Select Board - Regular Meeting

I will open the evening session and start with the sermons of allegiance.

I swear allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic that it represents, a nation united under the authority of God, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all.

I would like to start by wishing a happy birthday to Bill Rubideau in the stand. His birthday was last Saturday. The community meeting of Amazon with the Prime Air awareness session will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 23, at the Double Tree by Hilton Boston in Westboro, in the Viking room, at 5400 Computer Drive. One of the MK30 drones will explode. The presentation will start at 6 p.m., followed by a live Q&A session. It is recommended to register in advance. Join the affordable housing trust for an inauguration ceremony this Thursday 24 September at 11h30 at Griffin at Grafton Common at Grafton Common. This residential lot is under construction in the former facilities of the Grafton highway service at 27 Upton Street. A vaccination clinic will take place here at the municipal center in the gymnasium this Friday 25 September from 9h to 13h. People who have an appointment are welcome for the vaccines against the flu. A pre-registration is required for the vaccines against the VRS, pneumonia, zona and tetanus. Visit grafton-tirema.gov for more information. We don't have a public audience tonight. Is anyone here to make a comment? Let's move on to something else. We don't have an appointment, nor from the Board of Directors, nor from the Administrator of the Agency. Let's go straight to the news. We have a beer and wine license. One day for the Penny Pinscher Brewery at 30 Grafton Common.

Come in. Oh, good evening. Hi. I am Sue Hall from the Congregationalist Church of Grafton and... Je ne sais pas trop quelles sont vos questions. Je sais que vous connaissez notre foi. C'est la 47e année et nous essayons de la renforcer cette année et de susciter un peu d'enthousiasme en ajoutant des choses à l'habituel. En ce moment, la communauté est généralement impliquée. Nous avons des scouts, des membres de la National Honor Society qui se portent volontaires et nous aident dans toutes sortes d'activités. Operation Friendship se joint à nous. Nous empruntons des choses à Baptiste et St. James. And we decided that we wanted to get another involvement from a local brewery and a local group to strengthen the enthusiasm. And one of the companies in the city, Sip & Saver, will have a small stand. And next year, we want to, in a way, rely on it. So it's the first year that we're asking for a beer and wine license for the day. And I don't know, I suppose you know that there have been exchanges with the chief of the police because our parking lot is arranged the way it is closed on three sides. It would be really difficult to go down the hill by going through the neighbor's garden or going to the doctor. From the church parking lot facing the public square, we have a lot of tables that are usually installed and we have treetops that contain all the food, drinks, tables, apple tarts and other things on our parking lot. On the other side of the street, there are children's games and an inflatable castle. We could easily put signs indicating that alcohol is not allowed beyond this place, or put them on certain road barriers, which I think worried him. And I suppose he thought it would work. So, I don't know if you have any questions or comments on this subject.

Questions or comments?

I think that answered my question. Okay, great.

So, we're friends, by the way. You mentioned that I didn't want to complicate things. Did you mention that you have a band?

We have one. Yes. That's good. The Brothers Amex band. They play a lot at Millbury and one of the members of the band is an active member of our church.

Have we ever gotten a license for that? I don't think so.

Hey, we've had bands every year, but we've had music every year.

We're always supposed to get a musical license on Sunday.

Okay. Is there something I can easily do tomorrow to get it?

As for the event... Tweet it.

So, when I was in the cubicle, you'll find a solution.

Okay.

Yeah, you're ready.

I'm with us, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know. I just want to make sure. And it's for 4 hours, okay?

From 11 to 15 hours. Can we do a motion that includes this, while waiting? It's not in the order of the day.

The license request is in the order of the day and it's just a tick that should be added to this license, isn't it? Music for one day.

But we present it as a beer and wine. That's what I'm saying. The point of order of the day is specific to what it is.

Would it be better if we just did a quick zoom? That's what you think. We don't even need to do that.

What you should do is put my computer in the background and we ... go ahead. At least for next year, you can note that you do both. If you make the beer ... We just check the form.

Thank you very much.

No, it was an omission. Thank you very much. Okay, we appreciate it. And let's pray for him to do well because ... it's our only thing. Excellent.

Discussion.

N'entendant personne par appel nominal, me roi. Follez-moi. And donnez. Donnez-moi. Je vais faire ça. Motion illimitée.

Merci d'être venu aujourd'hui. Merci beaucoup. We can now welcome again the DPW consultation committee to follow our discussion on road stabilization. Come on. Well, I'm just going to prepare the ground before giving you the floor, Mans. I think you were there for the last time on May 5th. So we have some new members of the Board of Directors who are entering the discussion. We agreed to come back to this point and discuss the possibility of bringing an adjustment to the financing of road stabilization and to this program. Guys, we read the presentation.

Thank you. I am John Bochart. I am president of the public works consultative committee. I prepared a brief presentation that we could address in the same way that we did it in March, I think, then in March and in May. I couldn't be there in May and Adam Klein was very kind to review his points, but we will move on to slide number 2. So the follow-up to the management of the floors following our recent spring meeting in 2026, you know, by using the funds of chapter 90 plus the level of stabilization funds that would maintain our current PCI, or payment conditions index, were the comments I received from the board of directors, then by examining the meeting that evening and the members who were there. So, by examining our current PCE and our stabilization investment, then by presenting several investment scenarios, one point that I want to highlight, and on the slide, is that we have an engagement of 315, more or less 317,000 dollars. I'm not sure of dollars and cents for the Duet Hill Road project. So, we are already taking, you know, part of the stabilization funds that had been, you know, approved by the municipal assembly, several years ago. Next slide, please. So, since we started with the management of strike streets, you know, we have essentially more than 10 years of data. We started in the mid-1970s with the State of the Streets Index. we had a slight drop to 73 towards 2012. Since then, we have invested and carried our state index of the floors to 81 during the last evaluation we carried out in 2025. Next slide. So here is an overview of all the roads in the city during these ten years. Even at this distance, I can't tell you what year it is, but I think that the slide that describes it in a way, we have tried to invest everywhere in the city. And we don't make investments because we receive a phone call or someone tells us, hey, this road must be redone. We carry out a qualitative evaluation of all roads every four years. and we evaluate their state. And then we execute some scenarios to say, okay, if we do that, how are we going to improve? And what is the state of the other roads? So, I mean, it's really a kind of instant, but also a global evaluation of all the roads, then investments. And the elements that we take into account, not only the state of the road, but also the sensitive receivers, the schools, the housing, etc., which, you know, receive more traffic than some other roads. And that's how we make some of these decisions. In addition, we coordinate our efforts with the Graveton water district and, through the Ministry of Public Works, with the service of the sewers, If other improvements must be made and if work is planned on a given route, we would reduce our funding for this year, then we would program it so that we can come back. You know, once these other improvements of the route or the infrastructure have been put in place. So we coordinate all these activities. Diapositives below. Here is an overview of our current index for 2025. On the other side of the graph, you know, at the bottom right, 96 to 100, or about 18%, or 18 miles. Excuse me, if between 91 and 95 it represents about 11 miles, Our highest percentage is between 86 and 90, or around 23.8, etc. So you can see that we have invested in order to have roads that are between 71 and 100 in the upper fork of our road conditions in the city. And if... I'm not saying that everyone here drives in all the other cities, but if you look at the conditions in other cities, Grafton has a very good state index of the surface, you know, at the city level. And it's really thanks to this investment, when we invested that the money from chapter 90 we lost from the ground, that's why we went to a municipal assembly to get the money, in order to try, you know, to keep our assets in the community. But as you know, when I drive around Grafton, Milbury and other cities, I mean, I see and I have 40 years of experience in civil engineering in my asset like that. You know, I call these cities and you know, when I was at Masdot, I called them and I told them, you know, what are you doing? Because these roads begin to deteriorate and I generally do not invest in roads that have reached their end and that deteriorate so much that you spend a large part of your budget on one or two roads. C'est un peu une approche de base. Nous essayons de mettre de bons traitements de surface sur nos routes moyennes et bonnes. Nos routes moyennes de manière à pouvoir les améliorer pour qu'elles durent beaucoup plus longtemps. Qu'elles durent beaucoup plus longtemps. Maintenant, beaucoup de routes en ville, je vous disais quand nous avons commencé, étaient en bon état. Au début, beaucoup de routes de la ville n'étaient pas forcément aménagées. It was gravel roads that were cut down over time, and then we built more houses. And there were more people. So when we invest in each of these roads, we do a qualitative evaluation of what really needs to be done here. Do we have a drainage system that will collect the water from the surface and evacuate it from the road so that it does not migrate under the road, causing lifts due to the ice and deterioration? There are therefore many different elements, five different types of treatment in general. But we are really trying to get to a stage where we can really invest in surface treatment, the molding of the cracks, the micro milling and the coatings to keep them at a higher level. And the roads that are in the fork from 50 to 70 or from 50 to 60 degrees in general, it would take a little more than that. We could do a reshaping where we grind the first foot of material. At 12, 14 or 18 inches, we mix again. Then we apply a treatment of 3 inches and more over it to bind them. together and obtain a good surface. In this way, we avoid any deterioration that would migrate upwards and through the layers. But we are really where we are now. It will probably take us a few years before we can invest in micro-surface and fissure collimating to maintain the roads that are in these 75, in these 75, at 100 inches and more for a slightly less important investment. So we can adopt this slightly wider approach. Next slide. So it just gives us an indication of the whole city with, you know, five different treatment bands. And you know, the big road that goes from north to south on the right. And George Hill, it's one of those roads that are in the lower spectrum. And we're going to invest in it in 2027. So we're going to, you know, get rid of it from our accounts. Keep positive. So we examined several different investment scenarios. These investment scenarios were... And then see what the PCI index was, or the ground level index, what the result would be over a period of, you know, 5 to 10 years. And these investment scenarios on this left-hand spreadsheet, you know, are, you know... And I can't read them all at this distance, so I'll just go back. about 1.25 million the first year, 1 million in the second column 750 to 1.3 which corresponds essentially to what we were then 500 00 to 1.8 it is essentially the first five years of this program then a little more to catch up with the delay and you can see what our payment conditions are during these years We go from 81 to 85 over this period of 10 years if we keep the current investment of 1.25 million. If we reduce this amount to 1 million, our amount of payment remains essentially at 81. It may be a little time to go down to 80, but it remains at about 80 and then the last two columns where it is indicated that it decreases a little. But when we increase this investment afterwards, We have, in a way, envisaged a five-year horizon. We could reduce our investment for five years. Then what it could do and what we should do to catch up with our delay.

