Select Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Littleton. Welcome to the Tuesday, May 26th Select Board Meeting. It's 5.30 p.m. We are going to be entering into executive session for approximately an hour, and we will return into regular session at 6.30. So with that, could I have a motion? Motion.

Move that the select board enter into executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21A2, to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel, specifically the town administrator, and pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21A8, to consider applicants for employment relative to the police chief position, and that the board reconvene in open session.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. I'll have a roll call vote. Chuck?

Chuck's aye.

Kyle? Kyle's aye. Mark?

Aye.

Karen? Aye. And I'm an aye as well. We will be back in open session in approximately an hour. Thank you. With the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We do have a member visiting us through Zoom, via Zoom, Karen Morrison. So I want to make sure she can hear us. Karen? Karen, can you hear me? I cannot hear you. Oh, now can you?

Technology.

Nope. Karen, can you hear us? Now I can. Thanks. Perfect.

Welcome. We made that possible.

Thank you. All right. Good evening. Today, our agenda will include some department board updates, Parks and Rec Commission, public works, awarding of contracts, human resources, discussion of appointing project manager position. Human resources also vote to appoint information systems manager. Littleton Public Schools, exemption. We have some public, obviously public input. Some member updates. If we have any updates on the flock security cameras, NAGOG, Orchard, Charter Committee. As always, a lot of these things, I've moved a few things off the agenda, and Jim will update us as appropriate in his updates. you know some of the things that like the 550 king street it's on there but nothing's happening um we don't need to have it on here every time to discuss let what jim can let us know if any um projects have come underway um then we have a select board discussion on bond finance municipal facilities policy discussion uh scheduling the next select board retreat and goal setting for the upcoming year update on municipal operation projects and initiatives from Jim, and then we'll get into our minutes, executive session minutes, and then we will adjourn hopefully in an hour. That would be impressive. We can do it. All right, so with that, we have the mail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Select Board. I just want to let everyone know that there are some current vacancies on the town boards, and the following openings are appointed by the Select Board. There's Agricultural Commission, Committee for the Exploration of Real Estate Tax Relief for Seniors, Economic Development Committee, Master Plan Implementation Committee.

Excuse me.

Permanent Municipal Building Committee, Personnel Advisory Committee, Zoning Board of Appeals. One position that is appointed by the Town Administrator, that's for the Affordable Housing Trust. One position appointed by Littleton Electric Light and Water Department is from the Finance Committee. And one appointment of the School Committee, also looking for someone to fill a void in their Finance Committee. We also have a public notice, Littleton Housing Authority vacancy for one member there. And the applications will be accepted and interviews and appointments will be made by the select board until the position is filled. Per Gary Wilson, chairman. Select board office hours. We have Tuesday, May 26th from 4 to 6, which Mr. Rombacher was there today. Friday, June 5th from 11 to 1230 with Karen Morrison. Wednesday, June 24th from 4 to 6 with Mr. Rombacher. And Wednesday, July 1st from 11 to 1230 with Karen Morrison. And lastly, in the mail, we've got a notification for approved District 3 vegetation management plan. And that is going to be served as the notice. And approval was given by the members of the rural panel present on April 23rd, 2026. It's in the link as you can see online. The approved vegetation management plan for those who would like to follow that is, there's a link online there in minutes, and it's upon approval of the yearly operational plan and 21 days in advance of the application of a herbicide to a row, the applicant will notify Mass. Department of MDAR.

I forgot what that stood for.

Agricultural Resources, Board of Health, Water Supply, Select Board, and Conservation Commission. And that will be it for the mail.

Thank you. Any questions on that? All right, let's move forward on department and board updates and requests. We have a park and rec community education. We have seven exemptions, it looks like.

Right, right. And this is typical. This is what we do every single, you know. Especially in the summer. Yes, sir. It's a housekeeping thing. We've got seven individuals that are before you for support of the exemption pursuant to the Mass General Laws Chapter 268A for summer seasonal employees.

Okay. Is there anybody here for that purpose? Okay. If there's no questions, we'll look for a motion. Okay.

Move the select board vote to acknowledge a disclosure by a municipal employee of a financial interest in a municipal contract and also approve the exemptions for Lavinia Garcia, Benjamin Rose, Olivia Mano, Isabella Alsop, Allison Ramirez, Catherine Honshell, Chloe Coro, and Emily Bell as municipal employees in accordance with MGL Chapter 268A, Section 20B.

Second. Moved by Mark. Second by Kyle. All those in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Thank you, Karen. Yeah, I'm going to have to do a roll call vote on each one. I apologize whenever we have a member on Zoom. Okay. Okay. So, Karen, your name and your name. Karen Wilson, aye. Thank you.

Dr. Kozak. Kyle Baum.

Aye. Mark Reinbacher, aye.

Gary Wilson, aye. Thank you. formalities. That's important. We have public works. We have a couple contracts. Some of these are exciting. One of them for sure. Actually, they're both exciting, but that first one, we get beat up on mail all the time.

And that is... And I believe that that is a contract was identified, a low bidder was P.J. Albert of Fitchburg for $291,545. And that is roadway repairs and also putting in a sidewalk on Russell Street. And that is a request authorization for the town administrator to sign the contract.

I guess the question I was getting was, I know the timeline. I think they said they're going to do it after school is out.

Right.

Assuming probably right away. Yeah. Be done within.

You know, the goal is as close as we can. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

So do we know any more, like the other side of Russell Street has granite curbs, the side has asphalt curbs. Are we just doing a repaving or are we doing more of a reconstruction?

With the new sidewalks and the paving? It's definitely granite. I believe it's going to be granite.

We're recurving everything?

To be consistent in the paving, and I will make sure that I confirm that through the DPW director, but I believe that is the case.

We might need to later on discuss speed limit on that route as well.

And can we see if we can still apply for complete streets for it, even if it's in a rear?

I believe the application is closed the way I understand it. That's the way it was expressed to me this morning. But I'll confirm that also.

The bid's awarded, too. I don't think you can submit most of it. I don't know what the, yeah. The granite rubbing is in the scope of work. Okay.

Thank you. We keep leaving Complete Streets money on the table by not a lot of money. Steve's pretty good at it. We've never had any under Steve. The only Complete Street work project was at Russell Street. That's the only one that we've ever been awarded.

