Select Board - Regular Meeting

welcome back to the Westford slck board meeting of February 11th 2025 uh we'll now return to order with um pledge allegiance L by Tom PL Al to of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all yes if you look at the backdrop we are in lennium tonight not Town Hall if you actually at Town Hall come on down here um but we're still waiting for the wiring in the town hall room so next meeting we'll be back there with uh fancy cameras and and and better better video and audio so um anything for open form tonight from the first gu from the board anybody from the board um just want to announce the finance committee uh meeting for Thursday night was supposed to be at Town Hall but because of the audiovisual project we have going on we will be back here uh Thursday evening at 7 o'clock for the fincom to review uh the articles on the town meeting warrant okay um Wendy I guess sure go yeah okay um Wendy Wendy GL 16 Pleasant Street and I am here this evening talking to you on behalf of the Westford lgbtq friends and allies group I'd like to express how our community is deeply hurting and has a lot of concerns um due to re recent National Developments with the incoming presidential Administration actions taken by the incoming president particularly

targeting transgender and immigrant portions of our community have left many feeling angry vulnerable and disrespected these measures threaten not only the rights of transgender individuals and migrants but also the broader Community it Fosters an environment of fear and erods our confidence in our constitutional rights it's essential for Westford to reaffirm our commitment to inclusion respect and protection for all especially those at greatest risk our communities members who are immigrants and people Andor people of color face heightened anxiety insecurity and are living in fear of ice raids and deportation this climate of fear undermines trust and safety vital to our community's Harmony and progress uh we held a support group for lgbtq at the First Parish Church Unitarian last week several of our community members have to go pack um um have packed to go bags in case they feel like they need to leave the country um to seek Asylum potentially in Canada we also heard many parents and residents worried about driver's license licenses and passports with gender indicators of X that ha has

been mentioned could be confiscated by the incoming presidential Administration three weeks ago I would have never imagined I would be here talking to you about this we urge Westford residents to voice the their concerns to Congressional leaders about these harmful actions we also W ask the Westford community and select board to stand in support of all marginalized groups who are currently under attack by fostering empathy and understanding we can ensure that Westford remains a place where people feel safe and respected Westford lgbtq will be hosting ongoing Friday evening support groups at First Parish Church United and um with no end Insight we will be there for folks um till they know no longer need support which will hopefully come at some point we invite all community members who are supportive uh from Westford in the surrounding area to join us thank you for your attention and your commitment to an inclusive Westford um well so yes um thank you and and actually this is something that we've been discussing informally and I think in two weeks you'll be hearing something more formal from us so but thank you for doing that because it is we are thinking along the same lines just no matter how do we formalize that um but Tom Andrea I just had a question for Wendy about do you have a time that you're meeting on Friday so we can share uh yes 7 to 900 p.m. okay and it's on the church

calendar and it's also um being promoted I will be have an ad in Westford cat as well to promote that thank you for doing that okay I was just going to sort of say what you said Scott is that um the town and um its officials are talking about this um are meeting about this and yes as Scott said in two weeks um we most likely will have uh a statement uh to be made but um you being here tonight just I think reiterates what we had been hearing sort of anecdotally and informally so thank you okay thankk you did you have your hand race Arrow I did don't me to wreck the joint good evening I'm here just to do a little Public Service Announcement about Westford cat's um new initiative so um Westford cat is actually celebrating 20 years of operation in Westford this year which is amazing and a decade of local um news coverage so we're reaching a significant Milestone with a commitment to local journalism through comprehensive print news and continued digital expansion efforts we're building on a decade of community focused journalism that began with the Westford template in Andrew Sylvia you might remember uh Westford cat has evolved into a multi-platform news organization serving the Westford Community our transformation from a traditional cable access television station to a comprehensive local media center reflects our commitment to keeping Westford informed and connected in an era of declining local news coverage we're proud to be expanding our

services to meet the community's information needs we are launching a pilot program of Home Delivery Subscription Service in a bid to become westford's newspaper of record this trial Subscription Service represents our commitment to ensuring every resident has access to vital no local news while our digital coverage remains freely accessible we recognize the importance of providing a traditional option for our community so the 12we trial subscription will be running from March 3rd to May 20 it's being offered at an introductory rate of $27 for home delivery and um the digital access will remain free of charge and um will be continue to be available we've actually re redone the website a little bit you might see a new look on there um and if you're interested in subscribing and having the news delivered to your door um you can just go online to Westford cat.org or give us a call we'll help you out so does it come in the mail or it's going to come in the mail okay yeah I thought pleas to hang on the box but okay with with a mail with a mail what paper boy yeah paper boy a paper girl paper girl that's great Sarah thank you thank you any other questions for the board thank okay thanks thank you anything else open forum is there anybody online that I I don't see anyone online with their hand raised that been the case we'll move on to our consent agenda um request to approve the following a banner request for 2025 registration Drive the Western Community Garden Joanna Doner as the applicant the banner would um be up from March 4th through March 14th 2025 in front of First Parish church we have a request for a special license the event is two

truths One Lie three pores with Westford night applicant Westford Historical Society Linda Green date is April 5th 2025 from 7:30 P.M to 9:00 at the Western Museum and a flag raising event the aminian program of flag raising in commemoration of the Amion genocide applicant is the Amion National Committee of marac valley that will be on April 25th 2025 from 10 to 11: a.m. and finally Bon requests there were three of them um or time common answer requests first is um Memorial Day signs being requested by westrey members they will be up for May 23rd through May 30th 2025 uh suicide awareness month signs see a new son Nancy Cook is the applicant August 31st through September 7th 2025 would be the um time frame for posting and then V's Day signs again West remembers November 8th through the 15th 2025 um for the whole week other there is there motion to approve subject to Public Safety comments second all in favor uh next we have a public hearing National Grid petition for a joint or identical pole locations um Mass General Electric sry Mass Electric Company doing business as National Grid and Verizon New England Inc request permission to locate poles wires and fixtures including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across the following public way uh the Jo Pole tsoro Road beginning at a point approximately 740 ft south of the central line of the intersection of Cory Road Cory Hill Road and Forest Road National Grid proposes to install one new poll poll number 6350 at approximately 42.6 andus 71.4