Then this fourth column.

And the same thing as chapter 90 for these first five years.

And we would then have the same thing to raise our investment to 1.8. Over the last five years. Next slide.

And here are our investment scenarios and results. What shows is that the purple represents, with the only investment of chapter 90 that we would clearly go down in the mid-70s, then that we would increase our investment so that after a period of 10 years, we would bring it back to about 81. Next slide please. Some factors that we have taken into account are that our global GDP in 2016 was 76. We increased it to 81 during this 10-year period, but this shows, with the scenarios that we have executed, that it will fall to 76 in 5 years. So we are on 10 years of investment which are essentially cancelled after 5 years. You know, after a reduction in financing for 5 years, this reduction in financing for 5 years will essentially cancel the 10 years that we have invested before. After a reduction in financing for 5 years, this will essentially cancel the 10 years that we have invested before. The inflation and the projection of our construction costs which are unknown. Some scenarios with, you know, the liquid asphalt cost index that is published by the Masdot every month. You know, in March and April, it was from 615 to 670 dollars per ton. In July, it climbed to $712. In July and August, and we will have this information in the next weeks for September, but we consider that there will be a peak, an additional peak, because we will recover customs rights between the United States and Canada in September. And the last thing I did, you know, I wanted to refer again to the commitment of George Hill Road, which already reduces our investment of about $315,000 or $317,000 over several years within the framework of the program. Here are the roads for which we have executed our scenarios for 2027, 28 and 29 and different, you know, roughly with different colors. The red is passed on to the next slide, please. Just because I don't want to number the streets, the main streets. So in 2027, the area of ​​Airport Road, George Hill... Road and some adjacent streets, Eva Farm Lane, English Road, Demers and Cabot, will all be improved in 2027. In 2028, we have Common, Millbury Street, Follett Street, Old Westboro Road and Weston Street, Old Weston Street. You know, there are four main roads, so we are, you know, at this time. And then in 2029, we take Pleasant Street, Dana and Brigham Hill Road. And it's not all Dana, not all Brigham Hill. These are, in a way, the parts that have not been improved. So I think for Brigham, it will be Dana, Worcester Street, which was not done after we did the previous one. Then Dana, it's to the limit of the city.

From Brigham Hill to the limit of the city.

Diapositive 1. So it's a bit global. And Colline and Victoria, I know you weren't at the board meeting. And Emre wasn't at the Board of Directors when we went to the first meeting of the city to get all this money. Very active in the community, of course. But I think that gives us a little summary of what we are focused on, how we got there, our investment. And then I will answer all the questions for me and for the committee members. Thank you.

And I appreciate that you updated the presentation and that you presented it to everyone. There were a few quick points from our last meeting, then in this one. I am happy that you have addressed the liquid asphalt. It was something we examined. It seemed that this was certainly going to be a concern to come. I think we had also noted during the last meeting that these $ 315,000 for George Hill would last about 15 years and in conjunction with all that we must. When we discussed the fixation of the level to 1 million dollars per year during our last meeting, we said that this would freeze us in our current state. More or less, there would be no improvement in existing roads. Everything you see remains essentially where it is. But there was also the risk that we would suffer some degradation, such as repairs after winter, things like that, which could be worrisome, edgy. This also increased the costs and things like the police officers were worrisome. Can you tell us a few of them?

Well, we don't generally control. our police officers. That is to say, they are city employees and they want to make sure that during the work carried out on the roads of the city, it is safe for motorists and pedestrians who could circulate in the sector. In general, we do not completely close the streets. They know that they are modifying the traffic pattern and you know, we are trying to use the police service in the most efficient and profitable way possible. If the chief or someone from his team watched, we would watch. Something he thought was dangerous, he made us know and said that they were going to increase our presence here because, I mean, we don't need four policemen. We could do it with one or two, depending on the route. For George Hill, it's a much longer detour, whereas, you know, there could be isolated places where we would need more than two agents. Et nous essayons de maintenir cela. Mais je veux dire, cela fait partie des coûts que nous ne pouvons pas contrôler. I mean, the cost of the materials, it's the same. Let's not control the cost of the materials. And that's why I reported this liquid asphalt. Because it's something that is published by the Mazdaute. So they give, roughly, a fork. Then they say, here's where you are. And here's what it is for this month. Pure curve cure. So it's a kind of fixed cost, but it also gives us an indication of the destination of the materials. Does that answer your question, Andy? Or is there something else?

Yeah, uh, no, it is. I mean, these things would always seem to be a concern if we try to reach this level of million dollars a year.

Any investment, and as I said, we are trying to do our best to foresee these costs. We are calling for an offer at the city level for our paving services, and I am sorry that the city's deputy engineer, Brian Cesarco, could not be there tonight. And the director of the DPW, Kanoya. But you know, they at least told me about the investment, the way they are now trying to accomplish the work. And to budget our time and ensure follow-up. There have been material costs that we do not control, that no one in the room controls. And things happen like that. But we are launching an offer at the city level for our paving services. And then we, you know, we have everything. the streets that we plan to improve in the framework of our program, that we generally present to the Board of Directors by the autumn meeting next month, or for the Board to approve these streets. And again, when I make any favoritism concerning the streets, it is based on our evaluation of what should be done according to the traffic, the pedestrians, and I then try to coordinate all these activities with other forces. As I said, the water service, the sewer service. Et j'essaie ensuite d'échelonner les travaux afin que tout soit fait de manière appropriée. But I think that one of the important points, as I said in the presentation, is that we are trying to get to a position with our investment that allows us to treat the surfaces and seal the cracks in the years to come. So that we can attack a greater number of streets in a different range of treatment, you know these numbers, rather than having to improve the roads that are in the 20s. 30 and 40. And the theory that underlies the management of the roads really consists of applying profitable means to the roads that are in this... good condition to be able to prolong their lifespan. And when some go beyond, we say, very well, well, we're going to look for another program to do that. And you know, I think we could do a little more work in this field if time allows it, but I think we're trying to bring things to a certain for the state of our assets, then to consider other scenarios to attack some of these streets which are in an urgent need, even more urgent.

I'm going to let George know. Does anyone else have any questions or comments?

I have a question about the graphic that is in our file. Does that bother you to make it appear? Et ceci et cela pourrait ne pas vous convenir pour le moment. Alors je m'en excuse d'avance. Mais si nous... Si nous gardons les choses telles quelles, c'est ce que je regarde ici. N'est-ce pas ? Si nous continuons simplement.

Regardez. Bien sûr. We continue on the path where we only do the 2.5%, that's where things are now. In the end, as you say, the plan is to get to the staining phase of the fissures. If we get to this stage, we could start to keep some of it in stabilization so that when we have another road, George Hill, we do not have to contract caution. We would have money to attack this road. Is it possible?

I think it's possible. I have not examined these numbers and you know, we usually use a scenario over three years. So the last time we carried out an evaluation that does not take into account the figures that you have via Colline, we carried it out based on our qualitative evaluation of the roads and what the roads would be like over the next three years as part of the stabilization. Then we generally evaluate in this window of three to four years where we carry out an investigation in the city and we say what our conditions are. And then, let's examine scenarios based on the possibility of minimizing our investments in certain areas or redirecting them to these applications, as I have already said. Microsurface and crack collimating. And let's see if we can go further. But I have not examined these specific figures, but I mean in theory. Yes, that would probably lead us to a point and we could evaluate it.

Et nous ne sommes pas dans votre scénario sur trois ans, nous ne sommes pas à trois ans de ce scénario, ou nous faisons le microsurfaçage pour colmater les fissures, ou en sommes-nous proches ?

