballot doesn't matter because it's that enter process on our end that matters. Okay. So, you just said something. If you request a vote by mail, you cannot vote in person because technically you already have a ballot. Only if you only if you turn it in. Yeah. No, you can. Only only if you turn it in. If you've turned it in, then it we accept it.

Then you come to election day and you say, I don't know if I my ballot made it. I can look it up and say, oh, your ballot made it. You can't vote today. Thank you. It's just a very foolproof way of not getting more than one ballot per person. Just wanted to be clear. All right. Okay. One last question. Um Becky is that um when they are mailing the ballot back, it should reach us by the election day by before 8:00 p.m. right for it to be counted.

Yes. So that's a great distinction from uh federal elections where postmark matters. In this case, postmark does not matter. So really important that if you're in doubt about whether it's going to make it, if at all possible, you put it in the dropbox or you hand it to us. Um because it does have to be received. So don't necessarily rely on the post office when you're, you know, a few days away from the election.

And Beck, I have one other question that that came up and that is regarding registering to vote for both special town meeting and the special town election. Um the one that happens on Friday for the special town meeting February 27th it said says the people can register at the police department and then for Saturday March 7th they can also do that at the police department to register for the special time election the last time. Um I assume that's been coordinated with the with the police department and there'll be somebody there to accept that or do they get called in from the road? I'm just wondering how does how does that work?

That's a great question because that's sort of a hold hold out from when we had dispatch at the police station and there was always someone actually present. Um so we might we might want to change that. Um, can I just think is it it may be the case where we have in the past actually I think I remember that the last time we had this issue we just had the ballots available in the lobby and one envelope and then um there was another envelope to put them I mean not the ballots what am I saying the voter registration forms um typically I at least in the past three or four years that I've been here, nobody has actually registered to vote on that last day at the last minute in person because of I think because of the online voter registration option. So, I don't think this is going to be a huge issue, but but I will double check that we can do that in the um in the lobby of the police department if that makes sense.

Yeah, right. Yeah, if you can coordinate that with the chief and if we can't then maybe we need just need to leave it as online until midnight, but otherwise up until some other certain time, but we just need to be clear on that. Yeah, it actually has to by law it has to be by there has to be an in-person option till 5:00 p.m. So, if necessary, we'll we'll do something at town hall um if the police station isn't an option, but we'll figure that out. So, I'm glad you brought that up. So, yeah, it wasn't. Somebody else asked the question. I'm just relaying it. I think Priya did. Go Pria. Oh, no. Maria did. Somebody did. Somebody in this room did. All right. Can you report back to us just so that and we'll update the calendar that's online?

Becky, that was a question to you. Oh, and I said yes. Sorry. Oh, you must have been muted. All good. All right. Great. Any other questions, comments, or concerns? I don't see any hands. All right. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thanks, Becky. Thank you. Okay, next. Let's We want to vote that. We can't yet. Can we? No. Oh, because we still have to figure out what what's going to happen with the police. I think we should probably find out before we vote. Is that okay? That's fine. Yeah, I think. Um, actually, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Can you um Is it possible to vote just on the dates just because I would love to get the dates on the calendar on the website? Sure. and then we can fine-tune the the details about where those those, you know, registration deadlines because I just don't want to put this off any longer just cuz I want just the calendar can be. Yeah, actually that's all that's in here right now is the motion is I move to approve the spring 2026 election calendar and we didn't amend anything and we can do that without Yeah. Okay, I'll second it then. Any further discussion? All right, roll call vote. All those in favor, please say I. Sam.

Anderson. I. Wes. I. And I. Hillberg. I. Um. Anybody against? Any abstensions? No. We're unanimous. We are all good. All right. So, your calendar is approved and we'll just figure out those details. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Next, review of the draft 2026 special town meeting warrants. Who's taking that one? Okay, if you want to put it up on the the board, I can um kind of lead us on this discussion. Excellent. Okay. So, the warrant is in your packet. Um Kelly sent another one, right, later today.

Yeah, you sent an updated one. Updated version. Kelly, all it did was take out two of the other articles. Oh, okay. That we no longer need. Yeah. Right. Okay. Yep.

Um so the first article appearing in your packet is for the purchase of land at 984 Massav. Um you'll see that it includes the purchase price of the land plus $15,000 estimated for um for the closing costs and it includes the fire station building committee's recommendation. uh they recommended 70 uh 700 and um and and their summary is there and then the uh the fincom has not yet you know uh voted this I don't believe

um yeah so do you want me to give you the details on what this all includes okay so this is uh purchase of land at at 984 Massav it's three parcels contiguous uh that were all referring to as 984 of Massav, but it has three different addresses, three different parcel numbers, and they're all included in the in the um in the motion. Um but I'll give you I'll give you the addresses anyways. Uh again, this is where Tree Masters is currently located and it's uh it's the Tree Masters that's on the left hand side

on the left side. The big one, correct? Up the hill. Just so everybody knows.

Yep. So the the three addresses which are cont contin contiguous are 984 Massav, uh 996 Massav, and 38 Sarah's Way. And the entryway to this entire uh site is at 38 Sarah's Way, excuse me, at Sarah's Way. It's uh just over 4.2 acres of land. Um the the town through the fire station building committee has done environmental studies on this land and um and it's in it's in good shape to uh to be purchased and to be developed as a fire station. Um it is adequate size um and we know the um you know we know what it consists of. It does have two buildings on it that should be fairly easily taken down because they won't be needed for the fire station. Um at the same time uh that we were doing environmental studies we also did geotechnical work. So we did borings had a machine come out to find out what's the composition, how deep is the bedrock, what's the type of fill that's been used up there. And so far all studies are are looking positive that this is a a viable site to build a fire station on. Um, and like any other site, there will have to be some excavation there to prepare it, but otherwise, uh, it's not going to need clearing for the most part. Um, and we have, uh, we have a letter of intent signed between the town and the the land owner. um with conditions that include uh legal review uh getting to closing and then all the votes required. The first of which has already been met which is the the unanimous vote of the fire station building committee that wasn't required you know the majority

so it was a condition yeah it was a condition and then the votes at special town meeting and then the vote at the ballot uh on March 17th um and that's what this is and the fire station building committee is requesting that you put this on ahead of the next article so that they know one is the town willing to purchase this land before they go and ask for the design money in the next article. That makes sense. Pri, did you want to add anything to that? Um, the only thing is I think it also the amount also includes closing cost, right? And also um to combine the parcels, right?

Yes. So, I checked on that and we don't need to combine the parcels. That was that was brought up as a question and I posed that to um to our to town council. They said we could do that, but we don't need to do that. Um because we're going to be building um the town is going to be building on that. Uh we don't have to do setbacks from all the the the perimeter lines of all the three different lots. Um after you could overlap, correct? Okay.

We c we can just go by the the outside perimeter of the free lots and those those are where our setbacks are determined. Um I relayed that to our architect and OPM who both agreed um that that is you know that's commonly done. We don't have to get it um it's not a hard process to get them joined into one lot but we don't have to pay the money to go through and do that as long as it doesn't impede our ability to construct. I I correct it does not okay good. uh in terms of like how the fire station building committee kind of came do you guys want like a how we came to a conclusion on this one? Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a good idea.

So, um on January 5th we did the matrix. Um so we did it for 72 Stow Road, 984 and 1300. And um we looked at uh each one of the parcels and like when we did the matrix um we had 72 still wrote come with a score of 58. Um so 984 and 1300 in fact scored higher 62 each. But then the biggest um issue with 1300 that we had was the purchase cost was was like way too steep compared to 984 or 72 road. So we dropped at that point was since we were still in negotiations for uh 984, we dropped 1300 on Janu uh January 5th and we just had the two parcels um 984 and 72. And then on January 8th when we confirmed the purchase price for 984, uh the we we loo we looked at everything and I think the entire fire station building committee kind of felt like this is the best site by far because it's right on Massav. There's no issue. It's pretty much even better than at least to me it's even better than the current site because it's much more centrally located to like the high density populated areas 495 plus the rest of the town as well and um there is no issue with sight lines. Uh it is not in a neighborhood. The property is very reasonably priced and also there is enough of um acreage in terms of it to be able to support the programming that we need. Um and then

there wasn't any major issues with that property in terms of like environmental testings or geo testing. So, we felt like just overall it's a win-win for the town and and everybody was like pleased that this worked out and away from the neighborhood is a big big yes. Right.