lude longitude um is there a motion to open the public hearing some moved second all in favor um I assume that you're from National gr so if you want to add ourselves and yourself explain what your uh project BNA 1101 North and over mass and here for National Grid um as as you said uh sir that uh National Grid we would like to install a uh new jointly old pole 63- in the public way in between existing poll 63 and 64 in order to uh to have a system Improvement upgrade to the uh infrastructure of uh electricity utilities when do you plan to do that um I'm assuming you get approval tonight okay um I'm I don't actually know when because it this goes to a um I can't even it it goes to the I can't even think of the word right now um the scheduler and then and then they schedule when when it when it will be done so I can't really answer that but I think as National good knows when you do it you need to notify all of the along the way yes and our DPW director has reviewed this and does not have any issues with the request but he did offer a a request on where to place the pole though yes and that has been approved by you all yes okay any further discussion so is there a motion to approve so moved second all in favor I thank you very much is to close public hearing move to close the public hearing second all in favor um once again getting practice here uh a public hearing to request request to approve Master license one chapter 138 section 12 beer and wine

restaurant license for yo-kai ran located at 175 Litton Road Unit G proposed manager is Alysa Sater ruga um if you're online and you're here for this article if you could just raise your hand and I'll promote you to panelist thank you very much first is the motion open the public hearing so moved second all in favor I so why I'm promoting uh two individuals I believe that they're also set okay uh welcome I can't see you but um if introduce yourselves and just who who you are so we can there we go we're seeing people now there she is hello good evening my name is May who I represent the applicant and I believe my clients are also here yes this is Alisa oh hi okay welcome um is there any say go ahead okay I just want to have a very brief presentation uh this space used to be the classic kitchen uh they have uh closed down since the last um I would say last summer uh the place uh needed a lot of work my client took it over and has been working with the building department and now they have put it in a beautiful brand new kitchen and we are proposing 25 seats with one bathroom um it's going to be Japanese Ramen only uh Service uh we're hoping that with the beer and wine license uh that can enhance uh the Patron's dining experience uh but mainly our sales is still uh full

focused um the proposed manager has worked in the restaurant industry for over five five to seven years uh she used to work in a place where a full lior license was served so um she individually has obtained the proper training uh to serve alcohol and I'm you know I I feel really confident that she will do a good job is anything in order Patty it appears to be yes is there a motion to approve I'll make the motion to approve second any other comments okay all in favor I I I welcome and and uh you we got the one to go first but just first of all thanks for uh welcome to West and now we need to approve the we need to close Public public hearing right um so I'll move to close the public hearing is there a second second all in favor I I okay and then we need to um request to approve the application for a common V's license for yoai ramen located at 1 165 Lon Road Unit G um proposed manager Alisa if I get it wrong I'm sorry sen NOOA um I'll move to approve second all in favor thank you and welcome Westford hope you have see you sh probably be there I love Ren so there you go right and we'll be in touch related to you picking up your common vctor license and making sure that the paperwork is properly processed with the state so congratulations thank you guys thank you for your help and for your time as well thank you thanks good night have a good evening night thank you uh next item is to request is a request to approve a change of Directors for the Master General Law chapter 138 section 12 alol Club license American Legion Post

437 at 1114 Lal Road Westford um sort of a bookkeeping thing you know every year they change their directors and we need to approve it and then so does the alcoholic beverage commission I think they're doing a change of manager at some point but they needed to get their director in order so yes it all look good I'll move to approve second all in favor I I uh next we have a presentation from the capital strategic Solutions on commun on the communications plan and I'm sure that you've got those guys lined up CH I do yes so I am um have just promoted them to panelists so just while they're loading up um as you are aware the select board authorized two years worth of funding for a communications consultant uh we went out to bid for that in uh November time frame and brought back to you a proposal from Capital strategic solutions to uh prepare for us a communication strategy plan as well as provide communication Services uh they came on board on January 2nd and we had them working quite diligently January 2nd uh throughout the month of January uh they did some uh work for us on the power school incident um some promotional materials when Chief Den was promoted uh and some other things so they're here this evening to give a very brief overview of their company but they really want to hear input from you as board members of what you're looking for from their services and from uh getting a Communications plan so uh with that I will introduce you to uh Nicole and Liz from Capital strategic solutions they can give you a brief overview of their background and again I wanted an open dialogue from the board members of of your um your input so uh welcome Nicole and Liz thank you so much for having us this evening and and thank you for um making

time for us I know that you have a pretty hefty um agenda I apologize for the noise in the background um I'll let Liz introduce herself my name's Nicole Figaro I'm the CEO of capital strategic Solutions hi I'm Liz colian I'm the I'm a project manager at Capital strategic Solutions it's nice to meet you all virtually we do have AE you want us to show your slides Nicole or do you want to sh sure okay we if you could do it that would be easier for us absolutely Mike's bringing them up right now but I think you could get started sure so Capital strategic Solutions was founded in 2014 um my business partner Jennifer Thompson and I are the um Partners in The Firm we met when we were working for the men town of Framingham to the city of Birmingham we are comprised of Municipal former Municipal workers so I was the Pio for the city of Framingham I also supported um pelis County Utilities um and we do a wide range of services not only do we do community outreach and engagement we also do public administration Municipal finance and a plethora of other tasks um our approach with our clients is to Define goals and resolve challenges that they have we all know that municipalities are running with plates that are overflowing and they're short staffed and we just kind of offer a second set of hands when needed and we go away and sometimes they invite us back in um we have the technical skills that allow us to build websites as well as manage um existing sites I was a web master and and very familiar with Civic plus um but and we also have the background of working in Municipal governments we're privy to the public records law as well as ADA compliance with all of our Communications and the need to retain records um our goal is to deliver um

sustainable benefits to the communities in which we serve um next slide please so our project team consists of myself I'm the project principal um Liz is the project re she's the one that interacts with um a lot of your departments daytoday Patty grigas will serve as the Public Safety project managers to sat in with us in meetings with police and firness in in review of your emergency communications plan um like Cino was assisting with Visual and website design as well as clar pararlo and she's assisting as the communications project manager with social media in the background who people haven't met yet is Libby balling and Libby is a Content editor for our team next slide please so our strategy is to conduct a baseline assessment we are reviewing um and integrating with your strategic plan once it's approved um we're reviewing your Emergency Management plan and we're going to enhance your crisis and incident Communications um we're evaluating and identifying opportunities for collaborative Communications throughout your departments we had a lot of great meetings you have fantastic staff members um we're also going to develop multi Channel Communications to ensure consistent flow of communication and information is consistently going up um and one of our founding um guiding principles is to build trust through transparency and open dialogue with stakeholders with that let's keep the conversation going and we'd like to hear from you about what some of your goals are for us as a team what opportunities you see ahead for Westford and what challenges as well and just to couch that as Nicole alluded to they've met with all of our departments I think they may have one or two outstanding and have gathered feedback but really would like your