Was Foster considered?

That's a state or federal thing. It's not Complete Streets.

I've certainly taken the time on it like it's a federal thing, I'll tell you that. Karen, anything to add to that? Good. Great. Look for a motion.

Move to award the Russell Street resurfacing and related work contract, contract number 26-8, to P.J. Albert Construction Company, Inc. of Fitchburg, Mass., as the lowest responsible and eligible builder in the amount of $291,545, and to authorize the town administrator to execute the contract. Second.

Moved by Mark, seconded by Kyle. This will be a roll call vote. Karen?

Karen Morrison, aye.

Dr. Coast, aye. Kyle Mupp, aye. Mark Reinbacher, aye.

Gary Wilson's an aye. On to the next DPW contract.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Here we have, this is a project with two separate funding sources. We've got CPC funds, which is for $88,000. As part of the project would be a boardwalk for the project, and we also have the dredging. of approximately $70,000 which is being paid out of roadway repairs of DPW. And the lowest bidder was MJ Cataldo of Littleton, Mass. And for the amount of $156,000 and the request is for approval from the select board to have the town administrator sign the contract.

Just out of curiosity, anybody know when that was last done, that boardwalk?

Do you know when we... Yeah, I think it was original. They did it for a fund, I think. How long ago was that? 2012.

I'm just curious what the lifespan of these boardwalks are, because that's kind of good to know for the future. That's a good point. All right, any questions?

For a motion? Move to award the Frog Pond Restoration Contract, Contract Number 2026-7 to MJ Contaldo, Inc. of Littleton, Mass. as the lowest responsible and eligible bidder in the amount of $156,000 and to authorize the town administrator to execute the contract.

Second. Moved by Mark, seconded by Chuck. Karen, roll call.

Karen Morrison, aye.

Trustee Koste, aye. Kyle Bupp, aye.

Mark Reinbacher, aye. Gary Wilson, aye. Thank you. Moving right along here. I'm going to jump really quick just to F, Littleton Public Schools, vote to approve an exemption pursuant. Another municipal employee. Why was this kept separate? Oh, because it's PRC versus schools. Any discussion on the different exemption?

It is.

On 3F, to approve exemption for a school employee.

You see it? Yeah, what's the exemption for? They're doing, working for what department?

You know? It's in Michelle's notes.

Good evening, Michelle Vibert, Human Resources Director. This is for a current school employee to be able to work not only at Tiger's Den, but also at the school itself as a substitute.

Okay, thank you. You have the motion, though? Yep. Are there any questions on that? Motion.

I move that the select board vote to acknowledge a disclosure by a municipal employee of a financial interest in a municipal contract and approve the exemption for Kyra Rowe as a municipal employee in accordance with MGL Chapter 268A, Section 20D.

Second. Seconded by Mark, seconded by Kyle. We'll call vote. Karen?

Karen Morrison, aye.

Justice Cotas, aye. Kyle, aye.

Mark Reibacher, aye.

Gary Wilson, aye. All right. Now we'll get into the human resources. Thank you.

Good evening, Michelle vibrate human resources director. Again, we are in front of the board tonight to request appointment for two of our non union employees. The first appointment is to the project manager position. This appointment is coming before the board due to our personnel bylaws, which state that any appointment above that exceeds step five must go in front of the board for approval.

All right, so this is D and E on department board updates. Any, we probably have some questions, so we might as well, you can start off, Kyle, if you have any.

um these are the two that were discussed last yeah yeah this is more of a question for you jim yes sir is this project manager role going to be all-encompassing for the entire town meaning on the responsibility of this role would be to manage any project to do any community outreach on behalf of any department in town

It would be, right, it would be vetted from within, and if there's a need or anything like that, for example, one of the things we talked about today, today we had ADA training with the town hall, and one of the concerns that came from that meeting was there is a potential grant opportunity for some capital improvements based upon our transitional plan, but there wasn't enough time with current personnel workloads to be able to submit that application. While here is a perfect opportunity, and I talked to the chair of the ADA commission, our town clerk, and said, if you have that available, here's a perfect opportunity that, We would like to be able to, as project manager, just to take that ball and run with it to be able to have something to submit for a grant opportunity for some capital improvements based upon the project. uh... the transition plan that the collins center is doing right now for us that's a pretty so it'd be town-wide so that the you know the department of something like that can come to uh... to tony into myself and say you know would love to can we get a little help here to help therein absolutely meanwhile uh... the project manager will also be continually doing uh... outreach efforts transparency to notify whether it be other social media or getting more aggressive on social media posts, with just informing, the social media or the leaps and bounds of what Littleton has been doing. So that's just some of the little things. Tony and Nancy work very, very well together. She's done a great job with Tony and let's say, for example, with the Agricultural Commission, the agricultural area, that website or anything like that. It's things like that that we want to be able to get out there. And we also want, I would like Nancy to look at, as Karen Morrison had requested, she really looked at an opportunity for someone to highlight the vacancies that we just, we sit here and we read every two weeks to see if we can do a spotlight on the vacancies and educating the residents about that in a more aggressive manner.

On the topic of the Thrive contract, is that an all-you-can-eat plan, or are we restricted to a certain amount of hours per month?

It's an all-you-can-eat, one fee. It's actually being underutilized, and we want to be able to capture more from that. Yeah, exactly. Thanks. Yes, sir.

I'm against moving Nancy in to the project manager role at this time. I think the time to do that was during the budget process when we were actually reviewing budgets. We shouldn't be creating a new position outside of the budget process. I think we can have Nancy do the role of project manager if there's room in her daily schedule now, but I'm opposed to actually doing the reclassification at this point.

I guess ease your mind if we abolish the other position and then went back to town meeting for it if we needed it again with that.

I think the process here is wrong. We just went through a budget process where we approved a budget with two people and an IT.

Right.

And now, a few weeks after town meeting, we're saying, no, we don't need two people in IT. We're going to move Nancy over to this other role. I think we should keep Nancy in IT, and if she has, utilize Thrive Board, give Nancy these things to do if she doesn't have IT work to do. Perfectly fine doing that, but moving her to this new role is wrong. We wouldn't allow other departments to create new things outside of the normal budget cycle. We shouldn't be doing it either.