Well, 984 Massav has uh a butters. There are three residential neighbors. Um the u they are in favor of having a fire station there. especially the closest neighbor um you know who is you know it's it's not um it's not the most desirable place you know to have residential and the type of businesses that's going on there. So the fire station is going to be uh much more palatable for the for the closest neighbor

and plus it's going to be much more visible and we also like I mean some of the fire station committee members also felt like they there could be delays with se uh with if we chose just for price alone 72 road there could be delays in terms of like if there is any any other push back push back that we get or like whatever might happen, right? Like and every day is $4,000 more we are talking. So overall it it's going to be a wash plus we are going to just make it more upsetting for those residents. Plus the uh the fire chief also felt 984 was a better site because he preferred something right on Massav. So for all those reasons we chose 984 and we felt like I think it's important for us to come up with a sol one site for the town to vote as opposed to like drop everything on them to make the decision. I think

as select we appointed the fire station to come up with the site to do all the work and make the determination and I think that's what they ended up doing in the end. Any questions? So, Pria, and we're okay with zoning. Zoning. We're putting it at 984. There's no zoning issues. Zoning is good. Good. Zoning is good.

And then my other question was I know at some point early early in the discussion there was the discussion talks about the I'm going to call it the wall or the cliff on the edge of that property. How is that being remedied? it the way it's being remedied is the the program uh the fire station the parking lot the turnaround all that is going to be closest to Sarah's way so it's nowhere near um that west end where it drops off so that you know we know that the whole program can fit um close to Sarah's way so it's not going to impact it one other thing that that um you may have heard um quite a bit of discussion about uh in regards to all three sites is um traffic light uh either a full traffic light or a signal, you know, just for for just when the um you know, it's it's it's hit. Um and and the traffic studies did not warrant lights at any of the um sites and so there's no plan and there's no funding set to put signalization there. In fact, the chief said um that, you know, it's it's it's not really a guarantee that that makes it safer because what if the light comes on? they think they're good to go and somebody runs that light. So, there is no plan to put lighting there. And I think residents will be happy to know that the the sight lines going in both directions are great. It's it's straight away and you know the the fire trucks coming in and out are going to be able to see in all directions and you're not going to have a light there that's going to clog up the traffic on on Massav.

Mike, I'm just going to ask on that clip. Are we going to have to put a a cement wall or any kind of retainer wall on that to keep that from falling? Can you explain the borings, Mike, on that that there's ledge at seven feet? It's not It's not what we thought it was. It's not a filled area is my understanding. Yeah. So, the um it's not what we thought it was. Once we did the stud by the visual inspection was, oh my goodness, that's an issue. But when we looked at it, it's not. But Mike will explain. Oh, yeah. So, um, with the borings, we found out that there was they hit bedrock, um, back towards that, um, retaining wall, if you want to call it that, right?

Um, so we we're not planning to and we're not aware that we have to do anything with it right now. If something, let's say we went in front of the the planning board and they said we have to do something, then it would have to be addressed. But there is no indication at this point that it needs to be completely removed, re-engineered, and reinstall something else. It would be at the very most it would be stabilizing what's there and make it a little less steep. But at this point, we don't even think that's needed.

So, you just brought something up. Somebody asked me if we um that the process when it's time to start building, how are other town boards and commissions involved? Like, do we need to go to planning? Do we need to go to ZBA? Is it just a building permit? We have to go through the full process like any other applicant. Okay. The only difference is that to appear in front when we appear in front of the conservation commission, the planning board if we had to appear in front of the ZBA, um this project wouldn't pay the fees to file the application for those boards because we would just be paying ourselves. Okay. But we go through the same process as any other developer. Yep. No. Yeah. No. Easier. It's it's the same exact process. Okay.

Yep. Alrighty. Any other questions regarding this? Sam, I can't see everybody, so I don't know if you have anything. Yell. Yeah, I'm good. Thank you, Christa. Appreciate it. You're good. Okay. Yeah. No, I can't I can't see everybody on the screen. I was wondering why I can Oh, I can see you just fine. Okay, perfect. Well, I can't see. Oh, there you are. Well, I see uh Diana's got her hand up, so let's Oh, see, that's what I was saying is I can't see any hands. Way the top. Yep. There we go. Oh, if I if I if I have a question, I'll just pipe up. Excellent. All right, Diane, I don't see any anybody else on the board have a question or comment. Diane has a her hand raised, but you guys can't see it, but I can.

Perfect. So, Kelly Kelly will keep us on top of things. Diana, would you like to share Let me unmute her. Yep. One second. Hold on. There you go. Okay. Um, I I don't I know you have another article coming up and I was going to wait, but I thought I'd just bring this up right now. Um, I'm assuming that this language has been run by town council, but I I just wanted to make this note. Um, I've done a little bit of research on debt exclusions and I'm assuming that this is what the town is going for is a dead exclusion. Can I Can I give you an answer first? This language has not yet been run past town council. Oh, okay. Yes. So, let me just

But it will Yeah, we we vote it first and then we send it. Let me just give you this comment. Sure. Um because I have looked at this in great detail on the do and and their procedures and so forth. Um and I am assuming this is going to and this article and the and the next article will be part of a dead exclusion vote on the ballot. Yeah.

Um one of the things that they recommend in the language is a very specific language. In other words, at the end you say contingent upon a successful majority vote in favor of the ballot election, etc. What they're recommending in the do publication is contingent upon passage of a proposition 2 and a half dead exclusion exclusion question general laws chapter 59 section 21 CK. I'm just bringing that up because I think it's important that people know when they vote on this that what the ballot election is going to be and I think the select board needs to be prepared to explain to people what a dead exclusion is. Sure. So, I'm just putting this in your minds right now, and I I don't know what town council is going to do, but I would suspect that that would be the language that would be inserted, but I'm bringing it up because I people are very confused, especially given the fact that there was talk about an override. Both an override and a debt exclusion come under Prop 2 and a half, but this is meant to be a debt exclusion. And so, I'm just putting this in your minds right now because this is going to take some education. So,

yeah, we're we're prepared for that. Yeah, we'll work with the finance committee. We'll we'll get our recommendations from town council. We'll prepare the warrant as they recommend. Thank you for your input. We'll pass that along and um and there will absolutely be public outreach. I know that the fire station building committee will be doing forums. So, um we are looking for people to host, you know, and to be to host No, I'm sorry, to attend, you know, definitely want people to attend our forums and learn more about it. So, okay. Thank you. I just wanted to make that comment. You're welcome. Yes. Nobody has to host. The fire station building committee is hosting. So, sorry. Um, okay. Let's see what's up. Next one. Article two. We ready for article two?

Yeah. Do you want to decide who's going to do the select board recommendation while we're here or No offense, but I assume that Pri is doing it. Have a draft already. She is on top of things. Okay. Vote it. No, we haven't voted yet. Okay. Okay. So, you ready for the next one then? Yeah. What is that chart that just went up? That was from Tony. Okay. You can't have that. That's going in my recommendation. No, no, no. It's going to go at the very end on the So, it won't be in mine. It's not in You're so funny. You can't have that. You're not on the mic. We don't hear you. Go to the mic. Go to the mic.

You're not on the microphone. We don't hear you. So I actually have in my recommendation as um something about in the chart below which is that chart that you're trying to steal. So you got to steal it but you got to just add when I give you my recommendation. That's it. Here watch this. Perfect. And then there'll be like a written recommendation above that. Okay. Want to make sure we're on the same page. There was a reason I didn't speak to that chart because that's not for this this committee's discussion. Thank you. Um, did you guys want to like see the draft or should like I think it would be great to see the draft.

Okay, I can email it to you guys. I was working on it to Kelly. Do you want to email it to Kelly and she could put it up on the screen maybe. You want to do it tonight and then uh Yeah, I have it. Cuz because you could discuss it, vote your recommendation tonight if you're ready. It would get us that much written more or at least if you see it. We got to do the vote for the article then. Yeah. But if it Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. Vote if you're recommending it and then vote if you're vote the language.