feedback this evening did they write the press release for the grant for the fire department yes they did that was really well done that was really well I think that and shift in he were level of professionalism above what we we usually would do ourselves so very very nice but yes uh come Tom do you want to go first you good okay hi yeah no I'm I'm I'm I'm happy to go no the I think the biggest one of the biggest challenges that we have is to feel like we're getting good engagement with the community both to know that we're representing their interests and also to get their involvement and I think that um there are a lot of great uh you know towns that are about our size about our resources in the Commonwealth in the country and and I'd love to feel like we're operating at some best practice level and have some way to measure that so I I don't I know it's going to be challenging regardless I don't think anyone probably does this perfectly and has 100% engagement routinely with every citizen but there's probably some way some set of uh you know methods we can we can do that are sustainable for us sustainable for Town staff to perform once we no longer have your services uh in a couple years and I would just like to feel like you know we've made this a priority and we've gotten you know great at it relative to our peers and we really are doing better understanding where people are and doing it better sort of bringing them into the process so that might look like you know here here's a a design guide here's a guide of practices here's where your residents you know are contactable here's where they're spending time digitally uh and here's what the best towns are doing in terms of frequency and action to to get great engagement anybody else and then I think Tom following up on what you said is when you folks leave that we have a blueprint as to how to keep this going and so that we know what to do so that we can continue you know the engagement

hopefully that we will have obtained a su stained by that time and that when you folks leave it just doesn't fall off the board so to speak I think that's the second part of it yeah well that I think you know I mean so sort of the quality of the writing the presentation of of your work so far it's been I as I mentioned it's been a step above what we used to do but you know the reason why I think we engaged in this process is you last year we had a a failed override and one of the well many of the comments from the town was we didn't know we didn't get the right information we didn't feel like the town was communicating with us and so we had done the very best we could knowing what we know with our with our website with um you know other social media but clearly we fell short in terms of expectations from the community so U you Tom's Point um what I hope it would learn from this over the next you know months and and and and and couple years is how do we reach all of our community from you know age um young to old um you know uh all the demographics that use different kinds of media uh to to get their news so you're the pros there hopefully you can help us with that and I guess just one one level more Scott and thanks for bringing that up I think we felt like um we sort of lost control over part of the information that was out there I think we were not sure when and what form we should engage and how we should do that you know when do we call you know when do we engage and say look there's information to be corrected here uh do we just drive people to the town website what what's the right way to to engage in that kind of dialogue because uh I think a lot of people ended up with inaccurate information I mean certainly

we don't expect everyone to agree but uh we would hope they all have accurate information and that's I think we uh I think we were sort of playing it as as it went and there's probably some best practice way to say here's what we recommend you do to engage to maintain trustworthiness here's the right way to respond to this kind of thing if you see misinformation here's the fors you should go ahead and engage in here's places maybe you shouldn't engage in because it's just not it's not going to help your credibility it's not a fight you can win like just Just A playbook for us to deal with sort of high-intensity issues like that whether they're an unfortunate uh you know event that happens in town that we have to do some kind of Crisis management for or whether it's some important thing like an override or some other important policy issue uh I just I at least feel like I've got a lot to learn there in this context um would like to have a Playbook yeah I think as we move forward like NBT communities there's going to be issues that arise that we're going to you know who's paying for that is that town is that state is that developer so those those those kinds of of um Community um Comm communication needs are going are going to be Arison to make sure we get the full story out um because we're already hearing we already know that there's bad information out there exactly we're already hearing oh certainly about the MBT exactly so we that's one I think where misinformation is already out there and um you know how do we you know correct that in in a way that is helpful and not and not confrontational yeah I think my concern is of course the misinformation that's out there but which platforms do we engage in how do we engage with different platforms for example I heard uh somebody on Facebook put out that we were going to take down 500 trees down there around through farms for some reason or another for that laydown area or something like that so there's a lot of information that's

bad out there so the question is how do you deal with that and at what level uh and what's that fine line between trying to influence versus just trying to inform form I wouldn't want us to come into trying to uh necessarily influence opinion that opinion is theirs so we need just get the information out there make sure that uh we get the right information so it's just how do we interact with those uh different platforms how do we even know what's going on in those different platforms because there different groups different uh you know it could be Facebook it could be some of those other things going on so just you know a policy of just how we deal with that Chris yeah so I think we've talked a lot about how do we push information out but I also want us to be able to hear from our constituents um whether it's you know I guess for us it's you hear from family members friends maybe you're on Facebook I I hardly think that's the best and most complete way of getting the information we did uh last year you know engage a survey platform and we put out a number of different surveys I think our first Community survey gave us feedback that we weren't communicating very well so that was helpful but um and that's one of the reasons why you're here with us uh but I think we do need to get a better way of that biral communication so it's not just us pushing information out it's also hearing back from the town's people about what their concerns are what we're doing right what we're doing wrong um what we're not doing what we're not doing at all yeah exactly right just we need that information and I I do also want to highlight I know you had on your presentation uh you know coordination for our emergency response situations um we've had some stumbles in the last year uh so I'm really looking and I think you the residents are hoping for a consistent approach in terms of getting

messages out when there's a you know a situation that may be occurring at our schools or at our town facility or somewhere else but you know if it if it involves multiple departments within the town we need to be Comm we need to be clear in our communication and and uh so I I certainly hope that your review and your input on our response plan uh pays off in that regard one other question you said that they've met with most of the Departments did you include in that the school department have they yes they've met with Dr Chu fantastic thank you out of curiosity don't need answer it now but we do have a our own radio station that we would in theory could use in the case of emergencies in practice it requires some to record something and then post it so um yeah I guess your opinion of is that even worth having in which case we should you know it doesn't cost much but it cost something um but how how could we use it better if U what channel is that no idea you're talking you don't know no yeah mean um Jordy put set it up when we had uh you go to this frequency for information having like a total blank on this scot okay okay shortwave or is it over like FM or am or I think it's am it's am us we have a because 2015 we had the big that 3 foot snowstorm remember the the sign up on the from the old fire station saying you know tune into you know whatever it was yeah you're right okay yeah so we have it and I don't know Joe about it because I wonder if it's yeah is it still working is it in existence or what maybe we just answered the question Scott yeah this is fabulous feedback for us to have in um as we work through developing your strategic Communications plan we're going to kind of work through this list