Vous savez, Colline, je dois m'excuser, j'ai eu ces scénarios tout chauds sortis de presse la semaine dernière, et je me suis dit, hey, j'ai besoin de quelque chose hacker, parce que je voulais venir et informer tout le monde, bah et... Mais je n'ai pas examiné. These numbers to say, you know, if we do this, what is our theoretical figure for our index of payment conditions and we get closer to this scenario. And that's something I'm going to at least take back from this advice and review with our consultant and our engineering staff. Of course. I'm sorry, I have this. You see, I've been doing this for a long time. My experience. The Council on Public Works is approaching its 30th anniversary, but we have not always done it. We have not always set up a ground management system and tried to evaluate it. You can see the improvements and you know, one of these graphs that we showed was, you know, in the 66 to 70 and more, we had a much higher percentage of roads that are in good or excellent condition. We are now at this stage, and it is only in 40 years of career that I was able to reach 90% in some communities. You know, this is part of my engineering work, both as a consultant and as such, Mazdot. And then, try to maintain that. You know, you have to execute several scenarios. So it's something we're getting closer to, but few cities can do it because they lose sight of it, so to speak. And they say, oh, we have reached this goal and we have other challenges. The council has other challenges and we are the city as a whole and we are trying to find a way to invest in road stabilization and to be able to better balance this for the contributors. And what will this scenario be? I mean, we don't recommend it at the moment, but you know, we're trying. You know, I know that the city is trying to make sure that everything is running, so to speak.

Monsieur le Président, j'ai rencontré Brian plus tôt dans la journée. Nous avons un peu discuté de tout cela. Vous savez, il est une seule personne, donc sa vision étroite de la situation. Et que, vous savez, d'ici 2029, nous aurons du travail assez lourd à faire. Ensuite, nous allons nous rapprocher de cet entretien, mais vous aurez toujours des routes qui se dégraderont plus vite que prévu. The costs are going to change. There are a lot of environmental factors that are going to change. But one of the things he talked about is that, you know, if we don't see a reduction in this program, you know, while we make other components of these roads, we can repair other things along the way. So it's not just the asphalt that we deal with here. We deal with rainwater, we deal with ponds, we deal with a large part of it internally anyway, but there are more important projects, but there are more important projects. You also consider adding sidewalks to the roads. It is something that the advisory committee of the Ministry of Public Works has been in charge of. They have therefore built the sidewalk park. You know, it's a costly project. So even if you reach the maintenance part of this plan, you reach 85, 86, maybe 90 if we can get there, and you start to have extra money, don't you? It's not extra money, but you see what we're talking about. You could either let this money accumulate in the stabilization to use it for the next George Hill, which we won't have, let's hope, because we have this plan and we're not going to get involved in this way, so to speak. But you could start using part of this funding to catch up with some of these other things that we know that residents really want, namely practicality and you know, additional security devices on all these access ramps to the road and things like that. So, you know, it's the asphalt management plan, but the scope is a little wider than that when you start to think about what Grafton wants to look like, even in the maintenance phase of our asphalt management program. So, is there something to take into account while we're talking about it?

Excellent question. I'm going to ask you to confirm that. When we talked about updating the asphalt management plan, This should include maintenance and maintenance of existing sidewalks and consider a future expansion if possible. There was an article today on All Things concerning the state of one of the sidewalks of the city and you know the maintenance of this thing. This remains therefore an important subject for the inhabitants of Grafton and certainly deserves to be taken into account.

One question. Can you just mention 15 years, so on George Hill, the 315, you are considering about 15 years. This is the current estimate that it would take.

As far as I know, yes.

Yeah, that's where we are.

And then my other, thank you very much for all this information. I would just like to ask you if you could give us a copy of the diaporama.

Yes, we received it today, but we will send it to the board of directors.

Before, I was able to do this kind of thing a little more efficiently. You see, I retired and I no longer have all the same software or everything I was used to having access to all that, but now I have to, in a way, do it. And you know, I'm an old engineer, so I mean, PowerPoint, I usually send it to my 40-year-old daughter and I tell her, hey, can you clean that up a bit? I mean, the spelling isn't there, I don't care. I don't care about the graphics and I said, but what graphics here? It will make me look a little better.

Understood.

Recording. Is there something that you know, I know it was a lot of new information for our new members. Is there something we would like to consider adding to a future agenda for an additional discussion? Is there something we would like to suggest for the rest of things tonight? What is the will of the board of directors?

For me, I think I would push it back. We don't have to make any decisions now.

I would like you to examine the dossier a little more closely.

Let's not say. On the contrary, they have been waiting for months, but if Amalie wants to wait, it doesn't bother me to wait. Well, the budget. I mean, you are all ready in terms of approval until June 30, right?

And we're going to share all the streets with the board of directors. You know, for what we have planned for the next three years. It was just a too big spreadsheet. So I just chose a few key roads to make it clear that we don't only have George Hill, but also Crag, go ahead.

Yes, thank you. I have a question for you, John. Sorry, I'm not here live tonight to see you in person. The roads that we have made over the last ten years, and I understand what you were saying earlier, we absolutely want to invest in the roads that we have built. We absolutely want to monitor them and ensure that we carry out a good early and affordable maintenance to have as much as possible for our money. And I think that if we reduce that, we will hesitate between building additional roads with this new money or ensuring that we extend to the maximum the lifespan of the roads that we have built and to protect the investment that the contributors have made over the last ten years, right?

So my question for you is the following.

Does anyone examine the roads? Because it started about ten years ago. Does anyone examine these routes, let's say, every two years, or at least once a year, to... ...see when the time has come to seal the cracks, or, you know, maybe a stabilization of the coating, if necessary, or something like that?

According to? But, knowing Craig, there are... ...two scenarios. First, we can evaluate 25% of the city each year. You know, we are not satisfied to examine all the roads of the city after 4 years. Secondly, we must carry out a complete evaluation every 4 years. As far as I know, we carried out a complete evaluation last year. We have simply redone these calculations and have determined what we are going to do for the period from 2027 to 2029. So I can't say that we are examining all roads every year with this scenario, but I know that we have at least carried out a complete evaluation last year. So I know that all the roads in the city, whether they have been paved over the last ten years or not, are the subject of a complete evaluation of the entire city. We are checking their status. But I'm going to check that to make sure it's accurate.

All right, that's great. Thank you. And do you think that for the roads that we have built and the investment that the city has made, do you think that looking at, let's say, every spring and simply looking at the roads that we have built over the last ten years is an unproductive exercise? Do you think it is too frequent to look at them every spring and see what they look like after the winter, the frost and all that?

It can be a costly investment and give very, very few results. But I would not hesitate to take a look at the roads that we have built over a period of five to ten years and say, let's look at them more often and make sure that we are, we are, that, and I think Evan said it, some roads deteriorate, you know, faster than, or I don't know, I don't know, faster But because of the traffic, you know, of the overloaded trucks and of the use, we can see a certain deterioration rather than expected. And I'm not a big supporter of the CAET method. Every four years, you have to examine the whole city. I like to do 25% every year because it generally allows to maintain the annual investment of the city at a level lower than the one that we get when we examine the whole city over 4 years and that we can miss something during this period of 4 years. So, at least, we examine 25% of the city each year, and if we start to see something, we note it down. Thus, when we examine the 25 next to the city, we can go back and examine some elements that we have reported to say, let's see, you know, no matter what I don't want, I don't want to choose something. Mais comme je l'ai dit, nous avons examiné Pleasant Street il y a environ 20 ans, et maintenant que nous nous rendons compte que cela va se reproduire dans les trois prochaines années, cela ne ferait pas de mal de l'examiner et de se demander, constatons-nous, une détérioration avancée ici, parce que Pleasant Street ne réduit pas le volume de trafic sur Pleasant Street. And you know, it's the scenario that I've always presented as the best, because we get a lost one every year. It's a more modest investment. It's a little more annualized. You can, in a way, examine something that you have reported over the past year or two years to ask yourself how Pleasant Street is doing. You know, it seemed that some alligator cracks were starting to appear in this place, then you get out of it, you get out of it. And you know, with the Masdot who is taking care of Strict deposits at the moment, much more circulation cannot pass through these deposits, so they take pleasure and go around. So I'm sure the volume of circulation has increased. Heavy weights are starting to be used, so it wouldn't hurt to take another look at it. And in the same order of ideas, I would go back to the Masdot and I would say, listen, because of that, we have seen an additional deterioration in Pleasant because the volume of circulation has increased, heavy loads, etc. And look for a little extra push to help you. So here are some scenarios that I have at least tried to present during my career. Mr. President, just to come back to that quickly. So I think we're talking about two parallel processes here, aren't we? So what John is talking about is our formal asphalt management plan that we do every four years and that has an associated cost, it is a third that intervenes and evaluates the levels of our roads according to a whole lot of different parameters.

There is also the internal process that we do every spring, where we travel every kilometer of each road in Grafton and note what has deteriorated, what will be reintegrated into the formal plan, but this also informs us of the way we do it. So, I don't want people to hear this and think that there are roads on which we haven't driven for three years. We are on all the roads in the spring to observe what happened during the winter. What will hurt us? What will break us? What will collapse? You know, everything that happens during the winter.

My apologies for... No, no, wait. No, it's just that it doesn't always come back to the Public Works Council, so I'm not sure we got something formalized. You know, but I appreciate it. I just want to make sure everyone hears this from both sides. So it's logical.

That just answers my question, because I was going to ask if it's discretionary in terms of the way we do it.