All right. So, while Priya's emailing that over, why don't we just go to the next Warren article? Let's just go through it. Then we can go back and vote and look at recommendations and all that good stuff. You want it bigger? No, that chart doesn't match. The bond amount doesn't match because it's 2.4 15 five and I told Tony 2.4 because we talked about doing a separate free cash article for the closing cost. Apparently, we're not doing that now. Well, we can. You're the and I had that conversation. You get to decide. The fin gets to decide, not us. You'd have to add the warrant. You'd have to add the article. Oh, we can do that tonight. Um, are you

is it FinCom's recommendation? No. No. So, I haven't talked to Fincom about this. Mike just mentioned this is what it was going to be because I had asked him and I said, "Should we just do a separate article and just pay it out of free cash? I can bring it up on Tuesday night." So, we don't have to. We just need to make sure this chart matches whatever if you guys just want to bond the whole thing. Have you seen this number? I have seen the fin. Yeah, the fin has seen the 2.4. 4, but not the 2.415. Right. So, but the numbers there with the 2.4, you guys have seen those and approved those. We're going to see those tomorrow night and approve them. Yeah, cuz they only got voted. We're still working. They only got voted on Thursday. So, you haven't voted anything yet, right?

Right. Because it was the fire station building committee approved it this past Thursday and Tuesday is as soon as FINCOM could address it. So, so, so they even voted the two the 2.4 or the 2.415. Not yet. Okay. Okay. That was my question. It doesn't have to change. It's just that I had mentioned it to Mark. So then I I mean to Mike and so I didn't when Tony asked me when I said I need the debt on 2.4 I didn't say 2.15. You guys decide. Yeah, you did mention it and and it probably would be just as easy to do a separate free cash article for 15,000. Got the you got the email. So I could just make this the 2.4. It matches their numbers and then you know put the 15,000 in free cash. I think that we could see if would approve that tomorrow night

and and we could add on another article tonight for just the closing cost, which is Are we confident the closing cost will only be 15,000? Because if it's a Warren article at a free cash, there's less wiggle room. If you do the two If you do the 2415, I guess there's still no wiggle room. There's no wiggle room. But are we confident? Because I mean, in my experience, closing costs can fluctuate. Yeah, it's not going to go over 20,000. I mean, we could we could put a free cash article for 20,000. I think I'd be more confident. that would more than cover because because if we do a bond for two 2.415 then whatever we don't use I think do we have to like we had talked about we're doing this with the ambulance we have to go back to town meeting to change that bond like we we only use 2.4 for just think that

Yeah. Why don't we just That's what we talked about making it cleaner. Yeah. Yeah. So, I would prefer $20,000 where Yeah. Let's put 20,000 We only spend what we need. Yeah. Right. Spend what we need and whatever we don't spend goes back into free cash. Well, because God forbid we don't have enough. Y a dollar. I'll change the language and this is so it's all 2.4 and then the charge the number we'll add another article in for for the 20,000. Okay. I'll talk about that tomorrow. Perfect. All right. Whenever you're ready with um to share that recommendation,

Maria, when you read it, make sure that like it looks okay. So, because I know like all of us are giving recommendations so that it's all distinct. Is the board ready to vote? Does anyone need more information before do you do we want to go through Priya's recommendation first or do we want to vote it first? I can vote. So So if this is going to be a question about two votes, first vote is do you recommend it? That's what I want to vote first. Yeah. Okay. Before we discuss the recommendation, right? I gotcha. All right. I move to approve warrant article one as written. Second. No, it's not as written as amended because he's going to amend it to 2.4. So I move to approve war article one as amended. Second.

There you go. All right. Any further discussion? All those roll call vote. All those in favor, please say I. Sam Anderson. What? I summar. Snapple I. Hillbrook. I. All right. So that is unanimous. 500. All right. Now let's go through the recommendation. Yep. And Priya, thank you for having us ready for tonight. Pria, do you want It's I I like I wrote it. So there could be errors in this. So please Pria, do you want to read it? Want me to read it? Yeah.

Yeah. So the select board notes that Boxboro search for suitable fire station has been ongoing for more than 15 years and has involved multiple boards and committees. A prime uh primary challenge throughout this process has been identifying a location that is centrally situated not within an residential neighborhood large enough to accommodate a modern fire station that meets current codes and operational standards and available at a reasonable cost to the town. The property at 984 Massav meets all these criteria. The site is located on Massav with clear access and sight lines is not situated within a residential neighborhood as compared to other locations such as road and provides more than 4 acres of land sufficient to support the required fire station program. The proposed purchase price of approximately 2.4 million represents a reasonable and responsible cost for a site of this size and location. In addition, the site is closer to the town's more densely populated areas and offers improved emergency response coverage when compared to the existing fire station. For these reasons, the select board supports the acquisition of this property and recommends the approval of this article.

Nicely written. Nicely. My only question, Mike, and you kind of touched on it's not that's not a residential neighborhood even though there are residents there. It's it's it's it's it's the business district. Yeah. Okay. I just I'm just trying to make sure no one's So maybe we say that instead of saying it's not located in a residential, maybe you maybe you make it positive and it say and says it's located in the business district, but it might not actually. Oh, I was say not all of it is the back of it. It's multiszoned. You should just say in a neighborhood. Not in a neighborhood. It's not in a neighborhood. Okay. So, if you guys want to make that change, I'm okay with it.

Not within a neighborhood. Okay, I'm okay with that. Yep. Not there. Oh, where is it? Isn't it the next even there? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. So, because I have it in two spots. Okay. Just take out the word residential, Cal. Yeah, that's all. So, it was that was the right. Yeah. Yes, that is the right spot. Yeah, but take out the word residential. Yep. And then some somewhere else. Within neighborhood, right? Not within a neighborhood. That's it. Not in a neighborhood.

That's fine. Yeah. Not in a neighborhood. That's fine. And then in the next paragraph too, second line. Yep. Second line up to the right. Right there. Y is not situated in a neighborhood. You just take out the word residential. Yep. Yep. I neighborhood is already there. Yeah. Just to get get rid of the word residential. I

I actually think that um you don't need not in a residential not in a neighborhood in the first paragraph because that wasn't one of your primary challenges. Your primary challenge was finding a site that was large enough to accommodate it. But then the bonus to that in the second paragraph is oh and it's also not in a neighborhood.

I think I don't know. I I feel like we when we were looking at sites, we wanted to look for something that's not I think it it's important people to realize it's not like from the get-go even though we were looking at store road we were hoping that we will find something that is not in a neighborhood. It was just like every site after site that we kept looking at there was something or the other that kept coming that we couldn't proceed with those. So I don't want people to assume that okay that was not in the consideration. It was always in a consideration about like not going into a neighborhood. At least that's how I took it. Sure. That that's your recommendation. So that's fine.

Yep. I'm fine with it. All righty. We We can You guys can like I mean look at it again and if if there's more changes we can always make it next week, I suppos next next time around because my only one was was the residential thing. I didn't want to get get hung up on the word residential right from the zoning perspective. Exactly. I think your pageionation is off, Cal, but you can fix that later. Forward, which it should be. Okay. And mine is very financial. Yeah, that's what like I I I wanted to make sure that like I wasn't going into because with Fire Station, we were looking at all of them. So, I had to like separate myself from that and just look at it from a select board. Yeah. I like it.

Yeah. For whatever reason, Kell, that the first paragraph is single space and the um second and third paragraph have are one and a half space. Good catch. That Well, that's the kind of thing I'm like, if I don't say it now, I'll forget about it. And then I'll open the warrant and go, "Crap, I knew that." That recommendation looks great. Why don't you vote it? Yeah. Um if you come up with a change in a week or two, you can always reload it. Yeah. All right. I move to approve the recommendation for article one as written. I'll second that. And I'm only saying as written because we have amended it and it is as written now. So any further discussion. All those in favor please say I. We roll call vote. Sam Anderson I. Folks I Sundram I. Simple.

Hellberg guy. All right. Thank you. Next. Cool.

Okay. Excellent. Okay. the the next article and um the the fire station building committee was hoping you would take these in the order therein. So this one would would be voted if the first one passes uh to purchase the land and this is to design and bid uh the design and bid funding um for the uh for the fire station. And if this money is approved, this would um be enough for the uh architect and the OPM uh and design team of consultants um to design a building on 984 Massav, bring it to construction drawings, bid the project, um pre-qualified biders, bid the project, and come back uh at the appropriate time next year with the uh bid in hand and the the the exact price in hand uh for the next vote, which would be for the construction funding um to get us to that point. This is the amount uh just over $2.7 million which would be bonded. Um and that's that's what this article basically is about.