as well as the lists that your departments have provided to us um we're going to give you insights on our layered Communications approach So within minutes of when we're um drafting let's say a press release we wanted to hit obviously the select board Board St Community stakeholders the media your social media feeds and your web page all almost simultaneously within at least five 5 minutes so the same message is carried out in an emergency communications type of situation where we're dealing with a crisis we would um use the same unified messaging across all platforms and make sure that you know we've had those conversations especially with your First Responders in those departments that this is the message going out is going across all platforms at the same time so that there's a consistent flow of communications I Know Myself having been in worked in a city I worked in the city of Framingham and I also worked in pelis County dealing with emergency response Communications can be completely um disastrous internally and externally if they're not handled correctly um I I learned that lesson very well in Framingham with you know snow response when you refer to the 2015 snowstorm um I recall that one in framing him and being without power for days myself at home and driving the mayor around town and and all kinds of things so yes we will work through all of these items our goal is to leave you with a blueprint and a plan but that plan's going to have to evolve even after we're gone because the way that communication is nowadays is there's a variety of platforms out there and there is always a new one to jump online with and you want to make sure that you're capturing it but whomever fills this role after we're gone we're going to

give them the tools to do it properly um and the way to do it well and tips all the tips and tricks that we have in our back pockets we're going to hand that over to you another thing I just want to highlight before before we wrap up is um they're also helping us with recruitment for jobs um help helping us with Graphics um that we can put with job postings because right now it's a very vanilla posting that we're putting out there Liz worked really diligently getting our LinkedIn account unlocked we didn't know who the owner was and now she and I are the owners of that account um so not only posting jobs on LinkedIn but the news as well um so in their short month and a half with us they've done a tremendous amount of work um they've been Mike and I's you know right-hand team already uh we already feel a great amount of teamwork with them and we hope that you do as well so again continue to provide us with the feedback or you can go directly to to Liz and Nicole um but we've seen already tremendous success with them and we can only continue that we hope they did they definitely jumped right in we had I think our first incident with the power school issue before we even had our kickoff with them so um they were they were great yeah thanks all right thank you so much thank you thank you nice to meet you thank you thanks so much have a good night you too the thinking was that when when all else fails am still stays up you can lose all of your internet but am always works so we will check that out and while we're think of things that people may have forgotten uh I ran a couple last night that forgot we do have on Beacon Street by the old highway Barn uh a facility where you can pick up a salt sand mix if you're a resident so with the forecast the next few days with uh snow ice and so forth um head on down there the very same uh stuff you get in

the roads the high quality mix you can you can get for yourself down there for free so um just bring a shovel out of 5 gallon pail um with that um 735 item is the update on the emesco investment grade audit I know we're all dying to hear something about that Mike so please fill us in yeah so just a a quick update on on where we are so as you'll remember when when I first came came on board this had largely stalled so that was um uh something we took on just to to really see where we were and how we could get it moving again um in the interim we just went ahead and moved forward with several projects we had a number of projects that that were teed up and ready to go we were able to uh start getting things moving um while that investment grade audit basically kind of sat in a review period so um we did this so we could avoid losing all these incentives that we had lined up before they expired um a lot of these were things that were um had been identified but we hadn't really taken the next step to move the projects forward so we went ahead and kind of jumped off of the IGA and moved into some chapter 25 section 14 procurements and just started getting things done so in in that six months we moved forward with several of the projects that were already on the scope for uh the investment grade audit about 15 total uh we've got either under contract or completed at this point for a total of about $1.2 million the reason that we chose those and move forward with those is we were able to do them for an out- of-pocket cost around 178,000 um so about an 85% leverage ratio we just couldn't afford to wait for the IG to move forward um we've got right now 14 projects that we're scoping out based on some incentives that we've got to get in place for this year before they expire uh and some promotional incentives um so that did present some challenges

with the way we looked at the IGA because effectively we scooped out a lot of the lwh hanging fruit out of that project so um but we we really didn't see another good option and what we did realize at that time is we might have some alternative ways to fund some of these things looking at uh incentives looking at Grants uh looking at on Bill repayment which is something we hadn't used before um and then I think probably most importantly recently is really taking hard look at our net metering credits we've allowed these to build up um primarily because as we've done projects we're generating more savings uh the net metering credit agreement that we had has resulted in significant credit sitting on our accounts right now so we're continuing to look at how we knock some of these projects out with with no upfront costs use money that we basically already have sitting in these accounts um in looking at all of those different ways to finance projects we've we've had to step back and say all right what what does the IG really really mean for us and what can we do with this one it's already given us a very good road map of projects we we need to do we we know what our priority projects are and we've been able to identify those projects that makes sense with alternative financing outside of performance contract um that said we still see value in a potential performance contract um and we have U met with members of the casc working group and I I propose to them the idea that let's look at the original scope let's figure out what projects does the IGA or does a performance contract really make sense for um and what we've come up with is is it's really those projects that we we don't have an alternative way to fund um that's that's more advantageous to us um they have limited incentives so projects that that may not meet the scope of the mass save incentives uh or we may not be able to look at Grants for um or in particular if they don't have incentives we can't

use the net metering credit so it limits our ability to approach those projects the way we're doing all of the others um projects that are on such a large scale that we can't do them ourselves most of what we've looked at have been relatively small scale we're capping our individual projects at 300K that kind of keeps us out of being able to look at things like building management system which is a relatively low incentive type project very high cost and a long-term payback but hugely beneficial for us from operating standpoint and also solar um there's not much in the way of incentives around that so with that in mind we re approached uh after talking with CC we reapo amesco about basically let's look at a narrow scope um and see if there's still something there for a performance contract so this has all occurred really in the last month or so um had a meeting uh in person with with them uh at the MMA conference and really sat down with them and talked through what we wanted to do tried to kind of bridge the gap of where we've been and and you know how do we restart this we understand that we we took a lot of the meat off the bone for them but we both agreed we think there's something in some of these larger scale projects and the performance contract may be a very good way may be a very good way to to fund those um so uh right now where we are is uh looking back at that original scope we've worked with Beacon to kind of flesh out a concept whereby we would STI ulate savings from from projects that we did with a third party uh and use those to kind of build them into the guarantee we basically say we did these we did them with another vendor we're going to recognize these Savings in the way you structure your guarantee um it's not uncommon it's not super common but it's a tool we can use and still retain that original procurement so um where we are right now is essentially back into the financial

