Select Board - Regular Meeting

meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Shamrock Splashdown Polar Plunge will be held on Saturday, March 28th from 10 to noon. That's this Saturday. Uh join Grafton Reck at Silverlake Beach for their first ever Polar Plunge. registration fee is $25. We are now accepting nominations for the outstanding citizen award. Please visit grafton-mma.gov to submit your nomination by March 31st. We have no public hearings tonight. Is there any public comment? Do limit it to two to three minutes and you know

time me if you like. David Glisten, five Stratton Road. Um I guess folks are starting to recognize that I try to come to every meeting and stay informed. So, um I did get a number of calls from folks and they asked me to bring this issue up and um I said I would um referring to the March 13th Friday um select board meeting and I did after chatting with some folks have an opportunity to watch it. So, I can concur with what I'm going to tell you. Um about 47 minutes in, Miss Foley was speaking what everyone thought was very intelligently about um how the processes with the override is going. And at about 48 12 minutes, you Mr. Jefferson um took her to task a bit saying that you didn't agree with her opinion and that um you thought that she was kind of and I'll put in quotes off base. When she went to respond to that to provide some rebuttal, your exact words in a rather forceful tone were, "No, you haven't been recognized. Mr. often your hand is up." Um, the folks that called me asked me to bring this up because quite frankly, I'll give you the comments that I received. Unprofessional, disrespectful, rude. Shouldn't he seek input from other board members? Doesn't he like Miss Foley? And I guess the question that everyone wanted me to ask you is, um, are you planning on apologizing to her? No, I was about letting you apologize.

Don't you think you should? No, I do not think I should. So, the chairperson shouldn't seek intelligent input from other board members. That is not what was happening at that moment, sir. Well, explain it to me. What was happening in the moment was we had both shared opinions on a topic. We disagreed. She then attempted to speak over at the end of uh the discussion and she had not been recognized. So as chair they went to the next person who had been waiting with their hand raised on Zoom as we are supposed to do and you you think that that's in fairness to her. I do.

Well, I can tell you sir, there is a growing number of folks who don't agree with that. And there is also a growing number of folks who feel that you have a strong bias against Miss Foley. So, if I could give you a piece of 76y old wisdom. She is a kind, intelligent business person who serves this board very well. I think you should try to befriend her instead of making it adversarial. Okay. I welcome any of those people to reach out and contact me directly too. Thank you. Sure. Any additional public comment?

Okay. Uh we do have some appointments tonight. Uh starting with the board of registars if you'd like to just come up and introduce yourself. Uh Lisa Yitz, 54 George Hill Road. And you are seeking reappointment this year. I am the Republican seat. Okay. Um, does anybody have any questions that they would like to ask? Comments? Just comment. Thank you for your service. Thanks for volunteering. Sure. Yeah. I've been doing it since I was appointed back in October of 23 and have been enjoying being on the board and would like to continue another three-year term. So, I'm happy to have the opportunity.

Okay. For the board's clarification, uh, the other two applicants were unable to make it tonight. and um as I understand it withdrew and um put their support behind Miss Yitz. So if uh we want to take a motion, we can we can do that. Mr. Chair. Yep. I move the board vote to appoint Lisa Yitz to the board of registars for registars for a three-year term. Second. Okay. Motion seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I I thanks Lisa. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, next up we have some election workers. We can just take a motion on that, please.

Uh, Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to appoint Robert Cumbrella, Judith Gagnon, Helen Cheney, and Debbie Ramsey as election workers. Second. Motion and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I motion passes. Okay. Uh, appointments from the town administrator. We have Joshua Griggsby, a heavy truck operator at the DBW.

Not on Zoom. Not on Zoom either. Okay, we can pass over that one for now. If if he does pop up, you want to just uh give us heads up? Yep. Okay.

Okay. Um, business. Uh we had a request or a suggestion I should say come in for a proclamation for uh motorcycle safety awareness month. Um it begins March 22nd and runs through April 30th. Um something that uh the the governor has stressed the importance of. So we did put together a proclamation. I will I will read it now. Um whereas there is a growing need for cooperation among drivers of automobiles and trucks, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians who use our streets to reduce injuries and fatalities. And whereas it is critical for all to increase their knowledge of the rules of the road and the rights and responsibilities of all roadway users. And whereas for the benefit of over 165 owners of registered motor vehicles in Grafton and all the riders in surrounding communities aimed at increasing awareness and reducing accidents. And now therefore, we the Grafton Select Board do hereby proclaim March 22nd through April 30, 2026 to be motorcycle safety awareness period and wish everyone a safe riding season. Uh, next up we have a common virtual license for firehouse dogs. Have anybody

I think they are on Zoom. Okay, we have a hand just iPhone. Sorry. Sorry about that. Can you hear me now? Yep. Is this Miss Ferraro?

Yes, it is. Hi. Mr. Ferraro is here, too. I'm sorry we couldn't be there in person tonight. We had a prior commitment out of town, but we appreciate the chance to speak with you. Um, we're here on behalf of Firehouse Dogs as we request the renewal of our common victer license. This will be our fourth season in Grafton, and we're really excited to be back. We open on April 13th, and we'll be operating Monday through Saturday to start. And then beginning the Sunday after Mother's Day, we're going to add Sundays into our schedule. We had a lot of requests for Sundays, so we're going to give it a try for the town. We're keeping our usual firehouse theme menu and introducing some a couple new items. And even with raising rising costs, we are working hard to keep our prices at a reasonable level. We thank you for this.

Excellent. I'm glad to hear uh you'll be open another day. That's that's good news. Yes, very soon. Um, does the board have any questions or comments they'd like to ask, Mr. Chair? Sure. Yeah, just one. Um, I love every version of hot dog that you guys serve. Um, it's terrific. Uh, and it's such a nice thing to do on a weekend to sort of pop in. Uh, you got the picnic tables there. Uh, anybody who hasn't stopped in, definitely check it out. And it's awesome because you can get canned soda, which I love. Um, so yeah, keep it up. I'm a huge fan. Oh, thank you. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Any additional questions or feedback? No sir. Hearing none, I can take a motion.

Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to approve a common vitual license for Firehouse Dogs. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Motion passes. Thank you guys very much. You're welcome. Thank you so much for coming in. All right. Very much. Uh you are under no obligation to stick around though you're more than welcome. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. We have a second common virtual license for Donut Star. Uh Mr. Torres, I see you on Zoom. Yes.

Welcome. Um so you this one the the previous one was a renewal. This one um you are a new lency. just confirming. Yes, I'm going to um take over the place. Yes. Okay. Um any comments or questions from the board?

Um just like to have the new owners kind of go through what their plans are for for the Donut Star and what's their version of Donut Star going to be. We've had several there over the years. So this is an opportunity for you to give uh a couple minute advertisement for for the new business. So go ahead. What are you going to do there? I'm going to be making donuts and breakfast and you know serve it to the community of Grafton and um hopefully everything you know go very well.

Great. They used to make an apple fritter there that was like legendary. If you can I used to have to bring them everywhere I went because people would ask for them and get mad at me if I didn't. So if you can duplicate that fritter, you're going to have that. Oh yeah, that's a strong yes. That's great. Are you uh anticipating changing any of the hours or days a week that you're open or anything like that? Good donuts, too. Um for now we going to um just open 5 to 1:00 to see how um how going to be at the beginning and then we can plan to stand the the outs you know.