No, it's just, yeah, it's just two different things. We don't want to pay the consultant to do a good. A sweep at the city level every year, that's why it's cyclical. But, as I said, this will also clarify the plan, because you know, you could have a Brian, a Kevin or a Paul who comes back in front of the consultative committee of the Ministry of Public Works and who says that when we do this next survey, we must pay attention to it, because it's going wrong.

And I know it happens too. So the next steps on this point. Your recommendation, if I'm not mistaken, is to maintain the current level of financing without reduction.

My recommendation is the Public Works Council. It is unlikely that this will change.

With this information, for our future discussions with the Council, as if we included the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Public Works, or is it something that we can simply, if we are at ease, ask our questions and discuss by ourselves without having to invite them to another occasion?

Yes, I would say that if the Board of Directors plans to potentially reduce the annual budget for this effort, I think it would be good to have them there. I don't want to ask them all to come, but if we have to talk about reducing it, we have to understand what that means. There could be additional details that the Board of Directors could find useful. That's my opinion.

Je pensais le contraire, mais cela aurait du sens, même si quelqu'un était disponible via Zoom, si quelque chose de plus élaboré survenait.

Si vous me le permettez, je sais que je pourrais m'impliquer beaucoup dans cette conversation particulière, mais vous pouvez également faire un sondage informel lorsque vous votez chaque année en octobre pour le financement des routes. Ajoutez un autre point à l'ordre du jour, faites un sondage informel, et s'il semble peu probable que le conseil d'administration réduise le financement, inscrivez-le à un prochain ordre du jour, et vous n'aurez pas à faire revenir ces personnes. And then, if it seems likely that there is a kind of change, then make the revenues. That would be my recommendation, just so that... Yeah.

And just to... You know, just to say it, the intention of the Board of Directors is not to undo ten years of work, is it? To go back to what you were saying, you know, it's a difficult budget, these last two years, and that has just been mentioned as another potential leverage that we could use. But you know, I voted for it ten years ago and my intention would certainly not be to come back to these lower levels, you know. But there is still the pain of examining the two other options for me personally.

I appreciate your contribution.

So I think I'll leave you alone for the night.

Between October and the 15th of April, on Tuesdays, are acceptable. Then I started the golf league and that's why I wasn't there in May. Adam and Brian had to sort of cover that and say, well, you know, they asked difficult questions, you are free to yourself.

Adam has done a good job. He mentioned that it was the first time that he took the reins and led and he replaced you. I didn't want to assume that we were out of the golf season. And you know, all that, but... Thank you.

Golf here. Hey, you know, it's the first day of the fall. All of a sudden, the temperature dropped. I don't know what happened. Very good. Once again, thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you all for bringing me here. For all this information.

Next, we have the location of the streetlights for Clearview Street.

Believe me, Neil, is this the zoom? Yes. Hello. Can you let us know about this project and its intention, please?

Hello, my name is Neil. I work for Whitmore Homes. We are here tonight to approve the location of the streetlights Je suis désolé. Nous demandons une réduction. A l'origine, cette lampadaire était proposée sur la route. Après avoir discuté avec Jeff Walsh, nous en sommes maintenant à trois lampadaires. Le premier lampadaire que nous proposons se trouve à l'intersection de North Street et Clearview Street sur un poteau existant, comme vous pouvez le voir sur le plan, intitulé lampadaire numéro 1. Le deuxième lampadaire serait en bas de la colline sur Clearview Street. Il est intitulé numéro 2 pour le Flashlight and the third one is at the top of the road. Flashlight number 3.

Dagwa. Does the council have any questions about the location of these new flashlights?

Do you have any? It is a reduction. You must have more at the origin and you only want to make three. Or you add this. We add this. No, it's a reduction.

No, it was initially proposed on the initial plan... We are asking for a reduction to 3 fans. As recommended by Jeff Walsh and Paul Canoyer of DPW. Huh?

Joe Jeff Walsh is our consultant. For this, for Graves Engineering. So, as we progress in all these different developments, we examine the conformity of the starry sky, trying to reduce the amount of light that we produce, this kind of thing. They therefore reexamined everything, and Paul and Jeff were both in favor of the reduction.

Okay, that seems pretty simple. I think we can adopt it.

I propose to the Board of Directors to approve the placement of the lamps on Carvious Street as presented.

The motion is adopted. Do you have any comments? No one. All those in favor? Aye. I'm fully in favor. Yes. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you.

I am grateful. Good night.

The floor is now in the hands of Evan for the environmental attenuation of 1727 Upton Street.

If you have already passed by 1727, there are a lot of construction activities in progress. This includes environmental mediation or attenuation, as indicated in the order of the day.

To quickly encode what has been done and what we can anticipate, they therefore created a RAM plan called the measure of reduction of waste. It's just an overview of what we've already found. On the site, here's how we're going to deal with it. So it was submitted, just like the soil management plan and groundwater, and another state requirement. They submitted the intention to the EPA, which is part of this other sanitation process. They cleaned up the reservoirs on site to remove the reservoir that was there. They also found three unrecognized reservoirs before. On the site, which did not appear on any of our plans or test wells, To date, they have removed or tested 832 meters of contaminated soil. They are therefore moving it out of the site towards discharges that accept different contaminants and different soils. In the context of this process, they will now ask us to provide a ventilation of the costs and a complete report on the way in which all this took place, then ask us again to unlock funds from our sequester account to cover these costs.

To date, they have asked for no funds.

So it's... 832-D does not seem to be much in the context of this project. Is it a lot of material?

It's a lot of material, but is it finished at this stage? Are we getting closer to what it is? I think he would say it's over because I don't think he knows what's finished yet. I haven't talked to Brandon about it, but I guess that's how they do it. That's how I did it when I built a building with dirty dirt. You create batteries, whether they are 250 m3, sometimes it's 500 m3. It depends on what the LSP tells you to do. So once you have made this battery, it tests it. And if the battery comes back with a contaminant, the whole battery is contaminated. There is no segmentation of this. So I suppose that's how we get to 800 yards, that is to say that they create a lot of tests, create a lot of tests. So as they continue to dig, they will have to, because the site is contaminated, continue to pile up, continue to test with an LSP, then continue to move this material off site to the place where it must go depending on what they find in the soil.

So at this point, you said, you know, they didn't ask for any funds to unlock the sequester. Is there a amount they must reach or are we just waiting for them to do it?

So the attenuation agreement stipulates that they must simply submit it to us, we will examine it and we will do it with our LSP. and with our environmental engineer, and then we will believe that it is a valid cost and that it will be able to be unlocked from the sequestration. How many tanks do we have now that we didn't know existed? Just the three. There was one that we knew there was one or two, that we knew they were there. Three that we didn't know existed.

Any other questions, comments from the board of directors?

As for the calendar of this part, do you have an idea of the bigger question?

Yes, it is also a somewhat random question, because if they start, for example, to dig on other parts of the site and start to obtain clean batteries, then it will take a lot, a lot more time.

So, in terms of updates, two months ago...

I asked them to gather, I have the impression that we have enough to form a file that should be able to show the costs that our collaborators can now examine. And so, I would have asked them. So I think that in the next two weeks, we will have a file of their part, okay? With the costs, etc. And then it's up to our collaborators to check, check. I think it's probably a reasonable period of a few weeks, so it's probably in a month. Someone else?

A related question, but unrelated. The closure, the real funds for the closure, it's in...

made in the mandate at the moment. And I will address that when we, it is one of the figures that is not available. But I know what the figure is. We will talk about it when we get there.

If that suits you. Well, if that suits us, we will come back in about a month and we will see where we are.

Update of the audit operation. Yeah, so I contacted one of our consultants that we used in the past, Capital Strategic Solutions, and just asked them to carry out an operational audit based on the conversations that this board of directors had and the previous board of directors during the budgetary process, but also on their experience in carrying out similar audits in other cities, in other cities. So I pressed on, there is no Marblehead, what is this one? Manchester Bays too.

Thank you. Manchester Bays too. We examined a few others.

None of them really seemed to correspond exactly to what this advice was talking about. Some of them were very much focused on HR, others very much focused on the system. It seems that we are trying to have a more precise idea of how we spend the funds So I worked with these people to create a perimeter that, in my opinion, corresponded better to what we were looking for. And most of the other communities didn't include the school in that, so it was a... So, I think that what the council is asking is to examine the document, to examine the range, to see if we agree with the range, to see if we agree with, you know, the segments that we examine, the way we examine them. If that's the case, there are corrections. Great, we're sending them back to these people. If there are none, great, we can move on. And then, once we've scaled the range, we already have, it was a project of about $50,000, depending on the way the range is written today. So if the range remains the same, then I think you know that this gives us a good reference point to know what we have to spend. We can then ask for a community grant. You know, community grants are very specific. It is not one of those grants that you write to try to cover everything. You have to say, this is what we are trying to do, and you publish it. We will therefore address the Compact community to try to obtain funding for this. And then we will still have to make an offer to allow others to submit. It is not in advance that it is strategic capital solutions. But I think it would be the procedure. I would be... happy to answer your questions.

I really like it. Thank you for contacting us and organizing this. I think it has a lot to do with our expectations. We don't really know how much such a thing costs, but seeing the value it represents, it doesn't seem to be an exorbitant figure, and especially knowing that there is a potential subsidy to help cover it. The only question I ask myself is how long it would take, potentially, from the moment the offer was made and we say, how long would it take, potentially, for this group to finish.