Yeah. Questions? I I think I I for like the public it's also important for them to realize it includes multiple consultants right like I mean civil engineers mechanical engineers electrical engineers and other folks there's like tens of consultants like multiple consultants different engineering disciplines and yeah incl the whole thing.

Yeah. So that's so it's not like a simple why it's costing the amount it's costing is that all these things have to be vetted and taken care of and this is the fa phase where we will be also looking into um bringing down the cost right value engineering all that happens in this phase so that we can come up with the cost more efficient cost and look into to see if we can bring down the cost of the whole project down. So, wouldn't that be in our recommendation, not the article itself? What? All the things you just mentioned. Um, yes. Okay. It's actually in the summary. It's in the

No. Yeah, I'm reading the summary now. Yeah, it's in the summary, but like I just for people to understand like

in it's it's in the um it's pretty specific in the fire station building community's uh recommendation. If you look at the bottom of their first paragraph, it talks about a three-phased iterative process. Yeah. where they continue to um design u bring down the cost as much as possible and value engineer looking at materials um and and and they um Mary did a nice job in the committee of of of really u honing down the details of what the process is that's involved which is appropriate for their recommendation. So my I guess Kristen or Mike, my question is is the fire station building committee going to stay active

all the way through the construction of the building? Yes. Yes. Because all expenses all expenses are going to have to be improved by them along the way. Okay, that's really my question. I right now we're we're really just paying a few different we're paying an architect and a few other incidentals but along the way it's going to be all the all the contractors, subcontractors, all the subengineers, consultants. Um so so and that because that's my question as far as who's going to approve those buildings. Is is it the select board that's going to approve those bills or is it the fire station building committee that's going to approve those bills? It's going to be the building committee. the building committee because they'll be the ones having the day to the the dayto-day week toe

conversation and that's what I'm asking. Yeah. Yeah. You'll have oversight. Um this is nitpicky. In the fire station building committee, the second paragraph, there's a sentence that starts with the word and. Um it I I don't know. It's just a little awkward, but that's just more an editing thing than anything else. It just the sentences just need to be smoothed out, that's all. But if you guys already voted it, then it's fine. They did. Okay. Well, then the grammar police will just sit down and be quiet. You're welcome. I know Alan didn't say anything. I know what Alan was okay with that sentence starting with and. Yes. I don't think he said. That's actually more okay than it used to be when we were in school.

It's just awkward. It's like, oh, and I forgot to tell you one more thing. Well, we don't double space anymore, Kristen. So, you know, I still double space and everyone hates me. Bob says I have to let go and I don't really want to, but okay. Next. Um, do you guys Oh, have you written the recommendation yet? Yeah. Poor Pria. Great. Bring it on again. I just have to switch over to my email. So, if you guys can talk while I stop sharing. Oh, we can always talk.

So, I can talk a little bit about the process since you asked the question about the, you know, would the fire station building committee continue on. So for the last um 19 18 19 months the fire station building committee has been meeting at least every other week just same cycle as this as this board um and they've been you know going through site selection reviewing designs uh reports surveys etc etc and every Wednesday the working group has been meeting and that's the OPM the architect uh the chair and vice chair of the of the fire station building committee and the fire chief and myself. That will also continue through the the design through this whole design process as well as through the whole construction process. So that every week that group will meet, every other week the fire station building committee will will meet because it's not done until the building is furnished and and ready.

That's right. And that's really my question is, you know, I wanted to make sure that what what the select board charged the committee with goes through the whole process to deliver the project. Exactly. Right. Not not just a site, but deliver the project. Okay. Great. Yep. Okay. Somebody's going to start singing and dancing. Should we vote to recommend this first and then we can look at the recommendations actually? Yep. Um, all right. I move to approve warrant article two. We did not amend anything. Correct. All right. Then I move to Is there a second? I'll second it.

Any further discussion, questions, or comments? I see Diana's hand is up.

Okay. So, what I'm going to say to you um is probably not going to be very well received, but I feel an obligation to say it nonetheless. Um the project has moved forward with one architect from the get-go. And when I was on the building committee, when context was brought in, they were the only ones that responded to an RFP for a very limited amount of $25,000. That was what we hired them to do on very limited basis. There has been no attempt whatsoever to put out forbid to any other architect on this very expensive multi-million dollar project. And I know that everyone is very um protective and defensive to some degree about the the uh consultants that we've hired. But I just feel that it is financially advantageous for the town to try to get the best that we can for the lowest price that we can. And there are a lot of other architects out there. Things have been brought forward to the building committee where projects like this have been done for less. There are other architects that have been recommended. And this is not reflective of context. I'm not saying they're a bad firm. I'm simply saying that I think that the town is owed a full you know process in this and I do have one criticism of context in that I feel that their billing has been lacking detail. They have built in increments for projected services without detailing those services. Um the billing has been wanting and I'm bringing this to your attention. I you know I think it's important for the select board to be aware of this and as a taxpayer I really would like to see us do the thing which

is responsible. I do not want to delay this project. Believe me I don't but this is something that has been brought up for the last two years and nobody seems to pay any attention to it. So at this point you seem to have a a design and you want to go forward with this. But I I really caution you because I just feel that we are not necessarily doing the most fiscally responsible thing for the town by sticking with one architect without seeing what other services we could get at a better price. Mike, do you want to address I

Absolutely. I'd like to address this without getting into a discussion about it and that is that um this is a highly qualified and experienced architect that specializes in municipal projects uh particularly uh public safety uh police department, fire stations. Um this is this is what they do. They are very good at it. Um I have looked at the pricing of other architecture firms. They're in line. They're not out of line with what other architect firms have done. Um, their billing has been fine. We've gotten the details that we need to to pay them. If we didn't, we would ask for more details and and when it's been needed. Our OPM uh who puts together all the billing packets um you know has requested more whenever it's been needed and I think that's been sufficient.

So, can I can I ask a quick question right there? So, Diana is expressing some concerns about transparency. When you have questions about the billing and the OPM provides them, does that end up in the fire station building committee minutes or or where is that? If somebody from the public wanted more information, they're in the packet. They're in the packet. Once a month, the the invoices get uh voted and and and then paid out if it's approved. Okay. Um and all that detail is is in there

and the the contracts are all on the website. The billing is all in the the monthly packets. And and I will say um with regard to uh delaying the project um if we were to go because we were satisfied with the with the quality and the um adequacy of the pricing of this architect. Uh we didn't need to go out for designer selection. If we were unhappy with the quality of the work or we thought we being overcharged, we could have gone out for designer selection at the beginning of the project. uh which would have put us back about 6 months. Um we could do that now um if we were unsatisfied, which we are not. Um and it would cost us $4,000 a day for a six-month uh delay. That would be a waste of taxpayer money in my opinion.

Uh I I see no reason to go out to uh select another designer or to put it out competitively to spend money to to cause this delay. um to to to get someone who we is not overcharging us. They're expensive. All architects are are expensive, especially in this line of work. Um you know, it it doesn't come cheap. No doubt about it. Uh but the I've looked at their pricing compared to other architecture firms. They're not out of line. Um and they and their their work um quality and ethic has been superb.

Okay. I I just did some quick math. At 180 days, it'd be $720,000 to of time is basically what we're saying, right? Okay. And my understanding is the fire station building committee, Priya, you could validate or not, is is satisfied with the the work that and you feel that they've been good partners to the town. Yeah. All right. I I've attended most of the meetings and I I haven't seen anything that would indicate that they were not experts, that they were not providing the information that you all needed. Um, okay. This is the architect you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We have a motion that needs to be voted, I think.

Any further discussion? All right. Um, all those in favor, please say I. And it's roll call vote. Sam, Anderson, I. Folks, I simple I and Hillberg I. Okay. All right. And the recommendation. Yeah. Get it bigger. Thank you. So, it's bigger. Okay.