Great. Yeah. Well, best of luck. Yep. Thank good luck. Appreciate if there's no other questions. You can take a motion. Mr. Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to approve a common vitual license for Donut Star. Second. Okay. Okay. Motion made seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I passes. Thank you for coming in tonight. You Thank Thank you. You You can sign off if you like or you stick around. Whatever. Whatever you prefer. I stay for a little bit. Thank you.

Uh next up, we have the board of registars to discuss early voting. Come on up.

Sure. Wherever you're comfortable. If you sit podium sides, wherever you want to be. Come on up. Yeah. Thank you. There you go. Perfect. So, we discussed at our last meeting that we do not recommend having in-person early voting for the local election due to the cost and the attendance, but we do have the vote by mail. We have already received several applications for that. That's the typical u recommendation that that we receive from you guys every year. So,

um, any questions or comments from the board on that? Okay. Uh, hearing none, we can take a motion. Make it a nice easy night for the registars. Uh, I move the board vote to not host early in person voting for the annual town election. Second. Okay. Seconded. Any discussion? Yeah, I have one one question. Remember there used to be a place to vote inside the clerk's office when you walked in on the right. Are you still going to that wouldn't have any cost? Are you going to have that set up? Yeah, you can still do absentee in person early voting in the clerk's office. Yes.

So at that include absentee and early voting. So there will be early voting but just in Well, it would be absentee. They can do the early different class. Sorry, I'm not registered. Go ahead. It's just a different classification. So you you'd come in you could come into the office and vote absentee prior to the election. Okay. And just come in and fill it out. All right. So, but there's not going to be the little voting. We don't have that set up there anymore. But you can still vote privately and we can Could you do that though? Could you set that up in the corner there? I mean, yes. Yes, we can. Yes.

I mean, I just, you know, it would obviously be during business hours. wouldn't be, you know, but I think for if we're not going to get, you know, open up a whole facility and having to staff it is is, you know, a big effort. I will set that up. Okay. Yes. All right. That would be great. So, I don't know if we need to change the motion, but I think having that and making people aware of it, I don't know how we do that, but um I'll leave that up to you. Okay. Thank you. There's not anything required to notify the state. You only opt in opt out. So, it's fine. Okay. So, how does that change the motion, I guess? Does it change it?

It doesn't really because this is that wouldn't be considered early in person. It'd be absentee. Well, it would be early in person because they would just go and they would they would do it right there or they would have to grab an absentee ballot and then go to the station and do it, right? Yes. Okay. All right. It's the same ballot, just a different application that you complete. So, so there's a whole application that you have to complete, just not voting. Well, can we do can we do the just the regular voting at that one station or you can, but you'd have to you got to check IDs and all that time. Well, you got to check people in, I should say.

Yes, we we would check them in on our state computers, not with the um pole pads. Can you guys handle doing that? Yes, we can. Okay. All right. Thank you. Actually, if I might, um, you know, to your point, I think that would be helpful because there's like this confusion between absentee and can I go in person, you know, it kind of people go back and forth. I'm not sure that everyone understands how that all works. So, if it almost is the same, right, you'd go in, it's in person, it's absentee, or you just vote, right? Right. Yeah. But you have the availability or ability to do it at your leisure up to a certain date. Yes. Yeah.

So, are we opening it up to early in person? No, it early in person is a completely separate application, but you can absentee vote in person and we will set up the station for you to vote there. Okay. Just making sure we're all on the same page. Any additional questions or feedback? Okay. One out there. Can I? Yeah, sure. Stacy Bennett, 14 Rose Lane. I just would love to have you clarify the difference because I'm confused now. So absentee ballots, absentee ballots are definitely separate than early voting. Yes.

And it was my understanding that you had to declare why you're voting as an absentee. You have to be out of state, correct? Not in the area during voting. you have to be a like it's called absentee because you have to either be not able to vote on election day, right? And so it's a separate application, but if you have a reason to not be there, then you can go ahead and vote absentee in advance in our office. So I think if we want to tell the residents of the town, we have to be clear in what we're what we're offering. So, are we offering absentee ballot voting or early voting? It's two separate things. Correct.

Okay. So, we would be offering absentee and they would have to qualify for that based on a form. Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure that we're not saying the wrong thing. Good call. Thank you. Y absentee is always an option. It's the early in person. You cannot just show up at the at the town clerk's office and ask to vote without having Want to make that clear. I've done absentee ballots before and I knew it was there's a distinction between the two. Yep. So, thank you for the clarification. Okay. I think we take a motion. I did. Oh, sorry. Um I hope I don't have to amend it because I I uh No, I don't think we need to do it any good. Um all those in favor?

I I Okay. Um thank you all for coming in tonight. We can cut three of you loose. Uh Amy, we got one more for you. Um we are discussing updating the special municipal employee list.

Yes. So that list had been I just um sent in the charter review committee that we did in February and somebody had asked me for a complete list of special municipal employees. So I reached out to the state to make sure that the files I had were up to date and they said that they have not received one from us. They had a beach supervisor in April of 21 and then the one that I just sent them. So I have all the stamped copies from years past. The date is listed on the document and I just put it together to send a fresh list to the state. Everyone of the committees listed on there have already been approved by prior select boards.

Great. Um any questions or feedback on the special municipal employee list? Okay, hearing none. We can take a motion. I move the board vote to approve and sign the updated special municipal employee list as presented. Second. Okay, motion and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I Okay, passes. Thank you for coming in tonight. Have a great night.

Um, just before Amy goes, just for a point of clarification, there could be a couple other positions that we discover along the way. Um, so just don't be surprised if we come back with a a couple others. They're not new. They're just found during the research of of what was done in past years. Thank you. Thank you for taking time to get all that updated, corrected.

Okay. Um, next up we have Mr. Lion to talk about his Eagle Scout project proposal. Uh hello everybody. My name is Liam Lion. I am currently 16 years old. I am a life scout in Troop 107 and today I'm coming here to propose the construction of a storybook trail uh behind the library. Uh next slide, please. Thank you. Uh, so this trail would consist of a set of 16 weatherproof wooden stands. It's positioned on entirely on town lot 89 on the trail recently built by Cassie Brown. Um, the attached podiums will have individual pages of children's books and it will serve as a benefit to the library while still being on town land. Next, thank you. So, a storybook trail is a set of posts that hold these pages of a book. So, all of the all of the posts are positioned in chronological order. So, children can walk around the trail and read this basically this entire children's story book uh while enjoying nature. Uh it helps kids get outside. It helps kids read in a more interesting way. And it's just a general benefit to like way like to help have something for kids to do. some benefits of the addition. It's going to bring it's going to act as an addition to the library's already extensive list of services as well as an addition to the trail. It's in a lot more of a convenient location. There's actually two other storybook trails in town. Uh one being on Williams Preserve in uh Bergam Hill, but um this one is in a lot more central location where children may be more inclined to go and

take full advantage of it. It also gives kids a opportunity to get outside, do something else if instead of just sitting inside seeing all screens all day. I have up here two books that I read when I was a kid. They're both about accepting yourself and they're really like deep connection with nature, so I think they would fit pretty well on that. Uh, as for the location, as I said before, it's going to be entirely on town lot 89. Each podium would be positioned approximately 145 ft apart from each other. There's going to be no significant modifications to the trail that are needed. So, nothing where I need to cut down any trees or make any significant clearings. Uh, the podiums would be placed in already cleared locations. So, nothing of that sort would need to be done. And they would be placed out of the small area of wetland that the trail intersects. So, up on the screen is kind of a rough estimate of where they could probably go. Uh, yeah. As for maintenance, the posts are designed for outdoor use and do not need any regularly scheduled maintenance. The only only exception being that they need to replace the book. So, that replacement can come in any pretty much any increment. Usually six months is what I think is standard. My hope is that the library can do this. If that is not a possibility, I'm I'm approaching the board of trustees next or this week actually to ask them about that. If that's not a possibility, then I can work something out on my own with my troop or somebody else, another figure to try and get that replaced. Um, and all you really need to do to change them is undo three wing nuts and then slide new pages of the book in. As for the budget, the project is funded entirely by me and or my friends and family raised off the donations. If the town, I don't know, had any extra money and wanted to make a donation.