Finance director and the assistant finance director last year wasn't exactly done that way. So it was, as you remember, the previous finance director left. Yes. After town meeting. Yes. Okay, so there was no discussion. There was nothing about providing an additional opportunity for that. That was done beyond the process. for those two individuals. And they were doing the job without getting paid until we had the funding available for July 1st.

This is moving someone from one department to another. That was paying people in the department for job titles.

What you're suggesting is having an individual do something that is not within their scope of services of the job description that was voted on at town meeting. So that probably I wouldn't recommend going that road either. Let's continue.

You mentioned budget. What impact? Is it budget neutral?

It's a decrease of between $20,000 and $25,000. Karen? I'm listening. Okay. Well, then we will address it. We'll know that long before it's not going to be all of a sudden it's going to be, okay, now we're going to need two people. There are expectations. I cannot – I don't – There may be a time that in the future, whether it be two, three, four, five years, that we may need another person in IT. But right now, things are – there are – this is a conversation that I was having with Nancy probably for about a year leading up to this. So this is something that there is clearly – with the talents and the strengths of Nancy, we want to be able to take those and put those someplace else that's going to benefit the town. And if we can do that, and all with the understanding with Nancy that if there is a hint that things are not working out, absolutely going to pull you back. And completely, completely agree. I don't think that is going to be the case. I have complete confidence in Tom. That will move forward, but to sit there and say, what if we need someone in the future? We will need someone in the future, but what point in time will that be? It may be a different... No, it may be a different... Someone has... There may be some different talents that the business skill set. Thank you. Thank you, Chuck. That we need to identify and reach out for and do that. That may be, in all likelihood, that's going to come.

Yeah, you know, I'll look at this as... where it's within the, it was one of those fine lines, but I believe this is in the town manager, town assistant, or town administrator's purview to move people within all the departments to most effectively run the, run the town and run business. That being said, I'm more comfortable with knowing that we can't just shift her back. Typically, you would abolish a position when somebody leaves. If you truly don't need it, you abolish it, bring it back to town meeting. create it, whether it's the assistant position or it sounds like the assistant position has been the one that's no longer there because we re-graded the management position, correct?

Which one are you speaking about?

Sorry. The IT position, the assistant position is the one that's vacant. Okay. At the end of tonight, it would be vacant.

Tom's current position would be vacant. Correct. Yes. It's not an assistant. Sorry. That's why I didn't know. That's okay. It's the technician. Yes. That one is vacant.

Why would we terminate that position or just if we need it, then we go back to Tom eating?

Yep, so typically I never recommend terminating a position. It is always harder to get a position back when you already have it. And IT is near and dear to my heart. We're in 2026, everything does run off IT. So if we do need it in the future, you would need to go back through the budget process and fund it. So it can stay on the table, just not be funded for that fiscal year.

Yeah, that's just my personal preference is to have the positions when they're no longer utilized to have them come back through the budget cycle if we're going to move somebody to another position.

So there would be two positions that would be terminated? Tom's current one and Nancy's current one.

Yeah, Tom. Correct. Because we regraded Nancy's current position, basically.

It's a whole new job description.

No more management. No more supervisory capacity to it. All right. It sounds like we're going to have a split vote on this. But I'll look for a motion either way that we can discuss.

Move to appoint Nancy Landcross to the project manager position at grade 13, step 10 on compensation plan schedule. Actually, I have one other question. I asked last time what happens when she moves to step 10. Does she get the merit?

Yes.

Okay. So that's different than.

So any. She still effectively gets. She still receives the merit stipend, but to Jim's point, it's still roughly a 25, I think it's like roughly $27,000 savings to the town with that stipend included. So she receives one now, and she'll still receive one in the new position.

We have a motion on the floor. Seconded by Chuck. All those in favor, roll call vote. Karen?

Karen Wilson, aye.

Chuck? Chuck to go. Kyle? Kyle, aye.

Mark? Nay. Mark Garenbacher, nay.

Gary Wilson's an aye. Motion passes four to one. All right, the second position, please.

So the second position is the IT manager position. We just spoke about this recently. The current IT technician would be looking to move into the information system manager position, and we are looking to bring him in to grade 14, step seven on compensation plan schedule A.

What is his current grade and stuff?

His current grade is grade 11, step 10. He would be 10 as of 7-1 this upcoming year, which would be $88,092.

So this 7 is bringing him into 7, and he's stepping to an 8? Or is he stepping, staying at an 8? 7 as of July 1.

Staying at 7 as of July 1. So his salary as of July 1 would be $99,263.52. That current number, though, so for a month, we'll say, the month of June, it would be grade 14 step 7, which is $96,841.44.

Okay, so July 1st, he's a seven or an eight? Seven. So we're... He won't double step.

He receives a COLA, a cost of living increase.

Okay, so are we appointing him at... We're appointing him now at seven and he's just not stepping?

Correct. Correct.

Yeah, he won't step at the new year. That's in personal policy.

Correct. So even though he's already an employee, you're already giving him the bump in salary. Okay.

Yeah, the only discussion I would have here, I think these internal ones, especially ones near and dear to your heart, the earlier we can get in on the discussion, I think it would save some of this.

I own this, and I own it. I absolutely, completely, completely agree, and my apologies, and it won't happen again.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Definitely, I think it's going to be a good use of the position. Resources, yeah. Resources. So I'll look for a motion, please.

Move to appoint Thomas McLaughlin to the Information Systems Manager position at Grade 14, Step 7, on Compensation Plan Schedule A.

Second. Second. Moved by Mark, seconded by Kyle. A roll call vote. Karen?

Karen Morrison, aye. Dr. Koest, aye. Kyle Bupp, aye. Mark? Mark Rambacher, aye.

And Gary Wilson is an aye as well. All right. Thank you all very much. Your business is done tonight. Thank you. Good job on the assessment center and everything else. Thank you. All right. We're into, let's get our member updates out of the way. We'll go to you, Karen, since you're out in the Netherlands.

Yeah, I'm going to pass tonight. Thank you.

Okay.