So, um the select board recognizes the extensive work undertaken by the fire station building committee over the past 20 months in collaboration with the town's owners project manager, architect and consultants to evaluate sites, developed a conceptual design and re uh refined cost estimates for a new fire state fire hub. I should say fire station. Change that. Having chosen a suitable site, the next essential step is to advance the project through full design development and competitive bidding in order to determine the actual cost of construction. This article author authorizes funding solely for design, construction documents, pre-qualification of bidders and bidding of the project. It does not authorize construction. At the conclusion of this phase, the town will return to a future town meeting with the lowest responsible general bid and a complete fully defined project cost for voter consideration ensuring continued transparency and oversight. Given construction costs continue given that construction costs continue to escalate given that.

All right, so we have two edits. Change firehouse to fire station and add the word that. Yeah, given given that and then change firehouse to fire station in the fourth line. Yeah, continue to escalate annually. Further delay would only increase the overall project cost. For these reasons, the select board recommends approval of this article. Nicely done. I know this was hard because Mary has done such a nice job of like putting everything together. So to kind of leave hers. So who put this? Did you guys or did Mary put this together? Which one? This pre.

This one I did this. But like Mary's recommendations were also pretty comprehensive. So like I want to be the comma police, but Bob already told me I can't be the comma police. Oh, you can go ahead and No, no, that's okay. It's okay because now we're fixing it anyway. So go ahead and You don't need a comma between architect and consultants. Okay. Where? Architect and consultants. What's that? on line three. Oh yeah, up the top right project manager. Keep going. It'll make it easier to understand if you don't have all those commas. Many of Yeah, usually they chatpt does so many commas. It's ridiculous. I No, this is not like

No, no, I'm not saying it is, but what I'm saying is when if there's too many commas, it's harder to process because you're adding pauses and you don't need a pause between architect and consultant. Okay, got it. So, look at my recommendations cuz you're you have too many commas. I hate commas. That's it. That was the only one. Maria, this is this okay? Oh, no. I wasn't saying I was just making a comment that I hate comments because like there's so many commas everywhere. I wasn't saying yours was not No problem. I mean, if commas is the only thing I have to give. I just want to be clear that I wasn't saying she didn't write it herself. I was just being clear. I'm just saying I hate commas. Okay. Keep going. You're good. It's up to you. Oh, I'll Okay. I move to You guys are all good with it. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So I move to approve the recommendation as presented. Second. All those in favor please say I. Roll call vote. Sam Anderson I. Folks I Sundam I Hbert I. Okay. Next.

Okay. The next one is um is to vote for $7,000 to pay for the um October uh special town meeting. um over at the Regency. So, while we had the other expenses for a town meeting scheduled like the legal, the advertising, the warrant, we didn't uh know when the budget was set the year before that we would be at the Regency, but out of necessity, we did go there. It cost us $7,000, just shy of $7,000. So this article is to get money um in the special town meeting so that we can um you know fill the void that we have created by by paying for that town meeting on another line.

The one we already had. Yeah. This is for last year prior year. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. Any discussion? We might want to like explain the breakdown. I don't know if it needs to come in the recommendations, Mike. Like what was the $7,000? Yeah, we can between between the Yeah, I know you had sent it out. I don't have it in front of me, but Yeah, but you had sent it out. Maybe that can be part of the recommendation. Sure, we can we can do that. We break it out between AV and the rental of the room and then the the meeting rooms and everything. TV rental, all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Maria, can you scroll down to the title of this article? The title? Scroll up.

Yeah, whatever. Okay. I'm sorry. I read that as prior year because it's not prior year, it's this year. So prior town meeting expenses and then maybe right because it's in the same budget year. Why don't we just Yeah. Why don't we just write it as October town meeting? I think people will be able to understand that better. It's confusing. Yeah. Initially I thought it was prior. It's not a prior year bill. Yeah. It's not October 2025. There we go. You need to make sure. Yeah. Keep so that it doesn't look Yep. You're doing it. Yep. October 25. There you go. Perfect. All right. Do we still need the fiscal year 2026 then? I would leave that. I would leave that. I think so.

I I'm not feeling the need to break it out by dollar amount. No. I mean, because we say what it's for. I mean, there all of those things. Okay. I I I don't know that it matters. I can be prepared with notes if questions on the floor. How about that? Yeah, I like that compromise. Okay. Okay. No, I Yeah, just because we are asking for something after the fact. That's why I wanted to make sure that we had and and I'll write that recommendation and and I'm willing to be the one to say, you know, we felt strongly that we needed to do this that we were expecting outsiz attendance. Mike, my only question is if you know exactly is is it exactly $7,000?

It is like um 6,800 I think. Could we get the exact amount in there? Because otherwise you've got to turn money back to free account. You know what I mean? Like why not make it the exact amount of the bill? So we don't have an account to your point because otherwise you're going to have to close out the article later as unspent funds. Yeah. We we'll put the exact right to always point you know if you don't show every single bill. Yeah. If you don't show every single bill just say with every single bill adds up to that's all. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We'll put the exact amount in the two places there. Yeah. Then we have to worry about closing it out later. It just gets paid. Exactly. Good catch. Good. Thank you. All right. I move to approve warrant article 3. Second.

Any further discussion? Any hands up? C. Should we say as amended or as amended? As amended. Put the exact amount. Oh. Um to be amended to show the exact exact amount of the invoice. Y. All right. Um and I'll second that as amended. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Roll call vote. Sam Anderson I. Wes folks I Sundum I. Simple. Hellberg. I and I'll I'll write the um the recommendation and email it out.

Okay. Great. And then we don't have article 4 written because we just talked about it tonight, but I think we probably should talk about it. And that is the $20,000 in free uh free cash to cover the closing cost for the purchase of the land. Um, so, um, oh, that one. Yeah, but we should probably just talk about it tonight. If it's going to be a warn article, kind of to PR's point, we probably should explain what closing costs are, like what they entail. Yep. And um that and note that it's an Well, in the recommendation of the summer, we can note that it's an estimate.

Right. Right. And uh so I'll write that up, but I just wanted us to talk about a little bit. So that will be for the for the title search, the the deeds, um any any legal cost for um um filing it at the registry um and anything else. We I got a preliminary estimate of $12,000 and that just seems really low to me based in my world. I'm like that doesn't seem right in u Yeah. So I think 20,000 is a you know unless we get indication you know in the next few weeks or so that it's oh no it's really going to be limited to 15,000 16,000 I'm more comfortable going with 20,000 get there right

put it back less on top we have to yeah get the real number and it's and it's free cash anyway so it would just fall back to free cash all right okay so we'll wait till we get that and then we'll we'll manage that okay was that That's it. That's it for All right. Now, we had the fire station building committee update pretty I kind of feel like you did that with the word article. Are you comfortable? Yep. Okay, great. Uh oh. The only thing is we have now forums coming up.

Um January 28th at 11:00 a.m. and 700 p.m. right here at the Graange. We have um fire station building committee uh listening sessions/forum happening. Both are hybrid. Mhm. And then um the fire station building committee also has a table at Winterfest which is on January 31st between 1 and 4 p.m. So those are the two town meeting and the pre-Town meeting that is in February that Alec is putting February 23rd I think. Yeah. And that's from 2 to 8:00 p.m. over at the library.

Library. That'll be a walk walkin walkth through type of um uh setup like like last time where people can just come ask their questions, see what's going on and we can do the to stay correct. Yes. All right. Awesome. Okay. Moving right along. Reports and announcements. We'll start at this end of the table. John. Yes. Kelly or John? You have anything? I gave everything to Mike. smart.

All right. So, just a a few updates. So, the first one is um just want to kind of give an update to the board on a upcoming um project strategy that we're working on. So, um myself, our land use and permitting director, our police chief, and our library director have been going to uh leadership matter courses uh hosted by the public sector consortium. And those uh sessions have included trainings on meeting facilitation, systems thinking, negotiations and performance management. And also as a part of this project, we have a community um innovations project where the task that we've been um that we've been responsible for is to come up with a project that we can implement in the town. So, the project that we have been working on and we plan to bring forward this upcoming spring is a community um engagement project focused on improving communications in town.