Yeah. wanted to make a donation, maybe something in the recck department, that would be greatly appreciated, but not required at all. And the total cost of construction is around $1,200.

So, this is just a quick list of materials required. So, it's some 4x4s, plywood, polycarbonate, bunch of heart mounting hardware, wood sealer, and four and fence driving stakes. So, there doesn't actually need to be any drills into the ground. You just basically hammer them into the soil and they stay there. Uh, yeah. And so all this stuff is rated to last 15 plus years in the outdoors. So it there it's something that would be a pretty permanent fixture. Yeah. So my timeline for this project is to get this done or underway during the summer and with the hopes of having it finished by the start of the school year. Um once the necessary approvals are given by you guys and library board and my council for scouts, I will be able to be get it complete in under a month. Um and the majority of the work is going to just take place between July and J August if that's the case. So yeah, thank you. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or send me a text.

That was great. Yeah, I was jotting down questions the whole time and you just kept rattling off answers before uh we get to the end. So, uh, very well prepared. Uh, Mr. Elmo, you got, uh, I mean, first of all, the hair. I mean, look at that. Look at this guy. Great. Second of all, you said you're 16. I'm 16. Yeah. So, when you said when you were a kid, when I was when I was like a little kid, I do. Just so you know, like you're still Yeah, I do. Uh, this is great. Who Where did you come from? You are smart and articulate and bright and you're taking this on your yourself. You're going to do all this yourself. Yeah. So all the

at your own cost and you're going to do the work yourself. Maybe a friend or two might help you carry some of the stuff in. So the point of the ego project is to have the project get done on your own but lead other people in the process. So uh our I'm sure you know the grafting troop is is pretty large. And so my my goal with the project is to take on the responsibility of planning. So coming to these meetings and getting all the approvals and getting all the actual planning done. And then when it comes to actually building the posts and moving them out into the woods and driving them into the ground, it's my job to take charge of that and delegate other people to help me with that job. Of course, I'm going to do some of it myself. But yeah, so it's going to be it's going to be me and then my whole troop behind me as well helping with that.

Uh so Liam, just for the record, you had me at Hello. Is he yours? Did you invent him? He's really He's something else. This is This is the future right here. Great job. Congratulations. Thank you so much. You have my support. Thank you so much. Fantastic work. Wow. I wasn't doing that at 16. Go ahead. You're up. I can't follow that. Um No,

we're all going to say the same thing, but you did a you did a fabulous job represented yourself and your family and your troop um at a very really high level. So, congratulations on that. Um, I'm just sitting here the whole time thinking $1,200 is is a lot of money for a 16-year-old guy. So, I'm kind of looking over at Evan and figured maybe we could maybe, you know, cuz he's he's got he's got the checkbook. We don't have the checkbook, so we got to go through him, but maybe we could figure out something whether it's a some kind of a match or or something, you know, um to help with that because that's that's a huge effort, something the community is going to enjoy for years. And you know, I think we um other than allowing it on town property, I think it'd be great to to help help you on with the financial part. So,

thank you so much. Yeah. Well, you haven't got it yet, so not yet. No, we we can we'll figure something out. Yeah, Mr. Brousard's already been a big help with helping get this whole thing organized. Appreciate that. But yeah, just re we'll connect and and make something happen for sure. I think it's been taken care of. Oh, look at that's been over there.

Um, if I might, uh, so I'll just reiterate, uh, congratulations and really great job on your presentation. Um, I think it's a great project. I've been up at the other one at Brigham Hill countless times and it's just it's great for children of course and quite frankly, I've enjoyed it going up there with my dog and just kind of checking out the book. Um, one question that I have is just relative to the the the product the products that you're using and just to you said like 15 yearish. I know up there, Matt, you might know about this too in terms of there were some issues with it rotting out. Is that was that pressure treated? Do you know or not to put you on the spot? No. Um I'm fine. Talk to you about it.

And I was going to actually make a recommendation that you while you're putting them together, maybe make another five or so and just have them kind of ready to go for when maintenance is needed. Um the ones we did up on Brigham Hill were we had no budget at all and they were only supposed to be used once. Okay. So for like the library and so the budget total budget for all of that was like a hundred bucks. Okay. So never mind. Totally different. I just wanted to make sure because I knew that there were they had kind of failed and then there was a a whole process to try to um reinvent them or what have you. So that's great. Sounds like you've got the right products for this.

Yeah. I um I've actually I live right up near there. So I I went and visited those and mine my like construction and idea behind them is a lot more of a permanent solution. Those ones are going to be more these ones are going to be a little bit more of a permanent fixture. Great. And then I mean just for our so my son was in troop 107. He went through the whole ranks and became an Eagle Scout. I was very involved in the troop for a long time back then. So I commend you on getting to your life. Are you life right now? Yeah, I'm live right now. Um it it will serve you well, you know, for the rest of your life. And just so everyone knows, like part of this is the fundraising, right? Um figuring out how to work all that. So that's kind of part of the the deal with your eagle or this project. Is this your It's not your eagle project. This is my eagle project.

Yeah, your eagle project. Yeah. So it's kind of from soup to nuts is what you're supposed to be doing. So way to go. Thank you. Just quickly. Sure. Um Liam, great to see you before the board. Excellent presentation. Um I just wanted to say very impressive. It's nice to see you with an Eagle project at 16 and not at like 17 and 98, you know, that sort of thing. Did you hear my son?

Uh, it's really common that that uh yeah, scouts wait till sort of the last minute. So, really great that you're tackling this now um and being super uh proactive about the whole thing. So, uh have a blast doing it with the troop. Um it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. So, I can't wait to see it when it's done. and um thanks so much for doing that. I think it's going to be a real a great benefit for the kids that are up at the library. Thank you. Yeah, I'll echo that. And also, you know, thank you for coming and and presenting to us tonight and thank you for also going to the library trustees and and keeping them, you know, involved in the project as well. So, uh we can take a motion.

Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to authorize Liam Lion to place podiums to create a storybook trail at 6 Upton Street behind the Grafton Public Library as discussed this evening. Second motion seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I passes.

Congratulations. Okay. Um, so next up we have uh another national opioid uh settlement that we are going to vote to opt into. Um I don't want to step on Evan's toes with this, but uh the the way we're also handling it is we're going to authorize um both the town administrator and the finance director to execute any of these related documents and and acceptances in the future so that the select board doesn't have to vote on them every time.

Yep. So, uh that pretty much covers the whole thing. Um um we've done a number of these um settlement agreements. this is what we've used to fund our uh opioid recovery and outreach and all the things that our opioid committee does. Um so I I don't foresee a time in which we wouldn't want to opt into a settlement agreement and get money for the town of Grafton to then be used for public programming. Um, so in talking to council about this particular agreement, he had recommended that um, we put before the board just to authorize Mary and I to just enter into them um, so that we're proactively moving through the process um, and don't get left behind. And we've seen some some great work uh, in collaboration with Gap Recovery. And again, you know, just because we're we're talking about funds and and budgets recently, um I think it's worthwhile to note that that is that community um what' you call it? Sorry,

the what? Blanked on the word outreach. Outreach. Yeah. That that those funds are, you know, have to be uh used for for those purposes. They don't just go into the general budget or anything like that. They're they're specifically earmarked for that type of substance outreach. Correct. Any uh additional questions or statements from the board? Okay. Take a motion.