weeds um one of the big pieces that we've got to do we basically Dan and I um is is really step back and model out the net metering credits that's a tool we haven't really used for capital investment we've used it offset operating but eventually that's going to go away um so we need to begin transitioning that money away from operating costs and look at how do we use that for capital investment to do that we really need to project it out for the remainder of the contract term and see how much of this can we flip into basically onetime on Bill repayments and do some major projects um and so that's that's in my court and Dan's court right now is kind of modeling that out we've never really tracked all that stuff in terms of how it looks moving forward um so that'll be a a school town finance operation where we just try to figure out all right what do we have that we can put into the pot for doing some of these big projects the other big piece that we've got um is going to be uh something that's going to be on the warrant uh in the um in the spring and that's looking at at how do we set up a revolving account that we can use to fund energy projects there's going to be times where we're going to need a little bit of money that we can use on a fairly fast turnaround to do local matches to pick up things that um to pick up things that the incentives or the grants don't cover so that's one of the reasons we've got this on the warrant the big thing we'll be using it for this year is actually to reappropriate rebates we've already received to actually be able to pay for the projects that we had those rebates for um that was really an accounting exercise on our part but in the future what we're hoping to do is use this account to recapture some level of the savings that we're getting from these projects so we can continue to reinvest it in more projects because really I think our our opportunity to use the net

metering credits is going to depend on us being able to put forward a little bit of money to pick up costs that aren't covered and that we can't use those net metering credits for but really trying to figure out a good way that we can spend that into capital investment um so you'll be seeing more of this but the other conversation that's happening is with ameresco about how do we basically how do we Salvage the IGA and try to pull out a performance contract that makes sense it has to be beneficial for them uh they typically rely on scale uh to get their you know their value in a project um we took a lot of that away so uh we're we're being creative with Beacon and with them uh and working you know with the CC to try to figure out how do we put together something that is actually a beneficial project for us beneficial one for the taxpayers something that will'll continue to generate and right now what we're looking at most likely for a future IGA what we'll be studying is going to be the Blanchard solar project and the BMS um building management system the building management system so looking at getting a campus-wide every single building in our portfolio under a single system um that may be one of our Best Bets for a financing mechanism for a project like that so um uh we'll keep you updated uh right now it's an our court to do all the financials and kind of kick that back to them and say all right here's what we've got can you make a project of this once we've done that we'll be able to give you a little bit more information but we're expecting to have something at least in the next month in terms of getting information back to them not having a project we can put forward to you but happy to answer any questions on it Chris and so if you can't make something work with mrco do we have a sort of a plan B Plan B is we figure out an alternative way to do it um the BMS work um is eligible for some

incentives and if the way we can model out the net metering credits allows us to either do Direct on Bill repayment or use those net metering credits to service debt um that may be an opportunity um the solar there's all kinds of different opportunities to to look at there I mean I I think our preference would always be to own the asset that may not be the best way to approach it I mean we have to think about you know on on a solar system of that scale do we have the ability to manage it can we maintain it are we better off with a PPA um where basically we're not making as much money off of it but but our hands are freed up um you know we don't have staff consideration is is big for us we we've got to find things that we can manage which is also helpful with the way we're approaching these projects right now because it's relatively small bite-size pieces I mean we've got got 10 of them going on simultaneously right now um so if we can't make it work what's the sign off cost uh we've got a I think the termination clause on that is 58 57 58,000 um that's provided that we get what we signed up for um which you know the expectation is is that we would work through that but it they still have work to get to a point where they have a final deliverable that'll be something we'll have to talk through the other consideration we do have is uh anou was signed uh between uh the schools and uh amarco to do the design work on the Blanchard roof reinforcement and we we really do have a a breakup of $20,000 on that if we choose a different vendor to do the work uh to to install the system amesco is one of the top solar installers they do their work in house um we'd be very comfortable you know even just doing a solar alone project with them so there's there's still something there we're just trying to figure out

exactly what it is but we didn't want to wait on the rest of the projects so so Mike this sounds like the right approach so the building management software I understand plan insured I understand are there other solar it seems like there there would be other locations for maybe it's a question aren't there other places that solar would be Ben like a net dep positive investment yes um probably um that really kind of goes back to the goal we have with the sustainability outcome area for the Strategic plan to do the solar sighting study the issue we have with the with ameresco is we really have to stay within the scope of the current procurement the current procurement was specific to Blanchard so within that scope we can approach the Blanchard roof as part of the original performance contract procurement um that's not to say we're we're moving forward with doing some some level of a solar sighting plan to figure out all right what what do we really want to do here from a from a big picture and um that's part of something we'll be working for uh working with the CC on uh and also Nim Cog has has that as one of their potential projects they'll be doing for us um there's a lot of pieces to that but but really we need to understand the big picture on solar and we also need to understand what where grid is with this where's where's National Grid with their ability to let us interconnect um capacity limitations on the grid are actually going to be probably a significant concern when we start looking at how we site solar in the future um whether they can actually take that back into the grid is the same financing mechanism available for solar projects of scale beside lanard if well if we did them through another per performance contract but that's probably not the route we would want to go for a performance contract because the idea of a performance contract is you're picking up a lot of stuff and you're using things like lighting that are very high

return to fund things like building management and solar that are very low return um or potentially lower return you know longer much longer paybacks um so you have a lot of lighting you have Transformers you have building weatherization stuff that generates really really really good low hanging fruit savings and you fund the other stuff with that we've kind of taken that away with the way we've approached these projects but we found really better ways to fund them and better savings um I think for solar part of that is if if we do blanch short or if we don't ultimately what we're going to have to do is is really engage with a solar developer and have them walk us through the project um walk us through the the the site selection help us with the interconnection the permitting processes I mean to do an interconnection you you might be looking at a two-year process just to get through National Grids um process so it it is when we're at a large scale like that um there's a lot of other moving parts and it that will probably sit aside from the whatever results from the IGA yeah I guess I'm not as concerned about the mechanism it's more that every project that has sort of a a positive payback over whatever time frame we're thinking about is on a road map somehow so if that shows up in the Strategic plan with a solar sighting then that might be the right mechanism to track but the concern I had is that if we sort of let the perfect be the enemy of the good and we cherry pick out of this thing and so there's a whole bunch of stuff we can't do Under the IGA are we just leaving a whole bunch of stuff off the table it sounds like you've got an approach to try to make sure everything that is a good opportunity shows up somehow I I personally think based on what I've looked at in the project selection sheet that other than and and even the BMS but all of the other smaller projects on that project selection seat including a