Okay. So they don't really specify in their proposal. I think it's because we haven't given them enough information to know how it would go. And so something we have to... examined, but I think that if we had to make an offer, we would include a delay. Oh, fantastic. And that's how you get the delay. We did it in several different ways. You can do it in six months with, you know, a 45-day extension based on your mutual consent, because it discovers things that we don't know what we're going to do, you know, that kind of thing. So I think I'm going to say my instinct tells me that you should start in six months. For something like that, because it's going to It will probably be long. However, I would probably ask these people what they think is a reasonable deadline for this. But we will put it in the call for offer and it will become the deliverable for the one who will carry it. Great. Yeah, that's great.

That's exactly what we were asking. Thank you.

And thank you Jennifer Thompson for preparing it for us.

I mean, I just read it here before this meeting. But at first glance, it seemed to adjust the things that I had raised. And I think the amount they proposed was similar to... I didn't bring the piece of paper with which I had done the research, but it seemed to be roughly in this fork. And I also think that the calendar of some of those that I had examined was from three to six months, depending on the range, of course. But yes, it's an excellent start, and we can maybe think about it in more detail for some of us who haven't had enough time, and I think it's certainly the right direction, in my opinion.

Yes, I agree. I like to expand it. I think in particular... Once again, this answers some of the questions and comments that we have received from the public. In particular, the personal equipment and the organizational structure, the expenses in the financial operations, and then for me, I think that one of the most important is the sharing of services between the city and the school, as well as the targeted comparative analysis. I found that the cost of this exercise was reasonable. I am happy to learn that we can ask for the subvention of the community pact to help to compensate part of it. My only note, and maybe that will help us pay too, was on this last page, it says that the city of Dartmouth will be billed monthly. And I'm fine with that, but I suppose that Dartmouth will not be. Yeah, it's already done. Yeah, you can send it back. Yeah, thank you for asking the question, they do that with Dartmouth too. Thank you for organizing that.

Do we have concerns about the participation of schools in this? Were they warned that this was potentially going to happen?

Very well. I did not do it in my office. They participated in the budget process where this was discussed. But I did not respond because I did not know. Just to keep that in mind and make sure they don't tell each other.

Hey, who's asking all this information all of a sudden?

No, we would certainly make them participate, but I think that you, in my opinion, you are formulating your expectations regarding the process. And then, once it's done, you should make them participate, because it's all a matter of transparency. So I think we're going to forgive everything they ask.

Fantastic. So maybe that will be in the order of the day of the next restricted advice, once we have, I mean, for me, just to bring it home and digest it and associate it with my others.

Yeah, people might remember things that I missed in the conversations. I mean, we went back there, but there could very well be a point that we missed.

Yeah, great.

I hesitate to... You know, draw a hard line, but I want to be frank on this subject. For me, you know, schools are a municipal service and it would be something that participation would be mandatory. And I, you know, I am happy to have this conversation with them and to make sure that they are comfortable with that. But, you know, I don't see the point of doing that if they are not involved. So I, you know, I would strongly recommend them to consider this at this stage. And just to be clear, they didn't think about it. Okay, that's right. You know, I don't want to put the cart before the oxen. I hope they will support this initiative, but I want to specify my position, because I am convinced that it is the path to follow. Okay, proclamation for the Family Day. Gold star. During our last meeting, we had the president of the consultative committee of the former fighters, Luca Ramaglio. It was discussed. They asked for permission to organize the ceremony and it is actually simply a motion aimed at attributing the proclamation that will be presented that day. Questions, comments, questions? Present a motion.

Je propose au Conseil de voter pour signer la proclamation qui sera présentée le 27 septembre pour la Journée des Mères et des Familles Gold Star.

Je suis adopté à Pierre. Y a-t-il des discours ? Tant donné qu'il n'y a personne, tous ceux qui sont pour.

Tocqueville.

Moi.

Daphné. Daphné, moi. Jefferson.

Et c'est tout.

Il était 7h07. H45, le dimanche 27 septembre. On a le plus proche du centre pour personnes âgées. Then, Amber was kind enough to write us a letter about our federal concerns and the results of the investigation. Did anyone have any questions, comments or concerns to report? If everyone had the opportunity to read it, it's pretty simple.

No, but in that spirit, McGovern contacted us when I mentioned that we had given, following his idea, and he suggested organizing a workshop with the Board of Directors on the possibility of creating more financing opportunities. And I didn't know what the Board of Directors was thinking, if we wanted to possibly program something with his office to organize this workshop.

Yeah, I mean, I'd like that to be included, of course.

We will put this on a future.

Document written.

Does this prevent us from sending this letter? No.

I'll just send it.

I agree.

Yeah, I'd like them to come and tell us about their ideas. You know, even if we had to do a kind of common regional thing with a few other councils to maximize their time or whatever it takes.

Excellent idea.

I mean, if everyone agrees, then I can take a motion to approve it and sign it.

I propose to the council to vote to approve the letter to Representative Jim McGovern concerning federal affectations for Grafton and authorize the president to sign it. Second.

Was there any other questions? We can hear you. Melroy? Mdokouan?

Yes.

Mdophano?

Mdophano, yes. Continuing the exam of the municipal budget calendar.

Just to come back to my service. So we have thought a lot about the question. Nous pensons qu'avec l'ajout de ce dont le comité d'examen de la Charte a discuté dans le cadre de la réduction de certains termes, nous n'avons pas d'ajout à faire au-delà de cela.

Donc, voudriez-vous attendre que ce soit adopté par la Charte ou est-ce quelque chose que vous voudriez commencer à mettre en œuvre cette année?

I mean, we can put it into practice.

Practice. It has no bite, obviously.

No, yeah, that's it.

Yeah, I mean, I think we would test it, because I think it would also be useful for the committee to examine the chart, because we'll see how it goes.

Is there a way to make it a little prettier? To put on the website for residents who might want to say, oh, where are we in the process? We are in December. Is it too late? Too early? Or what should I expect? And then to check, is it possible?

Yeah, we thought we were going to create a prospective document that would be on the website and that would give you, in a way, its basics, not the exact dates, but the periods in which these things fall. You thought about the exact date.

Now, because it's so new and we're getting started, I think it's one of those things that will change year by year, not only because the exact dates will obviously change, but also because we're going to adopt the charter and all that. So this year, it's more to improve what we were doing in the previous years, so that everyone is on the same wavelength. And you know, a big part of that is Can we make sure that the school committee adopts its budget rather than before? And I mean, lately, I'm not saying that someone is doing something. Like, how can we make it more efficient? That's all I'm trying to say.

At this stage, and I apologize if I forget, We have kept this as a return of information for the office of the school council assistants at this stage and we will continue to ask for the opinion of the school committee and the finance committee until we have a little more precision where is our next step.

Je pense que c'est la prochaine étape car nous ne l'avons certainement pas fait. Et j'aimerais beaucoup que ce soit le cas car je sais que le comité scolaire, en juillet, a déjà décidé quand il allait tenir ses audiences publiques. Et parfois ils votent sur leur budget avant ou parfois il est. Cela commence à devenir incertain et cela retarde les discussions qui ont lieu à ce niveau parce que, eh bien, comment pouvons-nous aller de l'avant s'ils ne l'ont pas fait, s'ils n'ont pas fait. Et cela commence à faire boule de neige. Et j'aimerais beaucoup... to work on it. That doesn't need to make a mess. And the years when it's not tight, it happens more easily. The years when it's tight, it starts to get stuck. And how to make sure that it goes well all the time?

So, while waiting for other comments or conversations tonight, our next ideal step would be to submit this to these two committees, to ask them to register it for the next order of the day, to collect the comments, then to regroup from there.

Yeah, would you mind doing that?

No, I don't care. You know, we are kind of in this second round we will address the third I just want to make sure that if we try to stay close to that this year you know to try to apply a little this calendar year this year you know we are also ahead as much as possible I imagine and but yeah it goes other comments questions back

J'aime l'idée de piloter ce programme sans aucune contrainte. Je pense que ça marche vraiment bien. Une partie de l'alignement et de l'engagement avec le comité des finances et le comité scolaire pourrait être voici ce que nous faisons. Faites-nous savoir ce que vous en pensez avant que la révision de la charte ne l'adopte. Cela pourrait donc être utile pour le cadrer étant donné que nous sommes un peu en retard dans l'année pour peut-être obtenir des commentaires approfondis et avancés. And I say, let's see it as a pilot project and see to what extent people are comfortable knowing that it is not yet adopted by the Charité. But the involvement and participation of everyone will guarantee that once this is the case, everyone will be comfortable with the calendar as it is written.

Voluntary conformity.

This may not be a constraint, but I think there is something to say that it is the calendar that you will accept.

And we can plan the dates appropriately and we do not schedule the same days and it starts to give the impression that the school committee has specifically changed dates, which is very useful. Thank you all for doing it.

Someone else?