Mr. Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to approve the settlement of the town's claims against the six remnant defendants as part of the national opioid settlement and to authorize the town administrator and finance director to execute any related documents and accept any future opioid settlements settlement funds on behalf of the town. Second motion made and second it. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I do. Uh, next up we have execute the deed and all closing documents for 1727 Upton Street. I'll just let you take this one.

Uh, sure. So, as we move towards um closing, which is for the PNS by April 1st, um, we've been uh drafting all the documents that are going to be necessary for for that process to take place. Um so the first one is a quick clean quick claim deed. Um and you can see that under number five in um in the packet. Um it is a fairly straightforward quick claim deed. Um lays out the price and pretty much the same as as they all kind of look. Um I did none of this work. This is all done by town council in coordination with their attorney. So, this is an agreed upon document that has already passed legal review. Um, and we're just looking for the board to approve it. Um, so that we can move forward with closing on the property.

Great. Any questions from the board? I have two things. Um, just for what it's worth, I mean, it says consisting of market rate apartments with firstf flooror retail and absolute parking. Mhm. Is that just a carryover from the original? They don't care. Yeah, it shouldn't make an impact, right? Okay. Yeah, because yes, in the quick claim demo, I think they're just taking the original language that was in that first PNS. So, I guess do we care that it says something that is in fact not going to happen or or is it just giving them the option to do the retail? Um,

I can you can strike that and just do residential apartments. That shouldn't make a difference. I mean, that makes sense to me given Sure. all that happened through planning and whatnot relative to that particular issue. Sure. And then the rider A wasn't part of our packet, I don't think. Um, is that something exhibit A? The LDA it says rider A dated January 20th. Um, so, oh, that's the land disposition agreement. Mhm. You've already executed the latest position agreement. Okay. So, yeah, we can that's that's why it wasn't in the packet.

All right. Correct. And then lastly, the escrow agent that was something agreed upon by both attorneys and correct. Okay. Yep. So, it's not the seller's attorney and it's not our attorney. It's technically a disinterested third party and that person is going to There was some notation about interest. So, they're going to handle separating those. Correct. Gets back to us and we deal with all that. Okay. Yes. I think that's what I had. Anybody else?

I Before you uh move, I do want to note that there is some language in your motion that allows um me to execute other closing documents um with the uh consultation of town council. And that's just because you you're not going to do that in open session. There'll be things right at the last day that we signed to transfer the property. So you could you could just as easily authorize the chair or another member, but I'm the paid staff, so that's that's what we went with. So any objections? Okay.

Okay. Mr. Chair, I move the board vote I move the board acting pursuant to the authority granted by article 41 of June 5, 2021 annual town meeting and GL chapter general law chapter 40

general law chapter 40 section 3 vote to authorize the town administrator to execute, deliver, and record on behalf of the town of Grafton the quit claim deed conveying approximately 7.04 04 acres located at 17 and 27 Upton Street to Upton Property Owner LLC together with all related closing and conveyancing documents, certifications, and affidavits and to take any and all actions necessary or convenient to effectuate the conveyance with such non-s substantive changes to the form of the deed and closing documents as the town administrator may approve. Approve in consultation with town council.

Second. Okay. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. I motion passes. Better than me. Okay. Moving on to the next one. Um we signed the environmental holdback and escro agreement for 1727 as well. Yep. So, this is a uh unchanged document from what you previously approved. Um, however, it's now assigned to 1727 Upton Street LLC, which is something that we had previously previously done on other documents. And we're changing that to

We're not changing that at all. No. Nope. Okay. Everything else is the same. We're just assigning. We're just changing the sign. Okay. Well, let me let me be clear. There may be some non-substantive changes that the attorney move pageionation or something like that, but there's nothing substantive that changes the intent of the document. Anyway, any questions or feedback from the board? Okay. Take a motion.

Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to approve and authorize the assignment and assumption of the environmental holdback and escrow agreement dated January 20, 2026 by and among the town of Grafton, 1727 Upton Street LLC and the escrow agent as assigned to and assumed by the Upton Property Owner LLC pursuant to an assignment and assumption dated March 24, 2026 and authorized the town administrator to execute the assignment and any related acknowledgements, consents, notices, and instruments, and to take any and all actions necessary or convenient to carry out the intent of this vote with non- such substantive changes as to the town administrator may approve in consultation with the town council.

Second. Again, good job, Mr. Al. Thank you. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor? I opposed.

I Okay. Uh, up next, choosing a representative from the select board for the outstanding citizen award uh, committee. I'm going to I'm going to throw it out there. uh as this was something that Miss Foley presented. I feel like it it's appropriate uh to nominate her for this position if uh if she's willing. I agree with that. I'll third that if she's willing. Motion to appoint Amarie. She's willing. Second.

Okay. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I I I Okay. Um sorry uh I guess logistically who did we assign somebody to organize that group? Is that something that's how moderator is going to assemble the candidates or um that something that we should take the lead on or Miss Folio is the select board rep? We we've been receiving the candidates uh into our office. So we I I would just assume that we would compile all of that. Um and then we would just need to convene a meeting and Well, you're on it, right? I am on it. Yeah.

So that that's why we just had it come to our office because we can goate all of that. Okay. So I don't have to you don't No, we have a we have a form on the website. It just comes right. Sure. No, I understand. But like in terms of convening the U committee and that something that might take care of. We can push that out. Yes, absolutely. Great. I can have Amber um coordinate schedules and all that stuff or maybe says town administrator or designate. Maybe we'll just designate it to AMP. There you go. I'm just kidding. I do want to take part in it, but I don't want to schedule it.

Okay. Um so the town administrator's office will handle uh preparation for that. Um next up, discuss town administrator participation in school labor contract negotiations. you want me to kick it off? Yeah. So, that's something that that

we've talked about, you know, during the budget discussions and something that I brought up. So, I I think it only makes common sense and and logic and and um I think it would be a good good policy moving forward to have to have Evan um or a design, somebody from the financial team um at the table during during the discussions and and know maybe a meeting prior to that to come up with a with a strategy and what kind of the thoughts on you know where the negotiations may go and have Evan there. he's he's the one that, you know, knows the numbers the best for the whole town. Um, so I think he should be there, you know, in an advisory role to help to help the committee. Um, all my years of doing this, we always had our we had not only council, but we'd always have our controller at the table because he would be like, you know, if you do this, this is what it means. So, I I think that's a valuable tool for the school committee to have

and a responsible one, too. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, Mr. chair if there's no other discussion. Um, so I did speak to to uh Superintendent Dr. Cummings. Um, and he had already had a conversation with the school committee and so that this will be the direction that we we head uh for the next round of of negotiations. So I will be a part of that negotiating team. Um, and I had suggested when I had had a conversation with Craig about this that perhaps putting this in front of the board sets the board's expectations. uh whether it's me or whoever else. It's the town administrator, not necessarily

uh me personally. So, um we've already initiated that and had that conversation. Yeah. But good just to add to that quickly, I I mean I think it would be great for, you know, for the school committee to come in under executive session before, you know, because it's going to be happening before we know it, right? Time goes by fast. So, um, but before they they start the process to come in and have an executive session with us and just, you know, just kind of kick it around. It's their, you know, they have a con once they get in the room, but I think to to sit with us and just um, you know, have that conversation, I think would be beneficial to everybody. So, I guess maybe that's a different,

you know, other than having you at the table, it's it's a different thing, but I I think it would be great to have that um us in a room together.