So, as a part of that, we'll have a multi-phase process where we'll be doing surveys, focus groups, um as well as announcements. And the goal with this project is to essentially improve communication, improve communication channels as well as get feedback on what is working as well as what isn't working for us to create a unified strategy that we can implement in town that not only can engage all stakeholder groups which includes um town residents, boards and committees and as well as the business community, the school and the um the religious organizations in town. but also to get feedback on ways that we can improve communication townwide. Um, and not only communication out, but uh, communication that's coming in as well. So, this will be, I would say in the upcoming weeks, uh, we'll be working on um, some ways to engage the public, but also getting feedback from not only the select board, but various boards and committees in town. So, I just want to kind of give an update to everybody and uh just let them know that this project's coming up and then you'll probably be receiving a few invitations in the upcoming weeks on the announcement that we're going to have on this strategy.

No, I I that's fantastic and I applaud you. I wish I could get up and applaud because what I'm hearing is a lot of people in town don't know how to do certain things and and it's you you you've said it like six times and and the word is communication. Somehow we've got to we've got to improve communication just so people when they have questions they know where to go to ask the question and a couple of the committees that I'm leazison on to we've determined that it's not just one form of communication it's not just a paper it's not just a website it's not just a mailing it's multiple ways of communicating with the people because we we are servicing multiple ages of people and multiple abilities of people some people don't like using Facebook some people don't like using a computer. Some people some people don't like or don't read the um action limited. And so it's multiple ways and I applaud you and saying this is what we need as a town and town hall to improve upon is communicate to the residents and I and I think the bottom line answer is it's multiple ways of communicating to the residents. So thank you.

Yeah. And um two other projects that um working on currently, one is an uh we're this year we're actually um kicking off the update of the town website to do the redesign of it. So, um, anybody who's interested in serving as a part what we're doing to, uh, lead up to that because, um, the project kicks off officially this April, but I'm looking for people, especially any board or volunteers or just anybody in town who wants to be a part of the redesign for the website. Um, I'm putting together a a working group to have as a part of the redesign team. Um and the commitment for it is we meet with our website provider which is Civic Plus. Meetings normally don't take longer than 30 minutes to an hour. Uh but the goal with being a part of the working group is to be able to provide feedback to Civic Plus. Also to coordinate with the stakeholder group that you're a part of to get feedback from them to let them know what is it a part of the website that you want to see um and advocate for that but also to relate back to the the group that you're a part of on the work that's being done. So I'm just looking for volunteers who want to be a part of uh that working group for the the talent website.

Rajan the uh volunteers what will be the hours is that like any time or is there specific time because so the main thing would just be the the schedule meetings we have with our website designer as well as the team from Civic Plus. So it'll be just 30 minute to an hour meetings with them looking over edits to the website like during the day. Yeah, it'll be during the day. So that's that kind of is it zoom or is it in person? No, these are all Zoom meetings. Okay. So, yeah, Zoom, but like if it's during the day, a lot of people if they're working might not be able to. So, I think it's important for us to list it might be during the day. So,

yeah. Yeah. Morning or afternoon. I think most people that work in civic plus maybe one person is Massachusetts, but I think most of them are on the west coast. Okay. Um, oh, so that might actually h work in the evenings for some.

And then the next project is uh we've partnered with the Institute for Human Center Design and last week we kicked off um work kicked off the proc well we've kicked off the initial set of communications for starting the ADA transition plan. Um, so what we're doing this year is Alec worked to get us a community compact grant uh for us to do a ADA transition plan. So this plan is essentially to give us a list of recommendations to get us in ADA compliance with all of our municipal buildings and facilities. So, what we're doing is the Institute of uh for human center design is going to come in, look at all of our buildings, take measurements, um conduct surveys, and work with uh numerous stakeholder groups uh to get feedback on how we can put together an ADA transition plan to get us to work towards getting us in compliance for all of our municipal buildings and fac and facilities. And as far as a staffing update, we still have an opening for police officers. We have one we have an interview scheduled this week, but we're still actively taking applications for the police officer position.

So, we haven't hired anybody yet. You have an interview. Okay. How about five for five fired? I believe that those two positions have been extended offers. I think they're going through the um pre-employment process with the testing and physicals. Congratulations. Good. Good to hear. Nice. Um, going back to um the website we designed, I I had thought I had forwarded your email to some people. That's that's why I was like scrolling. Have you had any response from anybody yet interested in being part of about I believe it's four people who've said that they want to be on the working group at this point. Okay. Because I I was looking to see get responses and I think I probably wrote the email and never actually sent it. So, so I just sent it out to a few people.

If you know anybody else, feel free to send them my way. Do you have responses from other than staff? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, no. And and I um I if I if I don't have someone in my proxy, I know I'm the one that complains about the website a lot. So, I am happy to be part of that group, but I'm going to see if I can get a proxy. Okay. So, you don't need me complaining to you regularly like that any more than I already do. Exactly. Just to touch on two things that Rajon mentioned, then I have some announcements to make. one is um with this website redesign uh we have talked about it's really important to us to get an outside view

um so when I look at the website I can find what I need I see that it puts out the information that I think is critical um and you know the folks who were involved in the last redesign like Kanye was involved in that uh Becky Harris Rajon and others um I think they did a tremendous job but that's from an inside view it's really important for us to get some like like what you're seeing. How do people who don't use this on a daily basis and maybe go to we want to have that because there's things that that we're probably either

have become accustomed to are living with just are used to or it it it seems okay to us. We want to know what doesn't look okay to others. We want that feedback either directly from people or to the this committee to get this this thing working for the entire town. Well, I I have to tell you, I did have my partner Rick. I said, "I want you to figure out how to zoom into a meeting." And he couldn't. And he's a builder. He's not a techie, but but but that multiplestep way of getting into a Zoom. He couldn't figure out how to get there. So, so that that's been my consistent complaint is how do we get people how do we communicate to people so they can get right in, right?

You know, to we need that input because when I came here and saw the the redesign that they had done, I'm like, "This is fantastic." it was so much better than the town website that I came from. I'm like this is phenomenal and but there's always room for improvement and that's what we want to do. We want to get better.

Um the other thing that that Rajan mentioned is um he and his team that are going through the public sector consortium at in Cambridge. Um, one, uh, Rajan is the leader of that team and they're doing a terrific job. And I know the the the president of the public sector consortium personally, I I graduated from that program about maybe about eight years ago. And um, and she got back to me and she said, "The people that the town of Boxboro sent to this are unbelievable. Way to go. so impressed with their intellect, their intuitions as far as municipal government and how municipal government should be run and how they present themselves and carry themselves. She's been thoroughly impressed. So, the town of Boxboro should be really proud of itself for the team that it sent. They are doing a phenomenal job. They've undertaken a a difficult, challenging, and um important project. And I'm really excited about this. And and Bob, you're right about the multigenerational, multimodal communication um with feedback loops. It can't be one-way communication, just in or just out. And that's what they're working on, getting feedback loops and and how do we get back to people once they respond to us and vice versa. And that's what they're working on. And it's exciting. This is going to be an exciting next step for the for the community. And we have the right team in place to do this. I'm just going it's, you know, the the groups I've been in, I've said it, I'm repeating myself, is that they're they're getting frustrated and it's and it's just what it is. It's like, gee, I didn't know that. Oh, you guys are doing that. Oh, gee, I didn't know that. And it's it's like, oh, and it's just frustrating that we're doing so much and it's like anything, you know, you're doing so much and nobody knows you're doing it. So, I I it's got to be multifunctional. Go ahead.

It's true. No, I I 100% agree. Yeah, absolutely. Next thing I want to mention is uh Dennis sent the board an email today and I just want to read from it because he did some uh research and I know he's on at least was on this call. I can't tell if he's on now. Um but I'm going to read from this and if he's got or anyone else has anything else to add. It's regarding the clickers uh which have been discussed at a couple of prior meetings. He did some research with the mass moderators association which is called gavveline and asked some of the questions that came up at the meeting here and he received replies from 11 moderators and one attorney uh who serves numerous towns and he did a summary of their of the feedback he got. The majority commented that uh there was no change in attendance due to use of the clickers. A couple thought it could encourage additional voters to attend particularly younger voters. Um several commented that attendance is more directly related to voter interest in the articles and not use of the the clickers. Um there were mixed comments on time savings and some comments about the need to manage glitches and logistics uh requires an assigned tech person when using the clickers. Some noted that clickers are faster than standing counts. Some noted clickers are also helpful for twothirds counts that tend to go to a st standing count. with regard to town t time savings and for reducing tension in the air on close contentious votes where the tension builds up during the count. Um and then regarding time uh Dennis comment commented that he wanted to remind everyone that we average about one standing count per meeting and that standing count averages less than five minutes to complete. So we just want to share that information. Um and one other thing about clickers I know that um there was you want to discuss this now as far as next year's budget

or save that.