I just want to thank everybody for coming out on a rainy Memorial Day. It was kind of a last second pivot and it actually worked out really well. We had it in the center at Shattuck Street and well attended and some really nice speeches and good opportunity to remember those who gave it all to protect us and protect our freedoms also want to mention that this Thursday is awards night for And then it's at 6.30. And in the past, if anybody ever went to a graduation, we'd sit there for about half an hour or 40 minutes listening to all the scholarships that were being awarded. And now they do it this awards night. And it's amazing to me how many How many scholarships are available to our high school seniors when they're going off to the next chapter of life? It's hundreds of thousands of dollars that are rewarded. I just want to thank everybody that was involved in that giving, and congratulations to all the students. And just mentioned when Michelle was getting down about the assessment center.

I don't know if you want to mention that just so the public knows Yeah, just yeah, really it's a public statement I guess I'll do my member updates that if you do it this way, but We we the town did in an assessment center You see a company up out of New Hampshire I believe came down helped us um evaluate and rank um a group of internal candidates for the new position of police chief as matthew panard stepped down so um we were in executive session earlier tonight discussing those results and next steps forward which will be an interview process and then we will discuss and hopefully come out of this with a new chief so exciting times in littleton for somebody and for all of us yes um other updates yes the memorial day things like that just don't happen especially when you have to pivot um you know mike kiernan was was crucial the commander of the vfw also employed employee of the dpw uh making this happen meg murphy our new vso um you know let's try you know i texted her i go hey we're gonna have to use your facility um And I said, I have a fob. I'll get us in there at 9. But she said, I have to come down. There's no way. I can't explain to you how to open up the middle of the door. So she actually gave up her day to come down and help us. So I just wanted to let you know. Wow. Not surprised. No, she's amazing. And Diane Crury obviously continues just to amaze us with her work, both as the clerk, but also just her work towards veterans and the Friends of Veterans. All the Friends of Veterans that put on the VFW luncheon afterwards, and the entire Schimel family, basically, was there that grills for everybody every year. And who else?

They just donate?

Yes, it's all donations. Just amazing. What else do we have here? And just the police, the fire, obviously. There was a good number of police and fire there, probably 20 or so at least, those that were on duty and some that probably came to work the parade but ended up coming to the event. So it was well attended by them as well, and we appreciate that. as well as I want to recognize Representative Arciero and Senator Eldridge as well for coming and giving speeches. And, of course, the families of those no longer with us. And lastly, we're not going to meet again before graduation, so congratulations, seniors. Let's get on with your next chapter.

Kyle? We'll follow in that. I actually have no member updates tonight.

You yielded your time.

I did, yes. Thank you. Mr. Rombacher.

Oh, you don't know all mine. So on the Affordable Housing Trust side, I've attended a meeting with MAGIC and the area Affordable Housing Trust. It was the last meeting in their series. They're looking for funding through the One Stop to continue it. Producing a white white paper. This should come out towards the end of June to help support What's going on with all the housing authorities in the area? I attended a CHAPA cohort meeting in Medway For part of the housing Institute that I'm getting certified for the affordable housing trust through with with help from MHP and has prepared an RFP for the Durkee property that should be going out next month. They can do 32 bedrooms is what they've determined, plus the house. So that will be coming out in the next month or so.

It's about five acres?

It's five acres, yeah. I attended the Shaker Lane Community Forum, which was really interesting where they basically gave you, they said, imagine all the walls are blank. What would you like to see on them that represents the community from texture to colors to everything. And I was at the climate action plan. That should be finalized in about a month. I was at the charter meeting. That should be coming to us in a couple weeks. Kyle and I went to the business spotlight of mail with Tony. Kyle bought some hot sauce that I assume was very good. Yes, it is. Lots of nice scarves and other, the clean lakes. On Meeting House Road, yes. Clean Lakes, we have the MOU with Westford for the treatment of Forge Pond. The Westford Town Council got back with some comments. It's now with our town council. I don't think there's anything major, but it should be something that's signable. Matthew Nordhaus is one of his final going away presents to us. Found someone to do like a report for the orchard. So Jim should be signing a contract on that any day now?

Yeah, it's going to be a purchase order.

Yeah, a purchase order. And I wanted to let everyone know that the Lyceum is this Friday over at the high school. There's a Japanese drumming group called Odeiko at 7.30. It should be an awesome show. I've heard wonderful things about them.

That's all I have. So the Orchard, just to follow up on that, they do this every year. So this is not MDAR.

MDAR did an inspection a few weeks ago, and they should be sending us a report soon. This is our consultant basically following up.

But I think in the lease we also had said that once a year we have him come in.

Yeah, so after the MDAR report comes out, he'll come talk to us. Okay, perfect. So probably in July.

Yeah, and I will give a, since flock cameras is on here, and I know there's a few people here that probably want to speak to that as well, they're disconnected, they're charged off, you know, as we discussed last meeting, until we can. work through a policy if we can find a policy that's going to work for our community. If not, then we'll take the next steps to either permanently remove them or whatever that takes. I think that's about it. Let's open this up to public input. Anybody? Come on up.

I'm Joanne Derry from Howard Avenue, and I just had two things that I wanted to ask about or just draw your attention to. One is the liquid natural gas facility at the Lupoli property. It's only been there for less than two years. The company that runs it came and talked about it at a planning board meeting, and the planning board was pretty surprised. I don't think they were aware of it. I don't know how the Lupoli company... It's there, it's on their property and maybe they just went and got a signature from the building inspector or something. It's not known how it got permanent or anything. But the company moved it there less than two years ago because where it was before in some other town, a line was being replaced and so they had to move. So they got Lapoli to say, sure, come here. So they've been paying the Lapoli company And now they need to move again because the police are going to develop that property. And they're looking at a parcel that's owned by Kimball's. It's on the other side of 110. And I hope that it can be a no. We're not going to do it. It can go back to the town it was at before. But if it's a yes and they're going to get to put it there, I hope that it can be completely dark. except when people are actually working there and supposedly it will just be seasonal like only in the winter um with only motion sensitive cameras that have you know lights aimed only inside the facility and not out at like the protected Wetland that's nearby um and like a low Kelvin temperature so they're they're as unobtrusive as possible and I hope that the site can just be silent and not have like compressors or noises running. I guess they're saying it's not a storage facility, but it sounds like in the winter, sometimes when it's really cold, there's a need for more gas than is in the pipe. So they send these storage tankers to that site and then they can discharge their contents into the system as needed so to me there is some storage there so I just wanted to like say I don't like it and I hope we can say no to them and then the second thing was I'm a little bit concerned about the um these data centers that are popping up and Littleton has really low electric rates which might make us kind of an attractive location for something like that and I think our governor is kind of in favor of having some So I I hope that we can have like a policy about them also that they would be silent and wouldn't absorb any of our electric and Any water they return to the system would be at the ambient temperature, you know, like if it's 32 degrees out it would be 32 degrees And that they would be silent and be dark And maybe that they can only be built where there's already a building like we're not going to sacrifice any fields or woods to make a data center. So those are just my thoughts. Thank you. Thank you.