Would we envision Evan coming back to future executive sessions with updates on the negotiations periodically or um is it just kind of give him a briefing and and out he goes? In the past, when it's a select board, when it's a contract, the select board is negotiating or participating in um you know, whoever whichever members are selected, we usually meet in executive session, give them a set of parameters that we're comfortable with. If they're not able to come to an agreement within those parameters, they come back and we expand the discussion. Is that a similar approach to what we're thinking here, or is it just more like a a initial check-in and then

Well, and I think I mean I think that's even better. Yeah, if if if based on the original plan, if you know there are changes that are happening during the negotiations, I think it's um it's always good to go back. It it gives the school committee I feel like some support and it gives us, you know, a voice in the process and and Evan, you know, with his knowledge and expertise with the numbers, I just, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense all around because it's, you know, it's a big part big part of the financial, you know, operational budget. So, um I think that would be great.

Um just for a point of clarity, um I I agree with that. Um so I I think it makes perfect sense that you have some kind of joint meeting. You talk about what's available for revenue and then send everybody off and I can come back and and brief the board in executive session as to what's happening at the negotiating table. Um just to make sure everybody watching understands the process. So once you know that's the school committee's domain to negotiate and what happens when the town administrator sits in on that is I essentially become one voting member of the school committee which is kind of an interesting dynamic. Um but so I think that you know the board and the school committee sending you know their team out with a general direction is going to be great. Um, I think that after that general direction, it becomes more of a a task for the school committee to execute with with me there and me being one vote. So, I just wanted to manage those expectations, but and also explain to people that aren't familiar with it how that works.

If I might, um, you know, for me, I don't need to micromanage this. Again, that's what it felt feels like the way we've been doing it. Um, so if we had a a joint session instead of doing it kind of after the fact is what we've done the last, you know, certainly this year. So we meet with school committee and executive session, have a general discussion. We then talk to Evan and then he's part of the process, then that's good enough for me. I guess, you know, if there was some reason that we needed to have an update, but I don't need to to be all a part of that. That's just this board members perspective. And and we can also I I don't I don't you I don't think you have to have that set in stone at this right this this juncture. We can feel that out as as we go because it may be a process that doesn't require that and it may be a process that

does and I don't think until you get in the room you're going to know which process you're a part of. Sure. Great. Mr. Chair just you do have one hand on June. Sure. We can take that. Miss Bar, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you.

Great. Um, Amy Maher, 36 F Street, former member of the school committee, not speaking for anybody but myself. I just had a question about what Evan said just now about becoming a voting member of the school committee because the way that it's happened in the past is only two members of the school committee go into the negotiations with the district attorney. The superintendent isn't even in the room. So if the reason we do that is to make sure we don't have a quorum of school committee members, how does Evan then have a vote? I I I I this is very confusing and it's not at all what I'm familiar with in terms of what's written in state law and I would very much encourage you all to reach out to both school council and town council to clarify that because I don't think the process that maybe you guys use for your negotiations is the same as how the school district does it. Again, Jay isn't even in the room. So now we're gonna have two two school committee members, the school attorney and Evan in the room at the table, just so you're aware. Thank you. So I I did have a conversation with council about this. Um we did not talk to be very clear about what that looks like in the room. Um so I'm happy to have a follow-up conversation.

Yeah, seems reasonable. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. And there's we don't have to take any immediate action on this tonight. So we have time chair. Y.

Yeah. Just quickly um so I support um the board um providing some direction looking at um where we're at as far as levy capacity and um where we're at in the budget cycle and all that kind of stuff. Um that that makes sense to me. That's always been available to the board. Um, so that's not really anything new. That's something that the board could have been doing all along. Um, and I support that. Um, but beyond the sort of initial discussions and expectation setting, um, conveyed to the school committee, um, I don't really think they need our help. Um, so I just needed to sort of say that out loud. Um, I think they've done a very good job negotiating contracts. Um but it does make sense to me that we would um express uh just from a budgetary standpoint um that you know the thoughts of the board. That's all. Any additional feedback? Okay, we will um check back on this one uh in the future when we have some answers, additional answers, let's say. Um, next up, FI27 budget updates.

Um, so I just have one slide in that presentation and actually want to just share that screen too. Yep. Yeah. So, we'll start with the override calculator. That is part of the update. So, Will was uh I'm going to say clever enough. Don't let it go to your head. Never would. Um to put this together. Um and so this is our override calculator. What happens is uh why don't you put in an address like 31 lesson? Yeah, that works. Um

no. Okay. And then the the it automatically populates. You you just say it will you put the whole thing together. I don't know why I'm involved in this.

So what this does is it pulls the assessed value for every parcel in town from a database and in the background what it does is using the FY26 assessed value runs three different calculations based on the estimated increase to the per $1,000 tax rate. So the first number that it spits out is the estimated tax impact for FY27 utilizing $1.167 million of the anticipated override capacity. The second line is the average tax impact for the remainder of the override capacity. So essentially using a million dollars a year. And the third number is the cumulative tax impact. So if we assessed all additional $5 million in capacity in one year, what would the impact of that be? So the goal is to give the residents who use it a full understanding of how the money may be portioned out and how it would impact their yearly tax bill.

Can I scroll down and show them one other thing? You do whatever you want. I wasn't even paying attention. Love that. I can't and I can't read those numbers on I've already seen I've already seen this like I don't know what that says. Yeah, there you go. All right. So, the first year is 1.167. Okay. And it's going to cost me an additional 13419 a year. And what what is what do we anticipate the average like the increase before the override addition is going to be? Well, that's not in here. So, this is just the override. I understand that's just the override. Um, is it basically double that plus the override? Like if it was

No, I No. Um, that's going to be a separate Yeah, that's a separate conversation. So, I'm putting I'm putting together a chart that shows you what the regular two and a half is plus the $5 million override. Okay. So, u, but that's not this won't spit that out. Okay. So, that's just the override. Yes, that's that's all that this this particular document does. And I had a question. So, first of all, great job, Will, because Yeah, good job, Will.

Um, in going to a number of of symposiums with other people serving in these positions, uh, there towns that paid to have this done. So, yay, you. Um, but I just wanted So, I already did this um at home and so I found it a little bit confusing, I guess. So, just trying to figure out like how to word it maybe um, a little better because again, I wasn't I get it. I get the first line. Okay. My first year is going to be 134. And then average per year. Yeah. Is that like average annual tax impact? Yeah. So maybe just indicating that for the next per year from FY28 to 31, it's going to be 113.54* 4, let's say. Right.

And then the cumulative is come year five. Um, if I tally up the 134 plus 113* 4, is that where you get there? Correct. Okay. We Sorry. Yeah. So, okay. So, just I think that would be handy on the second line, just a per year thing. Yep. Um,

and then I guess I'm trying to figure out like the cumulative. So, folks, I super interested on the year toyear. Um, so I guess yeah, that's fine. I guess the the third line I just maybe another just another way to to to start it off like over five years your your net increase will be 572. the total five-year increase will be something like that. Okay. Um that's but that's on the value of 516 and that's the average for Well, you're going to put in your own value. So, no, but I'm saying but yes, that's what it comes out with with that's the average home. Uh that's a little under the average home. We just because we're what's Can you put the average home in

like it's 625 or 630 because it's all based on your address. So, it'll take your actual appraised value. So, I pumped in I put my be like five something. No, it was I can't remember the actual address, but the average home value I think is 633 from DLS. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yep. Will did also spend some time finding the house in Grafton that is the average. Oh, nice. I love that. Good job, Will. We were That sounds like a lot of fun. So, if I can scroll down off the calculator for a second because that kind of ties into the averages a little bit more. Not sure. the the daily numbers.