So there was discussion at at budget Saturday about funding um the an annual town meeting in FY27. So, a year from this coming May at the Regency, um where we're going to have a couple of big things coming to the town, including probably uh a Prop 2 and a half operational override, and the group thought it would be important to go to the Regency for that and fund it. So, there was $10,000 put into the budget at that time. and and Kristen, who's been a very strong advocate for the clickers at that time, said that she would give up the clickers to put the money towards the uh going to the regency for that vote if if necessary.

Well, let let me let me kind of qualify that is to me it's far more important that we are in one room having discussion as one town and one group in that if it was a choice between Clickers or the Regency, I was much more in favor of the Regency. I didn't say it that way, but that's what I think like Dennis's feedback just solidifies that we're going to spend some money. It's not like it's going to make a big difference, Mark difference based on what he's what he has gathered. Yeah. So, I guess makes sense.

Well, my whole thing for that was always people being afraid to vote their conscience and instead voting what they think their neighbors wanted to see. But, you know, I mean, everyone has pushed back a little bit and said, "We're all adults. If you're going to be an adult and you're going to vote, you should vote your conscience. So, well, well, it's interesting to what you just said and what Dennis found and what the other people said that it didn't really change a lot of outcomes and it's it's not Well, I think bottom line, the way I took Dennis's email, it's not worth it. It's bottom line, it's not worth it, but like I said, I think it's far more important. So, Ed, yes. So, that's it. There we go.

Okay. Uh, next on my list is um is water grants. So there were three uh very large grants awarded to uh condominium associations uh with regards to the waterline extension coming into West Boxboro. And so there was a uh let's see is this for the easement? Yeah, this is for the easement. No, it said run the water lines just for Okay, wait. It said not it's not the easement here. Not the easement.

It's to actually pay for pay for connecting. Right. Yeah. So there was 1.46 million awarded from the state to Harvard Ridge C condominium association. There was 1.534 million awarded to Brook Village Condominium Association and 930,000 awarded to Codman Hill um condominium association and I imagine that was relative to distance and number of buildings. Correct. Yeah. Correct. So in other words, Codman Hill is not being penalized. They're just a smaller development. It was pretty much given just in case anyone's wondering.

Yeah. they'll apply it equally across those cond association but dependent on the number of units and and just exactly. Um now what that will do is is that's reducing um that's coming off of the betterments to the uh unit.

Is it coming off the betterment fees or is it okay coming it's coming off their betterment fees. coming off their betterment fees. Correct. Now, there will be betterment fees, but the betterment fee, let me take for example, uh Codman Hill Condominium Association, their their betterments um estimated at this point were we're in excess of 1.4 million. This is reducing that by 930,000. So, their betterments are going to be 500,000 divided by all the units and that that comes in their tax bill. So that's separate from their condominium special assessment. This is in their correct bit. Okay.

Right. Um so the town of of Boxboro will be billing each of these three condominium associations for this. Um so that the state can apply the grant money. Um, and then in more than a year from now, the town will be sending betterments, which is what's left after the grant was applied, and we'll be sending it to the individual units, and that'll be for what's the remainder of the betterment to be hooked up to the to the water. Is that better onetime fee? That's a onetime fee. Well, it it it's it's you pay it over time. It's not like they have to pay it. It it's gets spread. I wanted it was was it 30 years? It

is it 20 or 30 years? It's spread out over a significant chunk of time. It could be spread out in in any fashion. Correct. But it's but it's not it wouldn't be like a forever fee like with the water. You know, the water you're going to pay as the water flows. But it's it's just who makes a decision on how that's spread out. How many years? Um we haven't gotten to that point yet. I I because I do want to be cognizant of that because that is that up to us or is it up to the associations?

No. No. This is the town's betterment. So, they're going to have special assessments to connect each of their units to the water. The Betterman fee is what it costs Littleton Electric to bring the water to the street to bring it into them. So, you have two different bills. One is to to to get the water to them. The other one is to actually hook up. Yep. Right. So, this is the Betterment fee that will be included in their tax bills or in their water bill. I'm not sure how it's going to work because I Let's not even go there. But I think that we have to be sensitive in that and it'll be in their tax bill. It'll be in their third quarter tax bill of whatever year it is that it comes out. Um but I think we have to be sensitive to that.

Littleton ahead of time all these betterment fees or like they collect the fees. I believe they're collecting the fees. They collect through our taxes. They collect we because legally they can't collect these. They collect them from us. We have to collect them and then we have to pay them. But it these betterments won't start until the water is running. Yeah. And it's it's over a year from from that. And it doesn't have to be like when we collect we collect as we collect we pay them. Correct. It's not like we don't hold it at all. As soon as we get it, we send it to to Littleton.

But I think that when we get there, we need to probably look at those numbers and be that's a very I'm trying to think how I say it. We can't hammer them because they're getting hammered in multiple ways already. Their condo fees are going way up. I know that some of them already have betterment fees to improve the plumbing systems to be able to accept the water. So, so they're getting hit financially and significantly on this, right? So, the more we can spread it out, the better, right? So, I just want to keep going. I do realtor. Yep. That's all right. Um, you're used to it.

Okay. Next. Um so the the dispatch district that we are part of NHoba Valley Regional Dispatch District um when we joined we were the let me see one two three four five six eight n we were the seventh town to join the district um this year I think it was last fall I was somehow if you've ever seen the Three Stooges uh episode with Ask for Volunteers and everyone steps back except for the one person who wasn't paying attention. You forgot to step back, did you? I didn't stepped back and I became the chair of this this Was that Larry or Curly? I'm not really sure.

Yeah, I think it was Larry.

I think it was Larry. So, anyways um but since that time we have um two more towns have joined. So now we have nine towns in the district recently. um Hud the towns of Hudson and the town of Sterling have joined us and multiple many other towns have approached and wanted to join um and we've really tried to stick with towns in the area not necessarily contiguous but in the area and of similar composition like we've had a couple of cities who have approached and we said you know what it just it creates an imbalance and you know for we each town gets the same assessment and gets one vote And you know, we've had some cities that have wanted to come in and get the same assessment and same vote. It's like, no, that does that doesn't work,

wouldn't they, though?

Um, so anyways, um, the reason I mentioned that that the the district has grown is it's important because each year as costs come up, we've been able to keep the assessment about the same. It's still right around $200,000, which is the same as what it was when we joined. Um so by you know because dispatch is able to u go across a long um a wide area unlike you know police and and fire and many of your other services you need right there to respond physically whereas our dispatch is going you know through the optic fiber you know fiber optic network and so forth. So anyways I just wanted to uh let you know about that. Mike, is there any concern about as you kind of touched on, but is there any concern about you can't get you're getting too big? The show is getting too big.

We talk about that and we're not at that point. We haven't maxed out in capacity. Yeah. So, the call volume is still below their capacity. They're well within well under the the response times uh well within their capacity and they have the capacity to hire more dispatches as as needed within the facility that and that was kind of my question. Yep. So they're hiring more I'm assuming they're hiring more dispatchers to hire because they picked up another town but they might pick up one more dispatcher but still they got to add add to staff. Yeah. Like they're not having to double the number of dispatches because they were adding the town. They can they can handle what they've got.

Um just a reminder um from the League of Women Voters about upcoming election for the spring. So there are two open seats on the select board for three-year terms, two open seats on the planning board for three-year terms. uh two open seats on the school committee for three-year terms, two open seats on the library trustees for three-year terms, one open seat on the board of health for a three-year term, and one open seat for the town moderator for a one-year term. Um, one announcement on the library, they're they're still undergoing the interior rearrangement. Um, and so the library will be closed tomorrow for that. On January 27th, the Lapen Foundation is sponsoring um an event at the library for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. That's Tuesday, January 27th at 7 p.m. And uh we have a gentleman coming. His name is Warner Sullinger. He's a Holocaust survivor. Uh he was very young at that time and later went on to serve a as a US uh in the US military. He's a US veteran. Um and then one last no two last announcements. One is Winterfest is January 31st from 1 to 4 and the board assessors uh we do have a couple of applications in that I'll share with the the committee. Great.