There is some town south of Boston that just zones, so no new data centers.

Makes more sense to have them like in Lakeville or where they have all this flat land forever, right?

Hi. Erica Pudgourney, 6 Fox Lane. So first of all, thank you for unplugging the flock cameras. It makes me feel much better. But I am wondering about how we move forward from here. The last time I spoke, I asked about whether or not this information could be shared with ICE. I did look at the proposed policy. I didn't see what you were talking about, Mark, so maybe you can point me to where that is in the policy that it can't be used that way. But also, even if we have a policy that says that we won't share this information, what can flock do with it does that stop flock from giving it to ice or anyone else for that matter um so i i really have a problem with that um and you know it does say in here that it can be used for any legitimate law enforcement um uses which i think ice would claim they are so My other big concern is how we got to this point to begin with and that the only reason we even knew about it is because someone saw it and mentioned it to Amy and then Amy brought it up and like Otherwise it no one knew it was happening. You guys didn't know the public didn't know And I want to know how How we prevent this from happening in the future? What other surveillance does the Littleton PD think is appropriate to do on the citizenry? And how do we stop that from happening? And how do we make sure going forward that the Littleton PD can't just decide that they're going to use mass surveillance without us knowing. So those are my thoughts. Thank you. Thank you.

And I think through policy is probably the short answer to that, but I think also gave me a good idea for a question for our respective police chiefs. That's good. Thank you.

I'm Amy Tarlow-Lewis on Omegaway, and I wanted to reiterate Joanne's, Deary's concerns about data centers. I would certainly like to see a policy, much of what she outlined, but I would actually like to have a moratorium on data centers.

Like Mansfield? Yeah. Data one? Mansfield, possibly.

Yeah.

moratorium is my preference so i had a couple of questions so maybe i'll just go through them and one by one you can answer them um amy just try to keep it factual because you made some statements at the last meeting that about the doj and it was it was erroneous so just if you can try to make sure that it's

but so people know that was the information that I had the time because I didn't understand that the public safety grant was actually Littleton taxpayer monies and extra money that the Littleton light and water department generates I don't think people know that so I searched for grants that had been awarded and that's the one that came up but it wasn't used for this That is correct. Ultimately, it was not. And I'm happy to share that, because I know you texted me and asked me where I got the source. And to be transparent and honest, I gave you the information that I absolutely had and thought to be true. And maybe it's just me. I don't know if people in town know that Littleton Light and Water Department gives out grants to departments and committees in town, which is fine. It was fine until it suddenly wasn't fine.

um so i didn't know if there were any new updates or new information to share with the public about the cameras um no you know we're kind of over the hour and there's no there would never be a plan to turn them back on until we had uh this board obviously convene and discuss it in much greater detail but informing the public and having some forms that would obviously have to happen so um This board is not going to allow them to be turned back on until that happens.

So there's nothing meaningful has changed. Correct. So I did attend the Littleton Light and Water Department's monthly meeting on May 21st. They had told me, and this is one of the points of clarification I'm hoping to gain, is they feel very strongly that their role is essentially just to rubber stamp the applications that come through. They feel that all the other discussion happens somewhere else, and it's all worked out, and they just kind of rubber stamp it. It's not their job to get involved in questioning or for thinking. at all or wondering more just like even saying you know what this might have people might be concerned let's put it on hold for a month I mean they could have done that but they told me that the select board and the town manager had approved the line item on the warrant I guess it was, so it's not actually in the warrant that everyone receives, it's in that appropriations document, that Excel spreadsheet, which was sent to me, and I was like, this is like 28, 30 pages of Excel line items. That's who we deal with every week. And so I was like, okay, that is factually correct. And then I thought to myself, and the finance committee also approves it. And I kind of thought to myself, okay, so technically they did. But I also wonder, like, what is your process in terms of going through it? Because I, you know, I've been living here for 20 years. I've been watching, coming here for 20 years. And I know how busy you are. And I would never run because I could not manage all the things that you do. So I thank you, even though sometimes I disagree. I can understand how a single line item could be missed. So I guess, is there someone who really goes through it? Or what is your internal process for that?

Yeah, I'll give you a little bit of, it's a learning curve. And Kyle's learning this really fast. I don't understand it. So we obviously sign all the warrants, every penny that the town spends comes through the warrants process. And it is a large document. Between payroll and every item that is purchased, I went and looked at that line item because I was surprised that my signature is on the document. And it's not like I'm signing a contract or a single document. Like you said, there's...

It's like 28, 30 inches.

Thousands of line items that we're looking through. And that line item, even when I read it, was confusing enough to me to not know that I would have been signing something that was a flock camera that's being used throughout the community.

If you don't know what a flock camera is, you just think it's like a camera.

Well, I knew we were working with, since the... You know, when the arson that took place in the point, I knew we were working to get the cameras up there with Sam Parks. So I thought that it had some – when I looked at it this time, I thought it had something to do with that.

Yeah, and I agree. That's reasonable to assume.

So that's – but as far as what our process is to – so this can't happen again – There's a lot of people looking at that. It is a failure. I will take that responsibility and say it was a failure by us not to catch that, even though you saw how yeah it'd be pretty tough to catch but all of us sign it all five board members sign this document and we go through it and we do have a lot of questions believe me we're caught we're calling on different payroll items you know overtime things and yeah so we we all have i understand i truly understand the volume that's we lost we did not catch that item in the trust but trust but verify it yeah you don't always yeah but i also understand like the volume of things that are going on so like

You have my forgiveness for that, actually. But I'm really more focused on how to improve the process. If things are listed generally as public safety, do we need to create a process that that needs to come to the select board for just public input or just further discussion? Like I'm more interested in like how do we move forward with it?