number that weren't made that didn't make it to the Final Cut are most likely going to be eligible for or suitable candidates for the approach that we're talking about where we we look at on Bill if if a project is on the electric side of the house um so take Natural Gas aside if we're on the electric side there are some level of incentives or something associated with it once something has an incentive attached to it we can then use the on Bill repayment and then look at the net metering credits as a funding mechanism and we have a substantial net metering credit balance and it is continuing to build so you know I want to use those and and push that into those uh projects as much as we can the natural gas ones become a little bit more difficult but there's an indication that National Grid maybe looking at some changes that let us move from the gas to the electric side and back and forth uh with those credits which would open up some opportunity we don't know where that's going but it was talked about in our meeting with the grid um so hopefully that's there the the the two big pieces really are the BMS and the solar and the solar you've got kind of a whole world of different ways that we can Finance through PPA Etc the BMS really becomes um if if we can do it through a performance contract with stipulated savings it's a good option um if we can do it through a different procurement method like um the mass higher education collaborative that might be a good thing too that of course is you know we'd have to borrow to do that but we would have to do that under a performance contract anyway so there's options we would understand what they all are uh when it comes to the BMS our biggest thing is we need a procure method that allows us to choose the equipment we are getting we cannot do low bid um on BMS we do not want to get stuck with whatever meets

the specifications we want to pick our system so that's going to kind of guide the BMS side of side of the house and and frankly we're still we're still looking at what the options are but the expectation is we're going to do them all okay anything else thank you thanks Mike yeah thanks mik next request to approve a conservation restriction on parcel B of the Dian Lane subdivision plot Number there so um as you may be aware Diane Lane um is before the to meeting uh this march to be accepted as a public way the issues that we were discussing back in October have resolved themselves um and as part of the process uh the Conservation Commission has been working with the developer to place a conservation restriction on par parel B and this evening we'd be asking for your approval of that it does require signature of the property owner the Conservation Commission and the select board and Town Council has reviewed it right they have in detail yes so I'll move to approve second all favor I I and you will have a signature page this evening at the end of the meeting SEC um consider a request to acquire an easement on Clover Leaf Lane as authorized by the 20 24 special town meeting so as it states um the town meeting accepted Clover Leaf Lane as a public way in October of 2024 uh We've assumed U the plowing and maintenance of that roadway the final step is to acquire that easement um we do have that paperwork for you to uh sign this evening Town Council has reviewed that and it is in order um I'll move to um accept second all in favor next to review and accept the town of

West strategic plans hopefully you've all got the revised um version from Kristen and I know I mean it looks primarily we took the kpi as a movement appendix but um you know anything else you want to no I just I really appreciate the feedback of the board um at your last meeting we Mike and I sat with rafis our consultant um the day or two after your meeting and and they reviewed the tape so they understood your concerns for and against the kpi being in the document ultimately we decided to take them out of the document and not use the um metrics for consideration or under under consideration or draft keep them as the appendix continue working with staff and boards and committees to build out those kpis and um have the magazine type of document speak for itself related to the strategy so we were able to circulate that to the board uh and again happy to answer any questions um and would look towards the acceptance of the Strategic plan if you're comfortable this evening looks good to me yeah same thought all of our comments seem have been incorporated into that so um is there a motion so I will move to accept the town of Westwood strategic plan second all in favor I and with great thanks to refis through leading us through this process they were really terrific yeah thank you very much and thank you to the board for all your input and support and we look forward to using this plan moving forward I was ni when first sign up for make sure that what we do is we actually can accomplish something and like with the kpis or whatever we call them it was nice to say yeah we've got some some guidelines and measurement criteria so did a good job I would like to also thank you guys for pushing back on the kpis because I think that gave us a chance to really think through what we want for those measures I I'm actually glad we weren't stuck with a lot of what we had in there because as we started putting them together we started thinking we could probably come up with something that might be a little bit more relevant um so thank you for

pushing back on that that was a that that made it better they did look like there were a few in there just to measure things yeah I don't want to count widgets that's so much fun next to discuss and support the mpal empowerment act bill after what a year and a half of the legislature finally getting around to getting it passed um all kinds of good stuff in there which I'm sure if you read um the the the highlights of the ACT but if she wanted to give the highlights to us sure absolutely um so some people may be aware there was a municipal empowerment act before uh it did not make the session vote so the governor has filed a bill again there's been some of the same and then some revisions or some additions um I'll go briefly through these but we'd love the um feedback of the board if you'd like to send a letter to the governor or our State Rep and Senator we're happy to do that I've also had meetings with Nim Cog and our regional managers meetings that Nim Cog is willing to send a letter from our group as well so we can discuss that this evening um they are looking to expedite the removal of double polls so the double utility polls that sometimes we see if Verizon hasn't moved their polls but National Grid has um supporting the prevention of drug overdoses uh easing procurement of snow hauling services to align those services with snow removal right now they're separate procurements um expanding the municipality's ability to reduce school bus service cost uh creating a new property tax exemption for seniors a senior means tested property tax exemption I think Westford was ahead of the curve with the slider committee we could see if that augments Us in any way um addressing long-term benefits for OPB which we discuss uh all the time related to our unfunded liability there uh creating Regional Board of assessors I think this is more geared towards municipalities that are a bit smaller in nature um it may not be

applicable to Westford but would uh would be applicable to other communities um creating a additional temporary flexibilities in postretirement employment to allow retirees to uh expand their employment with municipalities for additional hours um reforming the procurement law we see this as a huge uh asset if passed for towns to uh clarify rfps chapter 30b the threshold of avertising for projects $100,000 and under right now schools have separate procurement than towns do this would align for that so it would be a great help for us and eliminating requirements to publish notices in certain uh Publications such as combis uh supporting Workforce challenges by centralizing valuation of Telecom and utility property um not so much applicable to Westford but in there um updating the borrowing rules for school projects to increase uh the borrowing from 30 years to 40 years I'm still am not sold on borrowing for 40 years um we can have that discussion with Dan O'Donnell if it does come to fruition I think we're better off borrowing for our traditional 20-year terms um this is one we did talk about is empowering communities to generate more local Revenue by a local option which would be a town meeting uh action and potentially a ballot action to increase our local um hotel motel tax increasing local meals tax and increasing a search charge on Motor Vehicle excise uh so I know that was one of the discussions of the budget task force and of the select board so those are some of the high level items I don't know if the board you forgot one hybrid hybrid meetings how could I forget H Mee we're participating right now um which does expire at the end of March so uh we're very interested uh to see how that occurs so U thank you for that reminder and you forgot the sales tax on candy sales tax on candy