Uh with the board, I mean and uh but we we still are soliciting applications. We need at least one more application, hopefully even more. Um, and people can reach out to board members, to administration, um, or to the website um, to be considered for that. And that's all the announcements I have at this time.

All right. Um, let's see, what did I do last week? Last week, I attended the housing board meeting. Um, you know, I'm trying to think the two the two biggest things they address is that they do have a vacant unit over in Somefields that they are going to be working with the estate of the person who owned it to to get that back into housing production um looking forward to offering that up to another senior um somebody over 55 or a couple um to take the the to purchase that property. Um, we also talked about um something we had talked about at BLF, which is putting together um members of each of the boards and commissions to start talking about looking at um a housing production plan, not so much in that planning board definition of it, but looking at ways to bring moderate housing to Boxboro and um h how do we accomplish that as a town? Um, the housing board is very cognizant that we have $250,000 condos and we have million-dollar homes and we're really missing that that middle middle piece right there. Um, yes, we have a little bit, but you know, nothing compared to towns around us. So, um, that was of a concern for them. So, that's something that we should probably move to an agenda item and start putting that together, putting that group together. I

I think so. And this is a problem that that most municipalities in Massachusetts are having. But the divide in Boxboro is quite wide. You know, because those million-dollar homes are up so high, there's a lot of people we're missing in the middle. You know, we're not providing adequate opportunities for people to downsize and remain in the community as seniors. Uh we're also not providing a lot for starter homes.

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Um all right. And then I attended the school committee meeting which was mostly a listening se uh session AB forward listening session talking about um you know they will be making their final decision on how they're going to reorganize school and a big topic oh the elementary schools sorry big topic of conversation I'm sorry Adam's not here usually he does this um big topic of conversation is how they're going to allocate students to each school now my understanding and I heard that Boxboro will continue to have its hometown um they called it a preference

because there will be some children that will need to be placed in Actton schools, you know, due to whatever their educational requirements are. But that box pro will continue to have a hometown preference, but they're trying to figure out how to assign children to the other five elementary schools and act whether it's geographic, you know, whether they actually create neighborhood schools, whether it's a lottery. Does everyone go on the lottery? Do only some children go into the lottery? So, so that they were listening to parent input on all of that. Um, and they will be making a decision at their January 22nd meeting. Is the budget set?

No, no, they um they're waiting to decide how they're going to allocate um the buildings first before they can truly work in the budget. I did update them and let them know that we are not planning on an override. Um that we used the the budget numbers that they gave to us and there might be small changes to that, but nothing significant. And I I just said that Boxboro is, you know, we plan on being supportive. You know, something extraordinary comes forward. You know, I and I said I can't speak for the board, but I for one believe that, you know, we will be supportive and I'll be advocating for that support. At at this point, I've said this before, I don't feel like I'm not going to raise my hand and say Boxboro is going to derail the whole school system over $20,000 or something like that.

So, um, and that's all I did last week. Can I mention one other thing? Speaking of school, you just there's something I meant to mention and it is um we've been working to set the date and place for annual town meeting. Oh, right. Yep.

Um and and we need to probably keep announcing this in the next couple of meetings. So, I met with principal VTO over at the Blanchard School last week and we agreed for to do our annual town meeting Tuesday, May 19th and for the next two days after that. So, 19th, 20th, 21st. Normally we're on a Monday, but if we were to um if we were started Monday, we'd be kicking the school band out of their concert night. And it just didn't seem like the right thing to do for the children. So, we agreed to do it Tuesday, which means instead of having a Friday through the weekend setup, we're going to have our setup on Monday, he'll allow us into the school at 6:00 a.m. or if we need at 5:00 a.m. have all day long to set up in the gymnasium. That's um that's that's um BXBTV do their setup. DPW do our chairs, tables, stage, and all of that, microphones. Um

it's going to be an all hands- on deck day. Yeah, it will. It'll be really busy. It's a little different. We'll have to keep reminding people it starts on Tuesday, not Monday, but it's, you know, Tuesday the 19th, 20th, and 21st. Well, this gets back to Bob talking about multiaceted ways to communicate with the public. So, we'll be doing a lot of that. We'll have it on the website and the uh the town clerk has has put that out to the state that that those are the new dates for our time. All right. Well, and thank you for working with um with the school so that we're not disrupting concerts or whatnot. Thank you. Principal VTO and the Blanchard School are so good to work with. They're great partners. Yeah. Great. Bob, what do you got?

I um just one real big one is it affects a lot of a lot of people. It's it's the reccom. We mentioned earlier tonight they lost another committee member and they're really looking for residents to step up and help with the reccom. They they do a lot of good stuff for our children and e even the senior residents as well as the residents and the seniors with all the programs they run throughout the year winter festivals and the summer program at Flurfield and they're they're struggling to keep a quorum going and to have the members and it's um it's not it's not a heavy lift. It's well hold on one second. Um, I did speak to Hillary about this. They are meeting this week. They're going to kind of put together a job description. Yep. And then they want us to help them find volunteers. So, they said, "Slow our role on on

Okay. recruiting until they know exactly what they're looking for so we can be really clear what the responsibilities are." I will stop at that point though. Thank you. Well, only because she is. She's like, "I know you guys are going to get right out there and help, but give me a second." Okay. Um, what else? The other one is um No, that's really it. That's it. Um one update additional is that uh sustainability will be starting to meet on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays. Oh, okay. So, it'll be the second and the second Wednesday of the month. I think I think they meet once a month. So, great.

I have to tell you if you could pass this back. I have had more people asking why is the swap shed closed in the winter? It was great for a month and and so you just kind of factor that in is people would like to see that open year round. I'm just telling you. Yeah. We would also love if they would volunteer for this watch. Well, it's it's volunteer it's volunteers but it's also the electricity. I mean there's no electricity out there. It would we'd have to run electricity out there because of the it's dark at 4:00 right now. Yeah. and it's cold, so there's no way of helping the volunteers say, "Oh, yeah, here here's a volunteer. By the way, it's going to be 20 degrees in where you're working."

So, I So, I would suggest perhaps that we think about bringing an article for article forward to figure out how to run electricity to it. And then let's figure out if we really need volunteers to be there, like, you know what I mean? And how many people need to be there? Is that something this the town should be taking on? Because remember when recycling started, it was all volunteer run. And it got to the point that it was so popular in town, we shifted it over to the town. So I think we do have to think about doing that. It's not it's not sustainable to be volunteerrun forever, but it was very very popular.

But but the agreement between sustainability and DPW was that um and and and Kate Davies was terrific. She was all about this. She says, "I will get the volunteers. I'm happy to do this." And so that's how we started recycling, too. I'm just saying that we have to plan maybe not next year but in the next couple of years if it continues to be a really successful program and if it's not sustainable with volunteers we have to decide as a town is that something we want to support right and I think your comment is key word is support it's going to be adding adding people count to the DPW yeah I'm just throwing it out there but I have gotten so many complaints about that no it and we got to be careful of the budget

I West. Oh. Um, I don't really have anything. I won't be at the next meeting because I have to go to Switzerland for work again. We get chocolate. Yay. Switzerland. Holy smokes. We get chocolate. Yay. There's not a ski trip over there on Friday. Okay. We got to see. Thank you. Enjoy your trip. I'll try. Sam, you got anything? I'm good. Okay. All right. Well, that's everything. Um, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Oh, no. Approval of meeting minutes. I was going to say last time I moved to adjourn, I got scolded for skipping a minute. So, I would never scold you, Sam. So,

minutes. We have to do minutes. Did anyone have a chance to take a look at the December 22nd minutes? You know, I did look at them and they look fine to me. So, I'll move to approve the meeting minutes of December 22nd, 2025 as presented. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. We'll roll call vote. Sam Anderson I. Folks, I Sundam I. Simple I. Hillberg. I and Sam. I will entertain a motion TO I'm not getting in between the two of you. It's up to you two guys to figure it out. Is there a second? I'll second it. All those in favor of a journey, please say I. Roll call vote.

Anderson I. Okay. I. Ad Hill guy. Thank you everybody. Thank you everyone. Good night. Good night.