We learn from it, you know, I absolutely learn from it I would say You know, it's a balance. You have a strong police chief strong fire chief. You want them to be able to? Provide support as quickly as possible and things that they feel are necessary for the town. I And now if I look at this, obviously, in retrospect, we look back at this, I bet I could get with the chief and he'd say, yeah, we should have come in front of the board and we should have discussed this and it should have been much more of a process. He was doing it from completely a safety standpoint. That's not the answer that you're looking for. We are going to continue to develop policy and working with our new chief that comes in and also Chief McCurdy because there are sensitive things there, too, that could potentially... come about so it's just a matter of we put a lot on them to tell us when something needs to come in front of us bring it in front of us and let us discuss it and so that we can actually the beta so we don't have things like this happen again but we can probably get this more into writing and even part of their performance cycle to know. What do we consider something that's important? We don't always know until it happens. This one probably, all of us up here would probably say, yeah, that probably should have come in front of us, at least to vet and see how this is going to work, get a presentation, because we still have too many questions.

Yeah, and sort of like that's the the select book because the select board oversees the fire department and the police station But also looking at the process at Littleton light and water department, which I know you do not oversee But there there seems to be a gap in communication We can get better there we're gonna get better there we are and and

it's come a long way so I think we have a long way to go but absolutely the two departments there's such a value added to the town that we need to work closer together to be able to understand because we don't even advertise some of the other things that they do that we should be really sharing with the community when they these grants that you talked about there's a lot of good that's come from these oh yeah and if we hadn't been even doing that we would have caught it just through that basic all updating, hey, there was a grant given this year for X. Yeah, no, agreed.

That would be better. And so then I had a question about what is sort of like standard process or procedure here or at Littleton Light and Water Department. So there were two agenda items on that agenda, and one said open meeting law complaint, and then the next one said basically complaint, and it had my name listed. So they went through the first agenda item or the first person who had sent in a letter, their name wasn't mentioned, their name wasn't on the agenda, and they did not have their letter from Littleton Light and Water Department's attorney put their letter on that screen. My name was listed on the agenda, fine, I don't really care. They used my name, fine, I sent in the complaint, but my letter was put on the screen for everyone to see, which is fine, I don't care, it's public record. But I was like, why am I being treated differently? than someone else and it just made me curious um like if they think sending me letters from attorneys is going to intimidate me i don't i don't even want to you know give any um

discussion towards that because it's another board and it is a board you know obviously if it was a board that was underneath us that we could have direct effect um i those questions did you go back to them with those questions i have not i thought i would come here and because their meetings aren't recorded either there's no ai transcription and they're not video recorded I think it would be outside of bounds for me to comment on how they put their agendas together because the chair, it's the chair's responsibility with the town administrator here. I'm assuming it would be the chair and their... Executive director, so that's where I would start and say, what if I didn't want my name on? Just things like that, so you would know better for next time.

Yeah, I just found it surprising that you have a short one or two interactions over email at a town meeting. and citizens are immediately getting letters from attorneys like we've had I've been you know again been here for a long time we've had very hard discussions with a lot of people I've seen some pretty tough behavior on both sides and I don't think anyone got a letter from an attorney to my knowledge and I thought that's not how we fix things in Littleton I can speak to our board and boards that we directly have some effect over but I cannot speak for another board I don't even want to want to try but um

We will continue to, from our perspective, build a relationship with them so that we can have more transparency between our boards so that we're on. There's no surprises.

Great. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Amy.

Andrew Stachowicz, Foster Street. I agree about the sentiment about flock cameras. I think ALPRs, the automated license plate readers, the dragnet surveillance, it's not really safe, I think. There's a lot of issues with it, but I'll just simply voice my support of that. And then data center moratorium, great idea, support of it. Obviously, things can change down the line, but let's get ahead of the curve now. And the last point, which I think is actually a positive one, is I agree with Mr. Rombacher's point about the Complete Streets grants. I think the 2027 fiscal year applications end in June. Seems like great money to put towards use. I mean, I know there's a long list of road priorities. I would love to see it get used more often. So I just urge more attention towards that, if possible. Thank you.

Yeah, that's really important. I know that we got quite a bit of complete streets when we did. We got a lot and we would kind of put to the bottom of the list, frankly. So I can reach out to Steve and just say, hey, just because we keep getting no's, let's keep putting them in because at some point we're going to cycle back up to the top again, hopefully.

I went through the whole Complete Streets training so that we could get more. Yeah.

Let's see if the cycle will come back around to us. Anyone else?

Megan Rank, Green Needles Road. I guess I just want to touch on what Amy said. I was out of state, but I saw the agenda posted for the meeting last week, and I saw her name on the agenda, and I was a little taken aback by that. So I figured that when I got home, I could watch the meeting and see what happened. And then I was kind of shocked to find out that there was no recordings of that meeting. So I feel... And I know you said it's a different board, and you can't comp, but I feel like we're kind of being pushed, like, well, what happens that... So I guess I'm just asking you to ask that board to have more transparency, because I don't know how Amy was treated during that meeting. Like, nobody knows what happened during that meeting, and it's very unsettling to me that somebody's name can be on an agenda, and then we have no record of... how she was treated during that meeting. So I guess I just ask, I know the answer there was that it's not your board, but she's our citizen, and I think that there should be some transparency just to make sure that nobody's being, I don't know, I just ask for more transparency. Thank you. Joanne.

Oh, sorry, Joanne. Sure. Second bite at the apple. Sorry.

Thanks for letting me speak again. Joanne Deary at Howard Avenue. I just wanted to build on what the previous two speakers have said. The place where those meetings take place place has great cameras i mean they could be televising their meetings i don't know why they don't and i would have gone to the meeting but i thought it was going to be this week because when i tried to look up when the meeting was you couldn't find that out you could find out what time the meeting would start but not the date that it would occur so i had to go like back through old agendas to see when the meetings had happened in the past and sort of inferred that the meeting would be this week, and I was wrong, so I missed it. So I know they're not under your purview, but I will be going to meetings there and asking them to televise their meetings and to put their minutes out and to put a calendar. Why not have a calendar so people know when the meeting is and that they can go? So I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Thank you.