We will continue. The next step is to discuss the representation for the municipal engagement sessions of the development strategy of the integrated territory of Massachusetts, the CMRPC for Mylos. We received an email request. It was suggested that the CMRPC as well as other executive offices, prepare this MyLoss presentation, which deals with subjects that are getting out of hand. In particular housing, conservation, clean energy production and economic development. There are two virtual engagement sessions. They asked us to select up to three municipal officials. Nous avons choisi un seul parmi le conseil d'administration pour le moment. Comment se porte le conseil d'administration ? Est-ce quelque chose auquel nous souhaitons participer ? Et si oui, y a-t-il quelqu'un qui souhaite être ce représentant et assister aux deux sessions ? Nous pourrions également discuter de la possibilité de séparer cela. Si vous savez, s'engager pour ces deux choses en ce moment est un problème. Nous pourrions envoyer quelqu'un d'autre à chacune, ou voir si nous pouvons envoyer quelqu'un à chacun. Qu'en pensez-vous?

Je veux dire, je sais que je ne peux pas m'engager pour la deuxième. Je pourrais potentiellement faire une. La première. C'est un peu pendant les heures de travail. Donc c'est un peu un défi, mais ce n'est pas l'idéal. Et surtout le mardi, j'ai de la flexibilité pour de nombreux jours, mais donc If possible, I can get involved for the second one. And now we have a coverage.

I can just intervene. So you are the president of the Council of Urbanism and the urbanist who?

What did he say? I love it. Secondly, what do I do?

It's during the working hours, isn't it? Yes, well, that's what I thought. Yes, yes, there is everything.

the elected leaders, but also the mayors, the municipal administrators, the municipal managers. So you have Christian from the planning office. I think Dave Robbins was from the planning council. So someone from the planning council is going, I think. And you can designate the third person to go there. Are you going to go there?

I was not going to do it, but it's during working hours. So when you are a volunteer at the council, it does not pose any problem to go there and to be able to account for this council of what happened.

That would be great.

I think it will be especially in contact with the urban planners anyway, to be completely honest with you.

That's what I don't know. It's also virtual, isn't it?

They have virtual.

Move our preparation room. I think we can.

So yeah, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't think anyone's going to contest that. Note that I have to go. We have to put it on my agenda, because otherwise I'll forget.

Twice as well. The first and the second.

Uh, you're delaying that.

I wanted to come. I knew it was the next thing on the list. No, I'm going.

I'm going to go. Does it look like it? No, it's good. Everything looks good on the account.

So we have our update, our potential update of the policy on the display of flags on the municipal properties that we must examine. I come back. We had added section 1.3 for flags previously approved. It simply specifies that any flag previously attached to a proclamation approved by the Board of Directors may be inscribed on the City's property afterwards without a new proclamation or presentation to the Board. But essentially with the approval of the Office of the Administrator of the City. Now that it is written and we have had the opportunity to examine it, are there any comments from the Board of Directors?

Let's clarify how they must obtain it. For example, can it be a simple e-mail to obtain the authorization of the office of the city administrator? I don't want to be so vague by saying, hey, you must obtain it, and not really specify how.

I think it's good. Okay. It will just come to the question of whether we will take care of it.

Okay.

Because we can change its appearance. So rather than having to update the policy, we just have to leave it in our office. And when we do it with the display permits, we will do it with all sorts of other things. I think we're just going to put it in the same process.

Okay.

I don't know how it all works, but Cindy knows. That's what counts.

Very good. As long as Cindy approves, then. I agree.

Any other problems, questions, comments? Very well, let's take a word.

I propose to the council to vote to approve and sign the update policy concerning the flag display on municipal properties. Second.

Motion is in favor. Are there any discussions? No. All those who are for? No. Roy? No. D'accord?

No.

Follet, yes. Daffiné?

Daffiné, yes.

Knight? Okay, we now have the mandate for gold. It should be indicated for the state elections of 2026 and not for the primaries. So? Yes, you did the primaries last time. It was just a copy-paste error. Does anyone have any questions? Anything they would like to see on board? Take a motion as long as you say election of state instead of primary.

I propose to the council to vote to approve and sign the mandate for the elections of state of 2026.

Second. Motion adopted. Is there a discussion? We don't hear anyone. All those who are for me. White. Stockway. Mel Follet. Follet. M. Dauphiné.

Dauphiné.

Differson. And now, let's move on to our mandate. Will sent us a copy yesterday. Are there any articles that anyone wants to discuss, questions, comments?

I would like to read them quickly because there are a few that have no amount, which is common, but I just wanted to clarify what they are. So article 1, quite simple, it's the same article that we have every fall. Article 2 concerns the money from the sale of the 17 and 27 Upton Street. The balance of this account is currently $525,600. We are looking to transfer it to the Stabilisation Fund for Municipal Immobilisations. The reason is that it would be available either for the immobilisations that have been a little affected lately, or for the purchase of other land in the future, if you had to compensate for it. So, for example, speaking of 66 North Street, we could talk about other conservation properties in the future. You transfer this money into the stabilization, it remains there, and you can use it to buy land that we have sold. You have land sold, buy land.

That's the idea.

Article 3 deals with the deficit of health insurance, of which I had a note circulated. This is a deficit of 1.25 million dollars in health insurance, which is linked to the old health insurance agreement that we had. It is not based on our participation in the JIC or on our exercise budget 27, but on a part of exercise 25 and 26. Article 4, once again, and it's interesting, Nous avons donc eu une sorte d'effet Mandela ici à Grafton. Nous travaillons donc à la mise en place d'un comité pour débourser ces fonds. Et il s'avère que nous n'avons jamais adopté la loi. Nous nous souvenons tous très bien de ce qui s'est passé. Nous étions six à en discuter. Mais cela ne s'est pas produit. Apparently, it was just at the end of Carter's mandate. And just at the beginning of mine. And so, I don't know why it wasn't mentioned on the mandate. But anyway, when we started creating the committee, we realized that we hadn't done it correctly. So that's correct. Article 5 refers to the previous exercise. This is just an invoice for the maintenance of the ventilation and air conditioning heating system that we received after the 1st of July. It rose to 3,000 dollars. Let's see where I am. Article 6 is an article of immobilization. It is 230, 911 dollars. It is about replacing our snow removal equipment of the sidewalks. It's about replacing two machines. If you remember, last winter was particularly bad.

But beyond the fact that it was a bad winter, these machines are very obsolete and they had to be replaced anyway.

We transferred money in the spring, so anyway, to make it short, we would like to replace them before the snow falls. The fault of...

Trap here and then the amount.

230...

0.81 is zero. They are only zeroes. No. No. Yes, they are.

No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are.

No, they are.

No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they are. No, they when the historical district, I think it was the commission of the historical district that was there. We had discussed it at that time. They are looking for 405763 dollars to add a signage to the approaches of the municipality which indicates that you are entering the historical district. Article 8 is an acceptance of subdivisions. This is a subject that we have dealt with from time to time. I have this white board. Le CPC a plusieurs projets. L'un d'eux est le tableau d'affichage du basketball du lycée. L'autre est une rénovation du parc Ronay Bridge. Le... Qu'est-ce que c'est ? Baseball.

Le basketball.

C'est une erreur de scrimeur.

Non, non, non. C'est écrit juste ici.

Oh, d'accord. C'est écrit baseball. Pour une raison quelconque, je lis basketball. Then you have another one. Articles 11 to 14 concern our sewerage commission. They only move money, which is part of their normal operations.

Article 15 concerns the data center.

You have a letter from our council that explains a little more in detail. But I think we all understand that the intention was to take the lead on a data center that would like to come here and ensure that we are covered by our local zoning. And then article 16 is a transfer request of schools for 200 0.1 dollars in their reserve fund for the stabilization of specialized education. I do not believe that the school committee has yet voted on this, but we had a problem with the deadline to obtain something on the mandate. So if they vote differently, we could potentially go beyond that during the municipal assembly. I will work on a policy on how to ask for these funds because they are in some way outside my investment plan. And they are in competition for funds in the so-called investment plan. So...

Accept and vote in the spring.

Okay. So, we have to find a process to know how it works, to make sure that we are aware that a request is going to happen, and also to make sure that we have the funding available to respond to the request.

We plan our investment expenses, our available liquidity and our stabilization in the spring.

So coming in October at the last minute and asking for 200 and 1000 dollars that have not been allocated, adjudicated or voted before, does not seem to me to be an appropriate request. Sorry.

No, it's good. So I think you got it. Well, first of all, you have the power to say that we will not put this on the mandate. You got it very clearly. My approach is that we will present it to you. But secondly, you know, it will be examined by your Finance Committee next week. There is something else next week in relation to that too. I don't remember. So I thought it would be accepted. But again, if the Council says no, it's a spring thing. We will include it in the budget process. So you would simply vote for Articles 1 and 15 of the mandate and you would close it.

It's obviously the decision of the Council. But it's just my instinctive reaction, you know. Once again, we spend all this time establishing this budgetary calendar, which must be as thoughtful and aligned as possible, in a way, until spring, to make these very big decisions. And this kind of thing, in my opinion, goes against cohesion. and the reflection of the city's strategic spending in all services.

So my only question would be, and I agree with what you say, Victoria, is that when it comes to specialized education, it's really difficult. You can have the best plans in the spring, then a family group in the summer, and now you have to be able to run away in this account. That's what this account is for, isn't it?