Yeah. Well, just before you move, I just wanted to point out so what we saw in many other communities is they their tax impact calculator spits out one number which is the full full amount at the end. And what what I think is really cool that Will did here is break it out so that you can plan of how that's going to impact you year-over-year and also not hide the end number because we see that too, right? they only give you the it's going to be $164 a year and then you have to math it out. So, I thought this was a really transparent way to to do it. I think just for me just those two like just a couple of words in those second lines make it clear.

I I also think that we struggled a little bit having worked on it together uh just like if I'm not part of this, what does this mean to me? So, that's great feedback. Yeah, we did talk about the wording for like two whole days. Sorry. Well, we did we did other things. I'll tell people that's all we did for us. So, on the cumulative one though, um I actually think it's important somehow to maintain the 5 million because it may be five years or it may be six years, it may be four years. Like the 5 million is the levy capacity, correct? Yep. Which is related probably to five years, but we don't know. Yep. So, just to sort of be accurate, um

Okay. I wouldn't necessarily say five years or maybe in parentheses that it's estimated to be over five years or something like that. Okay. But it's for the five million. Yeah. You know, that's that's a fair point to make it so that's it. Can Okay. You want to show this? Yep. And then Craig, to your point, there it is. It says at the bottom there, this does not include the the two and a half% that you would normally Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

So, we then have some general information about the process questions that we think we might get. And one thing I do want to stress is that this page is going to be a living page on the website as more things come out or if we get asked the same question 10 times, we're going to add the answer there. So, we'll keep that fresh with information based on what we think is relevant.

Great. So, one thing that I saw another community do that I thought was pretty cool was taking the average impacts that DLS will spit out and then breaking them down. So, using just sort of the round average values that you get, taking the estimated tax bill impact, breaking that down by quarter, by month, and by what the daily increase would be relative to your general assessed value. So similar to the three lines that we have on the calculator, we have three charts on the page talking about that impact. So the year one with the 1.167, the year or the average impact if you did a million dollars a year and then the cumulative $5 million impact.

So is that the average 663? Is that what that says? 663. All right. So that's the average number. Yeah. Not 633. Okay. I knew there was a six and a three in there. There was a six and some three. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. So this is the year one chart. This is the average if you used a million dollars a year and then the cumulative year five if you assessed all of it in one go. Again all based on FY26 assessed values. Great. Yeah. Any other questions? Do you have any?

That that was just part one of the budget update. Okay. There's not a ton left, but

um it just well well brings up this stuff. Uh and we're going to promote that on the front page of the website as well. It is on the front page and it was posted to social media yesterday. Great. Um, so we have other override materials. Will just showed you some of them, but we we're working on some kind of like u infographics. So those will be live this week. Um we have developed a new pay as you throw page on the website that talks about um it's essentially why why things are changing and what those changes look like and and kind of all the things we've talked about here in this room.

Um so right now it's on it it's it's buried right now. So we're going to pull it out to the front. This was our test one, but it's on. If you wanted to see it now, you'd be on the DPW page and then click on the the plus next to page you throw and then it's it's in there. Okay.

Um, but we're that was that was the area that we chose to create it so it lives there, but we're going to link it back out of there so that people can find it easier. Um, so we did put together uh all of that and then we have some printed materials that are also going to be available based on that same information that we put out there. Um, a lot of it is, uh, the same material that we, um, used for municipal solid waste committee. Um, just kind of boiled down and and put into a way that if you're not intricately familiar with pay as you throw trash collection, you can understand what we're great

what we're looking at. So, um, yeah, so we've got that up. The only other uh major change since um we last met which was I think with Fincom is we got our assessment from BVT um so that increase um is 1.93% and if you recall we were uh holding a placeholder at 10%. Um because there's historically been some variability with with BVT. Um so that is good news. what is uh not so good news financially. I think good news in general for kids in Grafton and kids that want to go to BVT. So I'm I'm not saying anything about BVT other than um our budget is going to increase over the next five years relative to BVT. Um so the the state um changed the way that seats in uh technical schools need to be allocated. Um, and now they're all based on a lottery. And so what that does is if you are in a district like we are with, uh, Blackstone Valley Tech, um, the original agreement that created the district doesn't have what's called aortionment. And so essentially, um, you you know, the amount of kids that you have seats for fluctuates over time, you know, as there's different demands and everything. But when you go into a lottery, that can become very problematic because you'll see wild swings in the amount of seats that are available. Um, which makes it very difficult to budget. Um, and it makes it difficult if you're a um, student or family in Grafton and looking to be able to go to Blackstone Valley. Um, so what that means for Grafton, um, is that over the next five years, the total number of seats we have will pretty

close to double. Um, because as is my luck as a town administrator, we're the town that's most out of whack as far as the number of students that we potentially have in town and the number of seats we have in the district. Um so what that means is that even though BVT came in um lower than we estimated um it's our approach to the budget that we're going to leave that um we're going to we're going to leave that uh capacity that we've gained by having a number better than we projected in place um as we move into this fiscal year. So override or no override, we're going to see an increase next year of probably at minimum a4 million and probably a4 million dollars every it will decrease over time because it's it's a delta. It's a whole it's a whole thing. But um we're we're going to need probably a million dollars more than we have today going towards BVT by the time you get to the end. Um, so that's why we're going to recommend we don't touch any of that capacity even though we could add a position back in. Um, or you know, make some small change. Um, we're going to leave everything status quo. Um, the override obviously if it passes then we have the contingent budget and we fill in those holes. If it doesn't pass, we're going to really want that capacity to be present for fiscal 28. So that's all to say and we will be working on this in the coming weeks. Um it's going to make it interesting to show the contingent budget versus the regular budget because those numbers

will no longer line up because we are going to have capacity that stays on the books. Um and so I don't know what that looks like yet. We are working our way through that. Um, and so I'll bring that back to the board, you know, ahead of town meeting. We'll have all of those conversations, but it is going to throw a little bit of a wrench into all the work that we've done up to this point. Um, but I think I think that we would be remiss if we spent down the capacity we gained by having a 1.93 in fiscal 27. I think we'd be really sorry we did that when we hit fiscal 28. Regardless, override, no override, I still think you're going to want that capacity.

So, I have a question. Um, what is the number between the 1.98 and the 10%. That is an excellent question and I don't have that in front of me. Uh, I I will do that. Uh, probably right now. Okay. Let me Yeah, we can move on to other things and I'll I'll come back. Well, I I I don't know that I I don't know where I put that, but I we have it can be later. Okay. Just curious.

I believe it was also discussed at the uh VidCom reviews um the idea of can we reject those seats and and maintain the number that we currently have? Is that an option for us to do? Um that is not my understanding of how that process works and I don't I don't recall that part of the conversation. Um because this is coming from where? The school committee at BBT. So yeah, we have a we have a vote. Right. Right. Um

so I don't believe it's my understanding that no, you can't do that. I think the school committee votes to aortion. They create a metric by which to aortion and then you move forward. Um, and we're locked into that because our district agreement says we'll go along with what the school committee votes. Town meaning could always vote to not approve the budget, but if the other 12 communities vote to approve the budget, it doesn't matter anyways.