Can we get their meetings on the town calendar? I don't know that I see. Oh, there it is. Okay. My mistake. Can we get it so that when the meetings are posted that people can, like, I get notices when the planning board has a meeting so that people can subscribe to new agendas. Civic Plus. The Civic Plus can. Oh, yeah. Are they not on Civic Plus? The meetings.

They're not on Civic Plus, though.

Well, when Diane posts the meeting, there's a way of subscribing to the event. So we should make more boards so that you could subscribe to the events. Then people will know when the meetings are easier.

Understood.

Thank you. Could be a project for Nancy. Yes, sir. I know she knows how to do it. Without a doubt.

Nice, Mark. All right, bond finance municipal facilities policy. This is our fourth look at this, I think.

Probably second, honestly. Okay. So the last time we were discussing this was back in March, and what I presented before you was the policy on use of bond finance municipal facilities, outlining the purpose, the scope, and so on. During that meeting, it was some of the feedback about developing a sort of a matrix guide and through that I did provide with you this afternoon a working draft of such a guide and it is driven for purposes of assisting your department heads staff and so on to when looking at these types of requests you know what's the rule of thumb why are we doing this number one why is it important And so municipal buildings that are financed through bonds must ensure that there are IRS regulations in place that you cannot exceed certain thresholds, for example, for private uses specifically. And working with our council and with the finance team, it was advised to have a policy in place. And that's what I shared with you was the draft policy back in March. And in the end, since then, put together this compliance guide, which is ironically, as sitting here is looking at it, six pages long. The policy itself is only two. But with appreciation to that, there's some basic flow chart, along with what I think is very helpful are some examples. These examples come from our council incorporated here. So when staff is reviewing requests, they have that ability to cross-reference. And it looks at also or shares some notes about are there any red flags present, different examples of what those might be, such as exclusive rights for use, different dedicated long-term office space usage, and so on. The real other helpful piece...

There's sleeping arrangements in there or anything? I'm sorry?

There's no sleeping arrangement clause? We can add that. But also helpful in... looking at different types of application forms and so on, is to give the respective entities some basic elements of what they may wish to include within their forms to help narrow it down to this question of, is there any potential private use that may be here? And what are we trying to get to, ultimately, is to create a process in place where if there are any, let's say, red flags or something that I'm just not sure about, it's not a clear yes or no, using the policy or this guide to follow back and let's go, you know, let's circle back with the town administrator's office and then we can assess working with whom, working with our finance team, working with our council as well to discern truly if, you know, if there's a private use that may exceed its IRS or our IRS threshold requirements. I will go back to the policy itself, and again, it came from the council, and I appreciate the importance and part of this is the record-keeping and the monitoring that's required that we would do. There's an internal process here, right? So we would handle that to ensure, again, that things are, let's say, certainly in good order.

So...

I shared this with you, the draft, and would welcome any comments or suggestions for revisions and so on. There's no immediate urgency.

Okay, you give us a couple weeks to look at it. I know we received it later. Yeah, I haven't had a chance to look at it. Let's give us a little bit of time on this.

And happy to, you know, also to put this online, too, of course, to be clear and transparent about what we're working with.

This is great. It's something we brought up and appreciate diving into it. Yeah, exactly. So thank you for doing it. Awesome.

so I'm looking at all the facilities that are bonded there's the schools the schools aren't controlled by us and the library is not controlled by us but everything else really is one of our facilities so I I just wonder if it might be helpful to share these drafts with the library in the school to get them to see if there's anything any comments they have before

That's a good point. Absolutely. I will do that. And I am reminded, too, I apologize, I just pulled a note here, that the last time we had this discussion back in March, there was a question about 36 King Street and the dollar amount that I believe, I checked with the finance director, 2.6 million or so for 36 King, but it was part of a bundled bond that went up. We're totaling about $11 million. And so, and through that, that's why it's here. That's why it's on the list. That's why you see that year, that year end date on the policy, that exhibit last page.

PRC school FY2045. Which is crazy for the amount of money that we actually borrowed for that.

So it basically was bonded with the senior center. Yes.

The other components in there, as I understand, checking with Robin, there was some sewer and PFAS treatment, water main items on there too. So that totaled to, she was informing me, that totaled to $11 million.

So you said there's no urgency to do this tonight. Is there, like, if we do it, is there a next meeting that's good enough or? Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And at the end of the day, we want to ensure that it's a good working document for everyone.

36 King, Center on Shattuck, those are a couple of... Facilities that this could have a positive huge effect. Yeah So so people could use it.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm the other question I have is do we want to have a different policy for those that are bond financed than those that are not? Right because like the high school isn't listed so it would have a completely separate policy Do we really?

because their bond is gone.

Because their bond is gone. So should there be a policy for everything, whether it's bonded or not? They have policies for... Yeah, but the policy will be different for the high school than the middle school because the middle school is bonded. So does it make sense to have different policies, whether it's bonded or not? Because as things come and go, it's just going to make things more confusing.

That's Mark's point. It might be good to check. I know Steve Mark had... Whatever policy he was working under.

Yes, they.

They are loaded with policies, so we'll compare notes, although they were renting out facilities while they were bonded. So I'm not dropping a dime or anything.

I would like to just read this over a little in more detail because I'm curious on how. what would you change when a building comes is no longer bonded what what are the things that you're like okay thank goodness you'll do that right you're unlimited we have to have limits so what what would you take away from that policy or if anything is it too strange you know too stringent i don't know i mean yeah thanks tony yep good work um karen if you have anything just speak up on it yeah no i'm good thank you um discussion regarding scheduling the next select board retreat and goal setting session for the upcoming year so let's uh we typically do this in july is that july last year i figured it was june or july i think it was late june yeah i kind of think it was that too i don't want to take up all our june but i'd rather be abandoned take up our july so we already know we're meeting on the 8th correct that's a regular meeting and then the 15th we decided to meet as well for interviews police interviews and then Yeah, I mean, it would have to be that following week if we want to really go.

Have we typically done Friday? It's been like Friday afternoon.

You're right. One to four on a Friday or something. You remember what we did last year, Jim? One to four on a Friday. It was like one to four? Yeah.

Yes, sir. Exactly. Okay. It's a pain in the neck for you guys, though. On a Friday into June.

You're answering the question yourself, you know. You do realize that.

So last year was June 20th from 12 to 4. That's fine.