So it's a stabilization account, isn't it? So you deposit the money there and you can use it for special education. I don't have any information on how they plan to use it, if they use it as a palliative or a transfer account or... I mean, it started during the last budgetary cycle, but it was decided that we would not allocate funds because we allocated so many other funds to try to cross it with the roof and all the rest.

I understand, yes. It's just that I would like to have more information. And do I mean that I understood that it was the account that we did not fund when I say that the school committee or the department did not fund since this vote was taken?

Yes, it's as if it was almost like a... I did not turn back to look, but I think it was in 2017 or 2018, something like that, that the municipal assembly created the fund and that no one funded it. And then it was rediscovered in a way.

They want to finance it. I suppose what I mean is that they probably have no idea of the way they're going to use it. It's almost new money, isn't it?

Something that should have been financed and that hasn't been or that went between the lines, no matter what happened.

So the question is simply to know how we approach it, what we should put in this mandate, or is it more appropriate for spring? But I suppose that at this stage, we would simply go beyond if we believe that it was not.

You could, yes, you could either do it here at the table and not put it on the mandate, or do it. Yes, you can. You could do it during the assembly. You know, probably.

The board of directors recommends its adoption or not, you know.

Or the finances. Yes, you could put it in your motion to adopt it. The committee of finances could recommend not to support the article. You know, there are several different ways. Again, with our calendar, we. Just no. That's what we have.

I agree with you, Colin. I would have liked to have more information, because I think I understand what you said, is that this account has remained in stock and that now we say to ourselves, oh, we remember that we have it, we should start financing it. But is it an arbitrary decision at this stage or is there a real need? And I think we just have to align ourselves with this amount in dollars. before pouring it on the subscription bond and then we are surprised by that.

I mean, the idea of the stabilization account, in particular the special savings account, the stabilization account, is that it is a way for the municipality to transfer capital or cash funds to an operational fund, of course. This is really the reason why it was created. And so, you know, I think it would be good for us to develop a plan in which we will put X amount of money in this project each year. And it's like a backup fund or is it an operational compensation? And how are we going to approach this?

On these points, you know, once again, I take into account everything that everyone has said and you know, I generally agree. I hesitate to close the door at this stage and to take measures on this subject tonight. I wonder if it is possible to cover a part of that when the Fincom will hold its public audience. And you know, at this stage, you know, because there is not much time, incredibly, between now and the meeting in the fall. You know, so my first idea would be to try to organize a joint meeting so that we can discuss it in more detail. I'm not sure it's possible in the limited time we have. So I think there's a good chance it's better put together. At least we'll have a better understanding of the situation as things move forward. When the Fincom process is triggered. It is perhaps something that we must be aware of, ensure that we monitor these audiences and what comes out of them. And this will always allow us to make a recommendation to adopt it during the municipal assembly if we estimate that it does not suit this assembly.

Where do the 200,000 dollars come from? Does it come directly from the surinvent? C'est difficile car vous avez dit il y a quelques temps que les liquidités disponibles avaient été les plus touchées et que nous n'avions toujours pas établi de priorité pour le financement de notre toit. Et il est possible qu'une fois que nous aurons compris cela, et vous savez que nous le ferons au printemps, je ne sais pas. J'aurais préféré que Victoria ne dise pas tout cela parce que cela m'a tout excité maintenant et je ne sais pas comment je me sens et je ne sais pas quoi.

Je me suis tout excitée. Welcome to the club. No, Andy, I think your recommendation is very sensible. Fincom will have the opportunity to ask all these questions and I know that in the context of their reasonable diligence, they will do it very well. AJ will be ready to answer appropriately and that will arm us as it should. And as a rule, you know, if the school department asks to put an article on the mandate, I think it is fair, as a rule, to allow it to be voted.

So I do not recommend it.

I'm just surprised and it's generally not a good idea to surprise people. Okay? It may be a lesson to be learned. But I agree with your wise recommendation.

Maybe we can, I don't know, until tomorrow. Is it a note sent by the city administrator to the superintendent or from this council to the school committee asking that the articles of the resolution of the municipal assembly be presented more quickly because you have agreed. It was submitted at the last minute. I have the impression that we have also dealt with this when it comes to the vote on the roof of the Collège when we approached the Municipal Assembly of Spring. And before that, the design and engineering costs for the roof when we were at the Municipal Assembly of Autumn last year, have all arrived right on the deadline. Very little pre-appointment or discussion with the Board of Directors or necessarily the office of the City Administrator. I agree, I don't want this habit to last. So I thank you. I appreciate the comments. I think it's a reasonable compromise to leave at least the door open for the moment. And if you know, if they come to Fincom without being prepared, then we have our answer. And we can choose. We agree with that.

I propose that the Council vote for Clore and sign the mandate of the Municipal Assembly of... Second.

Okay, motion, please vote. Is there a discussion? In front of the people who are... Murwag.

Wag.

What about? Oulema. Daveny.

Daveny. Me. Jefferson, me.

The last point on the new cases is the approval of the MGL, chapter 268A, section 20D, exemption for the city's moderator... Exemption for the city's moderator... I was going to try to explain it, but as it is present, Madam moderator, could you explain the request to us tonight?

Good evening, members of the Board of Directors. I present myself before you tonight as a city councilor and, by statutory definition, as a special municipal employee, to submit the disclosure required in virtue of Chapter 6, 268A, Section 20D of the General Law. I recently accepted a post of life assistant within the public schools of Grafton, assigned to the Grafton high school for the school year 2026-2027, at an hourly rate of $ 25 to $ 90. Lors de la séance d'orientation des nouveaux employés le 25 août, il m'a été suggéré de vérifier que ce nouveau rôle ne présentait pas de conflit d'intérêt potentiel. J'ai vérifié et confirmé que mon rôle de modérateur de la ville était celui d'un employé municipal spécial et j'ai immédiatement contacté l'administrateur de la ville, Evan Brassard, pour obtenir des conseils sur la manière de gérer correctement cette situation afin d'éviter toute question de nos citoyens au bureau de l'administrateur de la ville, au conseil municipal ou au comité scolaire concernant un conflit d'intérêt. Emra Sarr directed me to the State Ethics Commission. Following this directive, I called the State Ethics Commission on August 26, 2026. I was assigned to Ting Chu, Deputy Attorney General, who acted as Attorney of the Day. During several conversations, we examined the details of my post as City Moderator and my job within the school district. On September 3, Mametshu advised me to file this official disclosure and submit the case to the municipal council for approval, according to Article 20d, which I did. Immediately. As indicated in the disclosure documents dated September 3, 2026, my special municipal employee status comes from the fact that I earned a remuneration for less than 800 hours over a period of 365 days, Accepting a non-elected paid position within another municipal agency creates a new financial interest in a municipal contract that requires your formal approval of the exemption of the exemption. Thank you for the time and diligence you have devoted to the examination of this question and I respectfully ask the Board of Directors to approve this exemption from Section 20d so that the final documentation can be correctly deposited with the clerk and that I can keep my position as City Moderator. Thank you. Are there any questions?

Questions, comments from the council?

I suppose my comment was that your job may no longer be paid. So... I spoke to the lawyer of the day and she said because it is yes.

Because it is stipulated that I do it.

Paid, I always had a file. You are technically not paid for this year. Like none of you, it's...

Merci d'avoir déposé votre dossier d'advenu ainsi que votre déclaration.

Adoptez la motion.

Je propose au Conseil de voter pour approuver l'exemption de la section 20D pour le modérateur de la ville d'Anne-Anderson, tel que présenté et autorisé le Président Assis.

D'accord, la motion est adoptée. On n'entend personne, tous ceux qui sont au courant.

Paul et moi.

Daphné. Daphné, moi. Monsieur Ferson, moi. Rapport du Conseil d'administration.

I finished the start-up interview with the city clerk. It went very well. I submitted all the information, and I don't know where they go after, but it was done as planned.

Great, thank you very much.

Weekend dernier, j'ai assisté à la Grafton Pride avec quelques autres membres. C'était un événement phénoménal. C'était la deuxième année que ce groupe particulier organisait l'événement et il n'a cessé de croître. Je tiens donc à remercier l'organisation Grafton Pride, y compris Lacey Shara pour son organisation et pour m'avoir invitée. I really appreciated all those who gathered. They even invited Jim McGovern to come and talk one more time. It was really a great atmosphere. It was incredibly family-friendly. Everyone had a good time and it was just a celebration of love, family and community. And it was really nice to represent the city in the context of this event.

We had a meeting on open spaces and recent leisure and no changes since the previous one. We just discussed the fact that we were going to have a new plan for open spaces and future leisure. So we talked a little more about how the current committee will integrate into the formation of the new committee. I just wanted to highlight the news we received from Cindy last week. First of all, you know Amy Berry left and I really enjoyed getting to know her and what she did for the city. But then you just have to underline on the website, and I think it's under the historical documents of the town's treasurer, the fact that she, Amber, as well as the Boston Public Library have all digitized, I suppose, until about 1700. I may have gone too far in time, but it's really an interesting file. I'm going to put it on my Facebook account as well, but people can access it. I think it's the town's grapher. Then the historical documents. And that must have been a huge project and it's great to integrate BPL in it, which I don't think cost us anything. I just wanted to point out that it's something that she has accomplished, among other things.