yep well um I don't know if people need more time to think about it um but I I would be my suggestion that we send a letter to the governor send a letter to our State Rep and Senator and if Nim Cog is going to be sending a letter that we certainly sign on to it as um a member of the re of their region so I I would cover all bases I thought that as a motion is there a second second any discussion all in favor I so um onto our annual time meeting again Saturday March 22nd at 9:00 mford Academy um so first we riew the proposed War articles can we pull those up yes Mike is going to pull those up for you I don't have as quick of fingers as is uh Kristen so bear with me take your time so um we do have a number of articles that I want to move for move through today just to give you a preview the finance committee will be uh hearing some of these articles on Thursday night and making their recommendations we did post a joint meeting for the select board if you are all there and those choose to make any recommendations that evening it will be public and live and appropriate we will also make sure that you have ample time on your agenda for February 25th to make any recommendations so it's not expected to make a recommendation on Thursday just allowable if you are there um also on Thursday evening the Robinson School building committee will be giving a presentation on that article for the feasibility study so really encourage you all as select board members as well as members of the public to watch that um John and Tom have been active members on that building committee um and I'm sure can provide uh feedback on that as well so we will go through um the proposed warrant this evening um I do want to alert you that it was um brought

to my attention uh earlier this week that there is a request to create a new position on the paying classification scale for civilian traffic control control um I was uh at fault for not reviewing the general bylaw that that requires a town meeting action to create a position um I would respectfully request the potential to reopen the warrant to add that because we would like to get that civilian traffic control into place before the Boston Road details go into play this summer and other construction happy to talk with the board members offline of your comfort level um I again I know this is a last minute request you do not have to make a decision this evening if you want to reopen the warrant or not but I do feel that that's a necessary position to have so there may be one new article request but again up for consideration so let me move through what we do have we can come back to that article as well um I know there's members of the public here who may wish to speak on individual articles I don't know if you're allowing public comment on the Articles this evening so um article one is to accept Town reports this is a traditional article um I really want to give thanks to Pam mcniff in our office um Vanessa who's a senior tax workof person and Leslie and Ellen who have been our editors of that annual report we did not have dedicated funds to have Lin Coen help us this year so um they've been working tirelessly um Capital strategic Solutions who you heard from earlier this evening is going to take that on for the next two years so we don't have to have staff people do that and I think they will be modernizing it and helping department heads and boards and committees through that so um again just wanted to to put a plug for those people uh under article one but this is traditional article um article two is to approve uh the budget Appropriations and transfers when you last saw the warrant this was two separate articles um after we reviewed this with Greg corbo he considered that we could combine this into one article uh with one

motion article three is our traditional appropriation for poror expenses um this is continuing at $110,000 Andrea I reviewed that again we're not we were at $110,000 last year as well for that procord expense article four Mike alluded to in his presentation uh with the in investment grade audit we are looking to create a fund to uh perhaps create that flywheel for Energy Efficiency and sustainability projects um and if you have further questions Mike is happy to answer those to clarify it is a it's an account a revolving account with in the general fund and this basically just means that if we get a rebate or some sort of credit we don't have to basically retire it through the general fund we can put it in funds for the yes one thing we did internally on this is moving forward we're looking at having these these rebates paid directly to the vendors just to eliminate that step for us okay um but what we hope to do is is be able to identify you know some portion of savings on projects and reinvest them into this fund come back on an annual basis ask for town meeting to appropriate this money and let us keep investing the savings not additional money savings this this will really be the first time we're looking at additional money in town meeting would have a chance to vote on use of those funds so if if you what's the what's the oversight so we're asking you this evening so right now we have in the language that the the town manager and the school superintendent could authorize use of the funds the alternative is the select Board of the school committee could authorize use of the funds depending on the project so we'd like to get your preference of of what you would prefer in terms of the oversight the one one challenge that we do have and I'll I'll I'll put this out there is we wouldn't have been able to do any of the projects we did this year if we had to wait for Town meetings so that is a consideration if we can have guidance on the types of projects or perhaps limitations we're fine with that but

we've got to be able to move quickly when we see incentives sure I mean that's sort of like why we have in the Conservation Commission why we have a conservation trust a fund for the Conservation Commission so that if property comes up they can act and not have to wait um um to get back to your question about oversight I why it could be a combination it could be you know with the with the approval of you know Town manager and the you know as authorized by the select board and absolutely and the same with the school superintendent as authorized by the school committee because at that point it could be on a public hearing um uh before either the school committee or the select board and members of the public could come and offer you know you know their comments one way or the other so I don't think it should just be Kristen and and Chris Chu uh alone I think that there needs to be involvement of their various boards totally agree no that and that that works well with the timing because any projects that we bring are typically going to have a contract associated with them so it would be coming to you guys that's a that presents no issues to us in terms of of oversight or you know getting getting byy in on the projects well uh not clear in the way is written that you're going to have a revolving account and how that's replenished you don't say anything about where the funds are really coming from in this particular article this that might be important uh I think I think do we have a we may have a more upto-date draft but the way that this ultimately will read for the first year the amount that we're requesting be appropriated is 200,000 yeah if you want to actually open I apologize if you want to open the Motions document that is more clear okay pull that so right now um it's reading that the town appropriate from free cash so that's the source $200,000 for the purpose of providing funds to address performing Capital Improvement projects

within the town and school facilities so and of that let me clarify what that is so we had in uh fiscal 24 and 25 we have received about $777,000 worth of rebates those all went into the general fund but we paid those accounts out we paid those projects out of accounts that didn't have Appropriations so we need to effectively put this money in this account and then reappropriate it so that we can pay pay for those projects that were paid for from rebate so really there's only $23,000 of new money that's our kind of our seed money that we're looking at as as starting this thing off the expectation is once we kind of understand how we how what our net savings is going to be on the projects that some portion of that we would come back in subsequent Town meetings and say listen we have saved X dollar we'd like this you know we'll put this towards operating savings this portion we'd like to reinvest in projects um and then this is kind of working our way down that list from the IGA and new things that come up and really using that seed money and future savings to fund a sustainability initiative um but the the hope well my expectation and my intent in with this is that outside of this initial appropriation every dollar that goes into this account is money that was generated net of all of our costs and savings pure savings from energy projects so it's not going to be a yearly appropriation it would be a yearly appropriation um and then whatever balance is left in that fund would carry forward um but it would be a yearly appropriation of Prior year Savings of you know we did X projects we saved this many dollars in energy costs we'd like some portion of that to go we do intend the future savings we're going to put that towards operating for sure