June 20th June 20th was last year okay doesn't work for me this year though and then the 19th would work but the 20th wouldn't let's kick six can we click it or yeah that's a tough one for me right I'd rather kick it till July I don't want to like round

Again, I'm not crazy, but a Friday afternoon, and it's the summer, and everybody's going somewhere, right? The staff's going to be there as well, so. Yeah, that's true.

We signed up for it. We signed up for it. It's okay.

We could do something like a three to six.

The 19th you have off. That's the Juneteenth, right? So that's, offices are closed, right?

Yeah, they're not available anymore. I believe so.

You know what? Who else is, who is available on the 26th? Of? Oh, June. Yeah, I can try to make it. Yeah, I'm available.

I'm supposed to be in Worcester, but I don't know what time I'm supposed to be. I signed up for the Mass Housing Institute, but I don't know what interesting things are going on.

Mass Housing Institute.

In 26 is fine for me. Okay. Jim?

Whatever. Trust me. I mean, my calendar. Fridays are tricky. It's fine. Don't worry. You know what?

I'd rather not do a Friday, personally, but. I'd rather not.

Unless you guys want to do it with the cave.

Field trip.

Okay.

Do you want to do like the 18th?

Of June?

18th.

Yeah, we're trying to stay in June.

Yeah, that's not good for me. Oh.

Two days. Two days at the Mass Housing Institute.

At Holy Cross?

30. Well, guys, I mean.

June 30th?

June 30th.

Let's do an afternoon thing.

I can do June 30th. Yep, I can do that. Yeah, Tuesday.

We wanna do what, four hours? What did we do in the past, three, one to four?

We did 12 to four last year.

12 to four, yeah.

Okay.

We used it.

Same time on Tuesday?

The Tuesday 12 to four at the firehouse? Or anywhere, it could be anywhere. It could be over here, yeah.

It could be in the back road at Forno.

that's true we've used them before as well let's just get the date locked in we can decide on a place so we're gonna go the 30th from 12 to 4 you're okay yeah okay well you think I have a day job don't go boy go yeah all right this is my job now that works yeah all right we'll try to get that scheduled and figure out a location that works um jim will have the stipend checks for us yeah absolutely barbecue um let's get our town administrator update thank you mr chairman members of the select board um

Some updates as we're progressing towards the end of the fiscal year and looking beyond. Our assessor's office is updating the maps that are being done. It's referred to as a CAMA system. And what they also have in there is cyclical inspections that are going on right now that are being done. with the inspectors on the street. We're also, the assessor is going to be working internally on some new growth numbers for 550 King Street and looking at, I had previously expressed to the select board about looking at phasing in those new growth numbers and when those potential areas will uh be hit will be triggered such as per you know when they're looking for fees and permits and uh so that um we're going to continue those internal discussions of a presentation to the select board uh the building commissioner has informed our office that the um Inspections at the point are going very, very well for TJ Maxx and Barnes & Noble. Good. And... I think so, yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. Through the finance team, the police budget has been updated and online, which at town meeting there was a motion to reduce it by $17,500 surrounding the flock cameras and that has been adjusted appropriately and it's back up online. Department heads will be requested to update their capital budgets, which will be due on July 31st. And the treasurer's office is working with accounting to review the accounts at year end. Planning will inform open space residential development application. for five new homes at 539 King Street has been received by the planning department. And planning staff is also working with the developer to finalize the planning board decision on the King Street green area approval. And that's it. Great.

um i'm just going to do a quick alibi on my updates i i sent something out regarding um possible donald's Yes, sir. This rumor's flying around every time I go by. Someone's saying Donwin's is for sale, Donwin's sold, there's a car dealership moving in there. That was the one that I think a lot of people got up in arms about. I spoke with the chairman of the planning board, and when Toyota moved in, the town passed a bylaw that no... car dealerships no more car dealerships can go in the common district so made an update to our zoning it was a huge relief to me because i was like let me run out of town that was one of the reasons i i ran i don't want to see another big car dealership right so um good on the town for doing that i think it was a lot of people you know a lot of the public that came forward um and wasn't outraged toyota's been a great partner in business but having Knowing that we're not gonna have another one across the street. I think it gives us a lot of possibilities So what could go there and just keep our common district? form-based code and everything looking So you just want to put a few people so worries to rest on at least that part of it So and what else they do there?

We'll see Yeah regarding that yeah Is it the actual grocery store that's for sale is it?

all their businesses actually so if you want I don't know how much they own in there they own the other buildings still or I will get that okay so they did sell it all okay all right so we'll be good unfortunately I mean I use I use them but all right sorry I I was gonna put that away updates like I totally slipped it All right, we're going to get into our minutes, and then we can get out of here at about 8 o'clock. It looks like we have executive session minutes from April 6, 2026, and April 21, 2026. Did we see anything?

We sent them electronically. I have one printed copy, if it's helpful.

Thank you. Thanks to all that came tonight. Thank you. Good night. See you.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, I saw it. Okay. All right, Ben.

Did you have anything? Thank you. Thank you. See you later.

And then the regular session meeting minutes for May 5th. Anybody have any comments on that?

You want motions?

Anybody else need to see the, we've got them all.

Let the select board vote to approve the executive session meeting minutes from April 6th, 2026 and April 21st, 2026. Second.

Moved by Mark, seconded by Chuck. This will be a roll call vote. Karen.

Karen Wilson, aye.

Chuck Tocco, aye. Kyle Bubb, aye.

Mark Randbacher, aye.

Gary Wilson, aye.

Let the select board vote to approve the meeting minutes from May 5th, 2026. Second.

Moved by Mark, seconded by Kyle. All those in favor, a roll call vote. Karen.

Karen Wilson, aye.

Dr. Coase, aye.

Kyle Bopp, aye.

Mark Ryan, Parker, aye.

And Gary Wilson, aye. And I look for a motion to adjourn if there's no more business. So moved. Moved by Chuck.

Second.

Second by Mark. Roll call vote. Karen.

Karen Morrison, aye.

Have a wonderful night, Karen. Thank you. Wishing you well and your family.

Thank you.

Kyle Bup.

Aye.

Gary Wilson's an aye. Thank you, Wilton, and we'll see you in a couple weeks.

Congratulations, graduates.

Yes, go graduate.