She also did it with her own money. She just saw that this program existed and that we had it, so she used it. It's really very cool.

I have a few hours. Everyone can get to work. We promise. I attended the weekly meeting of the CMRPC, which Victoria and I discussed for 10 minutes during our last meeting. They also celebrated their 50th anniversary. There were three guest speakers. You know, they talked about the importance of connectivity in rural cities for regional transport options. Again, something we just discussed with the WRTA contract. The importance of building affordable housing for the workforce in order to support the biotechnological markets in full growth in the center of the United States. We have, I believe, the second biotechnological market in the country. And then they also had Barry Lorient, who is the director of the highways of district 3 of the Mazda. And he continued to talk, you know, by focusing on secondary traffic projects, not only large-scale projects such as the 495 Spike exchanger, but you know, these exit zones and regional jams that occur and how to pass the traffic efficiently. Once again, while we were discussing these urban roads for so long, I found it amusing to hear people complaining about the number of roads in this district that have been created from cowsheds where, you know, as the cities drew them very early, they had to bypass things like big trees, rocks or houses. And the cascade impact that this has on the global landscape of the state's traffic. I was able to stop at the Gap Families Recover Together for a ball tournament. I just wanted to highlight the relationship they maintain with the GPD. Sergeant Spelman and Agent Matos were there to engage with the community and bring their support to the healing of toxicomania. I was able to talk to Sergeant Spellman and he described to me the excellent relationship they maintain, not only with the GAP but also with other agencies present that day, which provide information and the speed with which these agencies are able to respond once the GPD calls and they are able to find help for these people rather than throwing them into the criminal justice system. And I think this type of relationship is extremely essential for the community. And it only really works when both parties are fully committed to a big thank you to the two of them. They really make a difference in people's lives. I had the opportunity to present the Boston Post's Cannes on Sunday, September 23rd. It was Irene Wentworth's 101st birthday. And her family organized a nice little party for her at the Sandy Grill. It was simply great. You know, every time we have the opportunity to highlight a resident and his achievements, and his achievements. She was incredibly kind and full of spirit. It's just a good time. I also support your discussion on the Grafton Pride. It was great. My favorite part was the kickball game of Who Pride Sports. But yeah, just a very good time.

The drag queens.

Always that. Very good.

Update of Route 122. We have new information for tonight. So the Mazda has submitted plans for a traffic light, that is to say an aerial flashing. So it will be a double yellow line on Route 122 and a flashing red line towards Milford Road. C'est sur la propriété du cimetière qu'ils vont la mettre. Donc, ils vont nous proposer un accord stipulant qu'ils en sont propriétaires, que nous. Possédons le terrain, qu'ils paient l'énergie et que tout ce qui s'y passe leur incombe. Donc, nous allons accélérer les choses.

J'ai une petite question. Pendant qu'ils y travaillent, je sais qu'il y a des plans de pavage. Savez-vous comment ils ont refait la ligne jaune au bout de Milford Road?

Je sais, oui.

On the 122, can they go up the yellow line? I think that's why people cut it, because this opening of the yellow line is always there on the other road. I'll draw you.

No, I know what you're talking about.

So people keep cutting because you're instinctive, like, oh, the yellow, yellow, yellow, I'm on the wrong way. If they increased the yellow a little more, you'll go up and you'll find where you're supposed to be when you turn left on Milford Road.

We can talk to them about it. I don't know how it works. Me neither. Yeah, but we can talk to them about it. We are now going back and forth on the traffic light. The fire, so I can just put it there.

Sorry, I completely screwed you up. No, everything is fine.

There is nothing new on George Arrow. We continue to be in this phase from Monday 21 to 25. So they are draining Leyland End towards Soap Hill. I was up there yesterday. They continue to make good progress. Excuse me. They jumped from the bottom of Leyland. They are down to the land to Sopil because they have hit a lot of edges. They will therefore bring another machine to start hammering the rock in order to be able to pass the water through there to install our drainage infrastructure. But if you pass, you will see all the drainage structures and they progress every day. So it's a good thing to have.

It was incredible to see how far away from the current road are some of these telephone poles that we will need in a few weeks for the location of the poles. Now that it has been enlarged, it's...

Yeah, they are pretty good. Just while we're talking about the position in the polls, if someone is watching, if there is a poll that you are particularly interested in and that does not appear in the current positions that have just been published, there are, I believe, about 50 polls in total that will be moved in one way or another. So they do it by law. But if you have a specific poll that you want to be informed about, you can simply send an email to our office and we will send it directly. We did it for a few people during the last two weeks, and Gridley was very responsive and provided a very detailed analysis. Which is great. Which is great. The following.

Excuse me, where are the information on the survey? Come back later.

The information on the survey is on the page of George Hill Road. You can apply for a survey petition. There, they will also be in the file for the next meeting. And then... Yeah, no, that's it. Very good. So other news from the 19th. We had a fire outside the library. These are the last stages of the fire just before the jigglers start. And so it started in a flower pot just to the left of the place where the flame is. It's pretty interesting. It's about, we have a clip that is about 8 minutes and 50 seconds in the clip.

When you start to see the smoke coming out of there.

So we are... He was kept outside the building, without loss of locked access or delay in the services. They opened the next morning, which is great. I think it's largely thanks to Aaron Van Der Steen and Rachel Taches-Taches.

Something like that.

I'm about to say Taches. So, they were on site in the middle of the night. I think it was Rachel who stayed with Paul Canter until 4.30 in the morning, until the people in charge of reinitializing the gicleurs arrive so that the library can open. It's pretty cool. By an incredible stroke of luck, Will and I were removed from the alarm notification the previous week. And we transferred it to the administrators of the library, where it was supposed to be. And I was still awakened in the middle of the night by the call of the fire chief. But yeah, I found that quite interesting. And then we have already started our request for compensation and they have appointed an expert in the background as well as an investigator. This will be the first time we will work with an investigator.

We have images of the incident live. It's pretty interesting. For all those we've talked about and who turned to the library, this fire, you know, the extinction system has extinguished this thing.

Quite incredible. It goes from that to the suppression in three seconds. It's incredible. I'm also trying to... There was a... It was called by a motorist who was passing by and who stopped and moved the garbage on the side, then came back with a bucket to get the water from the watering system and went to the other side of the column where there is still a very small flame and extinguished it before the police or the firefighters arrive.

I would like to give them.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know who they are right now, but it's on the... It's on the... They'll find it. No, it's on the... So, uh... But yeah, I thought it was really cool. There's a clear video of him doing it, and it's... I said, well, it's pretty impressive. It would be great to recognize it.

An honorary sign of the firefighters. Construction paper.

So... On the budget. We don't have a budget for this. My fault. So, 66 North Street is still with the council.

The council called me tomorrow to try to conclude, because I would really like this process to be over. The 27 Sto will be long.

It's still in progress, but it must go through the homologation and it takes time. So, we are actively pursuing these two steps. We will probably relaunch the offer for our construction. We had two problems in our offer. One being a contestation of the offer by the syndicat des charpentiers and the other being a problem with the fiduciary which is the city of Westboro and not the dam. We will receive recommendations on this subject, but I have the feeling that we will relaunch the auctions. We will therefore restart this process.

And then I just wanted to make a brief point on compost bins.

We therefore have two programs.

One goes through our electricity supplier and the other through a reduced price for compost bins.

They are the gardeners. They have had a lot of success. We will cover what we have already assigned to people, then we will put them on hold for a little while, because the prices on compost bags are exorbitant at this time. Each pallet of compost bags costs $ 1,200. The fees are based on the price. We therefore do not want to increase by pallets to $ 1,200 per year. And this is really false. So, you know, if this becomes the permanent measure, then we will simply adjust the plan, but we hope that this is only an incident and that we can return to the plan because it has been very effective. I wanted to focus on the fitness class because we had a conversation. We looked, I don't know if I shared it. I didn't remember it, so I wanted to share it again if I had. But during the six first months of operation of the fitness field, we have recorded three zero-heal training sessions, which represents about 750 zero-heal calories burned by the residents of Grafton or the users of the field. So it's super cool. The average use is about 2500 calories during the six first months of each six-month period. So we are in advance on the curve and I think it's really cool. We see a strong use of the installation. And we're going to do the landscaping, at least the leveling, which is supposed to be done in the next two weeks. We were just waiting for people to know that we were waiting for the pavilion, which took more time than expected. That's why it hasn't been repaired, but everything is done now. Personal changes, just updates. The town hall is vacant. We should have interviews next week. Le post de responsable des médias numériques n'est pas encore vacant, mais il est à l'horizon. Mais nous avons des candidats pour ce post et nous commencerons probablement la semaine prochaine ou la semaine d'après. Le directeur du DPWV prend sa retraite. Je viens de le laisser là. Nous ne pourvoyons pas le post et nous faisons un essai du directeur du DPWV par le biais du bureau de la T. À titre d'essai. Et c'est tout ce que j'ai. Je propose de lever la serre.

We're waiting for you to leave.

Very well, let's review it. We'll get you out of here soon. Does anyone want to discuss something? We don't have a formal procedure. So... We have a motion to raise the... The motion is made. By nominal appeal, Mayor Roy.

Follet, yes.

Men, Daphné.

Daphné, yes.

We have the...