Um, so in our meetings with uh Mr. Steel, the superintendent of Blackstone um Valley. We've he has been very uh I think transparent in discussing that he understands that this is a financial burden, but it's a better option than just a straight lottery for sure. um but that you know there's there's ways that we can discuss getting to that end goal in a way that's more manageable for the town of Grafton. So he did talk about if you've got any ideas of how to, you know, switch a portionment. We have communities that are going to be losing seats that maybe upset that they're losing seats and so they may, you know, maybe they hold that seat for an extra fiscal year and Grafton picks that up a year later. There's different ways that that uh we can we can try to do this but it is it is coming.

Yeah. Can I ask a question maybe? So um so when you say seat so because of this new system we're going to have there's going to be more kids from Grafton that are eligible to go there. Correct. Okay. And the cost of going there is a lot higher per student. Per student. All right. Is it true that we pay like every town doesn't pay the same per student number? Because I remember years ago like some of some of the towns were paying less and we were paying more. I don't saying we were paying the most but I think there's some calculation whether it's based on demographics or whatever it is

that our per student cost was more than some of the other towns. That that's my understanding as well is that based on the formula, we may pay more than a town that's uh or less than a than a different

right. So if we're picking up seats and we're paying more, I think there needs to be discussion about, you know, that's going to be more revenue for BBT potentially. So maybe there's this discussion to be had where they're changing the seed system that maybe they need to change the rate too. and and so I I don't have a problem having I will certainly have that conversation with um Superintendent Steel. My my recollection is that that's based on the state law, not our our agreement with Blackstone Valley. Okay. Maybe true, but they they just changed this. So, you know, they've created another problem. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. So maybe, you know, I would just, you know, just talk to him about it, I guess. Yeah. I I can I I can certainly um have that conversation. Yeah. And along those lines, I was meeting for a while with a group um headed by a select board member from Hopedale who was speaking to exactly that. And I do have the numbers at home relative to the disparity within communities. And that particular community was maybe most impacted. And you know, he's talking to about them versus another community. So, it is a weird way that they do it and it I don't think that it's from the state. I could be wrong. Okay.

But the gist of it, I can reach out to that gentleman. um he basically kind of backed down with the new superintendent coming in hoping that you know things would be um looked at in terms of the disparity but it might be worth at least so that we even understand it better like you get an understanding and then bring it back to I'll I'll definitely speak to um the superintendent and is Anthony Yitz is he still our our rep over there so have you had any conversations with him? Yeah, he he he comes to every FinCom presentation and all that stuff, but that's it. So, he might have some insight into this cuz he's been there forever.

Yes. Correct. Yeah. So, uh and the new superintendent's been there for a long time. I think he said 19 years or he was the assistant. So, um and he and like I said, he's he's been very transparent and upfront with us. So, right. Um, yeah, I confess I don't know every detail about the I mean, on another note, I'm glad so because I know, you know, only one out of three, I think, gets in historically. So, it's it's great for Grafton students that more of them are going to have the potential to to go there. Yeah. Yeah. So, I love that part, you know. Yes. That that's what I was trying to convey at the beginning. It's

nothing to do with BBT and I think it's a great opportunity for kids in graph that want to go there%. I I think that, you know, as the town administrator that has to figure out how we fund it, that that's the challenge. Well, if they've done that calculation with this new structure, you know, Yep. they might not just be telling you what that number is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we Well, I will I will certainly have that conversation. Yeah.

And while you're having that conversation, if you can um I know that uh Yeah, this is great educationally for for grafting kids for sure. Um, but if you can find a way to provide a little bit of a ramp that you talked about, but trading seats with other towns, you know, because there's going to be some towns that are going to be really unhappy because they're going to have far fewer seats. So, yeah, if we can figure out how to horse trade a little bit and have our uh increases be uh ramped better than just all of a sudden uh having the seat count double. Um, that would be that would be great.

Yeah, maybe we get to sell them. Well, it it's it's actually pretty wild if you spend any time learning about the lottery. So, each kid is um is able to get three tickets. And one of the tickets is uh you get the third ticket if you have no felonies. You have you get a second ticket if you haven't missed more than I think it's like 10% of the school year. But it seems like they're pretty low bars to barriers to entry. Um, which is good because, you know, the more tickets you have, the more chance you get of being drawn out of the lottery. But it really I know it's called a lottery and I know how what a lottery is, but it really I didn't think it was going to be as much of a lottery.

It like literally is well, it's Powerball, so I'm going to get three tickets and triple my chances. Um, it's kind of it was kind of interesting. I've never um dealt with that in the past. So, and now I'll be in the paper saying that I think that BBT is like Powerball. Yeah. Well, I think that's also good just educationally too um for Grafton public schools as well because the sort of effect over time that it happened was BBT was more and more selective. Yep.

With the types of students that they were accepting. Um, and this really makes it so much more um, just fair in terms of all the kids that feel like they have a need to go to a trade school can have be on equal footing with other students. Um, and it's less dependent on what BBT's preference is, and it's more based on, you know, the sort of community of parents and their kids in Grafton that are interested in going and um,

so they should end up with a more diverse student population as well, I would imagine, having it be a lottery system. So, yeah, I think it's good. Any other comments, questions on u the BBT increase or any of the budget materials that were just presented can move on to scheduling um budget slash uh override outreach meetings. Um this was something that uh you know we had floated I'll say uh you know the the need for um if we were going to get an override option on the ballot. Um so I figured it'd be good to um talk through what we felt were good options. um you know maybe outline the amount of meetings we'd we'd like to have. Uh if we could select days that'd be great. Um but you know at least narrow in a little bit um you know because we are again getting getting later in the process so we have um you know we'll evolve April. Uh but that's that's about it. So, um, you know, I'd like to see us do, uh, a Saturday session. Um, you know, probably a a Saturday morning or, um, even, uh, two different Saturdays, you know, a morning session one week and an afternoon session a different time. Um, just again throwing out some ideas so we can um, you know, I think I think it's in our best interest to

try and and vary the times and days so that we make them as accessible for a wide group of people as we can and and catch as many as many residents as we can. So, um, what's the the board's thought on that? I mean, I think a Saturday makes sense. Um, I guess I was thinking, you know, two outreach sessions would be would be good. We just we don't have that much time. So, uh, and maybe one on a Saturday and one on a weekday kind of thing because we have, uh, you know, kids that travel for different sports teams and that's on the weekends. So,

um, to just try to as wide a net as possible. Um, I think that would be good. Anybody else have any opinions or um potential scheduling conflicts that we should discuss? Would would a Saturday uh Saturday morning outreach session work work for everybody? depends on the dates.

Yeah, everybody knows my schedule isn't is pretty unreliable now. So, schedule whatever you can. I'll go to whatever I can. I'll also try to talk to people in between things. Okay. So, do we need the full board? I guess I'll ask is the school committee going to be part of it, too? Yeah, I would because they're going to have to explain, you know, there probably will be a lot of questions about the school budget. So I totally I assume you need to coordinate with them so they're there.

Yeah, we can we can we can do that. Um you know we can have it's really um for us to shape I guess at this point it it could be uh fin as well. Um yeah open to those things. Um, if we were trying to schedule a week night, would we want to do it um on a Tuesday uh just because we generally meet at that time or would we like to pick a different night? What are people's thoughts are on that?

Uh, for me, I'm pretty booked during the week. I guess Tuesdays, you know, could be open again depending on on the dates you're looking at. We're currently scheduled for in April um for the 7th and the 21st. Um the 7th is a pretty full agenda. We we really don't have much for the 21st at this point.

Um I'm going to recommend just for scheduling purposes, maybe we think about TA the superintendent and the chairs and just kind of leave it at that might be one way to kind of narrow down the the amount just logistically. I think it's going to be really difficult. We're going to try to get the two bodies together given the time frame and everybody's springs busy and then other board members could attend as they were able. Sure. Yep. But that would be kind of the core group and you guys just move forward with scheduling it and other board members will yeah attend as as they have availability.

So that would allow you guys to move a little bit more quickly to get things scheduled so we can advertise and that sort of stuff and um because otherwise yeah I think it's just going to be way too difficult. No, it makes sense. I mean as long as as long as that the board is comfortable with that. Um, and then as you stated, if if uh you know, I can work with the other three chairs or the other two chairs, excuse me, figure out what um you know, what will be convenient uh get that out to all three boards and committees and then um if enough people plan to attend, we can plan to post a meeting. Um you know, so we're not having a quorum issue. Yeah.

Just for transparency sake, I can only do the 11th if you're looking at a Saturday. Okay. Otherwise, I'm booked every Saturday in April. That's pretty much me, too. Okay. Is the school committee planning any outreach um on their end, or is it just here? Well, again, like Matt said, maybe it's, you know, chair from there, Jay, someone from here, maybe not even the chair, whatever, a representative from here, there, and both Jay and and Evan, and then as many of us that can attend given that

I haven't had an official conversation with either chair yet. Um my gut was that they were going to wait to see what we discussed tonight and then come up with a plan um you know as to whether they were going to do individual outreach or not. But um you know we definitely I have I have enough to work with now. We can yeah we can get going on that and uh just keep the board in the loop.

Okay. So Evan, something that I think is uh important um is for residents to understand the impact of uh no override. So you did a good job with various levels of of override, but I don't think we did sort of the played out five years of no override. Um and I think that's an important one. So that yeah, just for for transparency on what we would expect the service impacts of a no override vote. Yeah. And now that you have it's no or five million, I can tailor the projections to both of those, right? Makes it

and I would just interject that if it's a no on the override um at town meeting this year, that's not to say that there isn't something in the next four years that happens. So, just to be wary of we're not going to go with this whole fiveyear doomsday. If it doesn't pass, we've got to get through FY27. Yeah. How does that look? And you can still do protections. I understand. Yeah. Okay. Great. Excuse me. Uh, select board reports.

You have any um I'll go. We just we had our EDC meeting last week. So, we're trying to pull together a uh a late spring, early summer event and we're talking about venues and um um topics and so um and then you know how we get better attendance at those whether it's involving the the Blackstone Valley Chamber um we talked about having an event on the common kind of a taste of Grafton thing where uh restaurants could come and and you have have some food, their signature dishes and and you know invite the town and have people pay to come in and way to you know generate revenue for um for restaurants and also to uh um make people aware of what these folks are are doing there that may not go into these places. Um and you know that always um you know we're there to help businesses. So, we're we're trying to nail down a venue. We're trying to keep it to uh the spring event, trying to keep it we the restaurant thing would probably be in the fall, you know what I mean? Was like a little October fest. So, um but the spring would we're trying to hold it at a local local business like a restaurant so that they you know public comes in and um

so we're we're working through those details. I have um open space and wreck. We met last year, last year, last week or the week before. Um we had a super short agenda. Um it wasn't videoed unfortunately, but it will the minutes will be forthcoming. Um, we talked about adding a trail committee member to our committee to the open space and work committee and that was brought to the chair by the trail committee trails committee and so generally we were all in agreement that that would be a sounded like a really good fit. And the other thing that we spoke about was just that we might look at or we're planning to look at the document um the action plan I guess uh over the next the course of our next couple of meetings just to make sure that the items are still relevant and worded correctly and so on and so forth. So that's about it. Anybody else? All right. T report. Okay. Uh so the first slide is just RECCC. There's nothing really new to report there. We continue to make uh invisible progress. I'll say uh we haven't started construction yet or anything like that, but we have done a ton with technology and planning and uh the permitting process and all of those things. So, um it's definitely one of those projects that's going to be kind projects that's going to be kind of no of no news and then everything kind of news and then everything kind of starts starts at the same time. Um at the same time. Um the the only thing to note on there is the the only thing to note on there is that we have had quite a bit of that we have had quite a bit of conversation around um public conversation around um public infrastructure in Grafton. So, towers infrastructure in Grafton. So, towers radio radio um Grafton has pretty much out of the um Grafton has pretty much out of the three towns uh the worst radio coverage. three towns uh the worst radio coverage. So, um it's definitely one of those

Um, and so we're, uh, working our way through the studies that go along with that or lining that stuff up. Um, and, uh, then kind of working through the the plan of how we're going to replace towers or add towers or whatever needs to happen to to to get that to work. Um, that would all be through the That's all through the Y. Yep. So, we're we're pretty excited about that because that could translate into, you know, at minimum a $5 million savings for the town of Grafton that they don't have to pay. Yeah. That the state will pick up. Um, plus all the other benefits of going to a digital system and and all the rest of it. So,

good. Um, George Hill Road bid opening is Thursday, so fingers crossed everything comes in where we want it to be. Um other updates just general. So we we do have a number of openings. I'm going to try to keep this updated as kind of a thing to discuss when we're here. Um so we have the director of planning um position open. We're we're fearful that that is going to be a very hard position to fill. Um there are a number of planners uh open on MMA and have been for quite some time. And uh we have how many candidates qualified candidates? one. Okay.

Why is that? Um, one, nobody's a planner. Um, and two, I would think probably there are more lucrative opportunities uh currently available private sector kind of private sector those guys in. Yep. So, yeah, but hopefully we'll we'll have a good follow- on act Fiona because she was she was great. So, what would the operational plan be if we had an extended absence?

Um, chaos. No, just kidding. Um, no, we do have we have a contingency plan. So, we are looking for some additional short-term administrative support. So, we have had some conversations with that and reached out to some candidates there. Um, Natalya is the assistant. She will be acting in the capacity of as the director. Um but it's one person down from three, right? So um we also have a relationship with a consultant that we can rely on. Um and so we did have some outreach with that person to try to figure out where we would need them. We we you know we will uh limp along as we can with doing the things that can't wait. Mhm.

Um but if we have anything that comes up that's really uh you know a large development, a really complex um uh proposal, um we can rely more on the um consultant to kind of just spearhead that one project. Got it. Okay. That's what we're looking at. Thanks.

Um obviously we have that planning conservation admin position open. um that will remain open until we see what happens uh at town meeting and the ballot. Um however, us having the funds for that position that we're not filling, that's what we're going to use to try to get some part-time or some temporary administrative work in there. So, we won't need any additional funding to do that. Um then we have a custodian position that's been open for a couple of months. Yeah. Um and so we're we're interviewing another batch of candidates uh in that case. Um and then just on another note, uh so we're going to get back into construction season here. Um 95 North Street, we're starting some um final construction next week. Um so they went into winter conditions, hit pause, and now they'll be coming back to to um mostly do signage and benches and things that are off the main trail there. But it's uh it's coming along. It it's I think it's going to be a beautiful park. I think really happy with it. um just the budget slide.

Yep. So, while we're on the budget slide, the change uh from BBT was about a net positive to the budget of $130,000. Okay. Thanks. Yep. The end. That's it. All right. Thank you. Uh any correspondence anybody wish to discuss? I can take a motion on meeting minutes. Mr. Chair, I move the board vote to approve the meeting minutes for April 15th, May 27th, and July 15th of 2025 as written. Second. Okay. Seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I I Okay. Uh can take a motion to adjurnn.

So move. Second. Seconded. All those in favor? Okay.