but we need some of that to push back into these because like Kristen said this is a flywheel this will continue to give us more to reinvest and save more and more and more um and this won't just be a we need X money it will be this is what we have saved this is what we intend to save with the future stuff um and be able to prove that it's a good investment for people we wouldn't be doing it otherwise okay so the town votes the money in yes an annual meeting and what we're proposing is that uh the elected boards in concert with to manager and superintendent can release the money that's correct correct okay yes I like that Mike could you just change the screen I apologize um I probably told you to put up the the warrant but if we could put up the Motions it does have some more detailed information any other questions on Article 4 well did John did you answer John's question about will it specifically state that you're establishing a revolving account it's not a yes it does state it doesn't State revolving account it says to to appropriate the sum so you don't get the impression it's going to be replenished by after the you have to keep appropriating every year right but it sounds like unlike our revolving accounts where you know the money the town is appropriating the money this is money that's coming from savings that we're putting in as opposed to out of our budget because you can't you're going to put some Savings in not all so you can't you can't authorize a random number yeah is your point though it should be called a revolving fund or is not a revolving fund you know when the town meeting SE may not get exhausted each year it depends on what project so may so it may be a revolving fund it may okay we will double check you supplement that yeah so I think on the appropriate language that

might be good okay all right um Article Five let's put up Article Five so Article Five is our traditional Capital article the capital planning committee has reviewed these um we have several motions associated with capital the first is for uh about three million for um capital projects you'll note that that is higher than what we present Ed at the last meeting uh the reason for that is uh the community preservation committee did not approve the um they did not vote on the lighting project at Westford Academy field um we are still double-checking whether or not um they need to vote on that or not whether it can go on uh the war they have to I believe they have to vote so they have not voted yet they just dismissed it because they don't believe that it's applicable but we do believe that it's applicable in terms of our council's opinion so you will see that under free cash at this point in time but there still is time to move that uh back to CPC funds if um they do vote on that so we're reviewing that with Council very diligently right now um before we go on the Abbot one you speak to that yeah go ahead and speak to the Abbot so another item that's possibly coming off uh tonight depending on your action on a contract later is going to be the Abbott waste weaer school or the Abbott Elementary wastewater treatment plant uh furnace um we have an oil fired furnace uh at that plant um that's one that we discovered some incentives for and we're going to give a an experimental run at using n metering credits to pay for it so we're actually going to Electrify that building get completely rid of the oil furnace uh and go with an electric air uh heat pump at that location um there will be zero cost uh we're going to be paying for it both with incentives and net meter credits uh we actually just

got all the information got the approvals on it uh and Jeff has a an agenda item for a contract to to do that on your agenda tonight so that will be coming off so that's the 40,000 go back that is yep that is the $4,460 do we still need the $50,000 because it say that it that is for the uh exterior wood sting I can't get incentives for that I tried okay just asking the other one that I was just uh uh in got a confirmation on today will be coming off is going to be the SUV replacement for uh Recreation Enterprise um we do uh did get confirmation from the chief today that we've got a a decent condition uh uh Ford Explorer coming off the line they're having a few delays with the upfitting on the new stuff but because we got so many vehicles with this last round with the 24s not being manufactured um we do have one vehicle that we'll be able to to repurpose so that one will be coming off and then we have with that additional money coming off are we putting it into the capital stabilization fund or are we just not going to we're just not using free cash for the Abbot and then for the wre Enterprise we're working on if there will be any uh indirect back to the to the to the fund um we do have uh five items under the water prize excuse me water Enterprise account uh just over 800 $8,000 uh for vehicle equipment Leak Detection new source investigation uh Forge Village one and two Pump Station upgrades and surveillance camera Replacements then we have um 1.6 million dollar from the stormwater Enterprise for the construction of the Reed Brook and Acton Road culverts those were under under design um we have $170,000 for three cardiac monitors

that's coming out of the ambulance Enterprise so that's all under the first motion the second motion is uh $1.38 million for our uh new pumper truck uh and as we know these are taking two three four years to come in so we want to make sure that we're ahead of that um this will require borrowing so it requires a 2third majority vote and then we have 800 th we've got an old version up here I just got the new version from Dan um and we have um $2 million for the replacement of the nutting Road uh Community fields which I believe uh cap Recreation has not voted a recommendation on that yet Chris is that correct uh no I don't think we typically give a recommendation but we do you need to have that done by I would need it uh by the end of February if possible we wouldn't be able to provide it by then so what is your next meeting March 2nd yeah well if you whenever you can get it we might be able to stick it in I know we go to print uh put on the agenda okay so that concludes the um Capital items um article six is a potential um we get bids back on the posos water treatment plants on February 20th um we actually received the um file sub bids today and the numbers looked favorable so we do have um confidence that we will not need to raise more than $24.5 million but the water department has asked for a placeholder just in case with steel tariffs and other items coming into play since they originally um estimated this project so is my hope that this will go away we will know more next Thursday on that um article 7 again you'll hear more on Thursday evening and again at your meeting on February 25th about the

Robinson School building committee feasibility study the request currently is 1.6 million do um this is going through the mass School building authority process as Robinson school was deemed to be extremely deficient related to the reports that we've been uh reviewing and have prepared as well as the review of of msba um again this gets us into a phase of reviewing um the project in terms of leaving it as is um upgrading the building renovating the building constructing a new building it's a very detailed analysis of existing conditions proposed conditions uh site design analysis so again I don't want to um belabor this this evening I please look at the report that comes through on on um Thursday evening with that Committee in more detail um the article eight is community preservation committee recommendations um they have a number here from community housing Reserve uh the 10% um the forge VFW softball field lighting project they did approve that is why I included the wa fields and capital if we bundle these and put them out to bid as one project we do see economies of scale and Savings in that again we're still reviewing if the wa project will be voted on by CPC um that's out of curiosity how do you rationalize approving writing for one field not another because some members of community preservation believe that the wa Fields is a Stadium we do not believe that it's a stadium and stadiums are not eligible for CPC funding um

okay it's those fancy bleachers we have fancy visiting bleachers yeah um we have conservation trust fund for future open space land purchases Andrea you alluded to that earlier today um a transfer for community housing fund balance for affordable housing for the WEP program uh transfer from community housing fund balance to affordable housing trust for multif family detailed needs assessment targeting specific affordable senior housing needs and from unfund undesignated fund balance for meow Farm food insecurity and sustainability project so the last one is the only uh private entity that has requested CPC funds this year round all right then we get into our uh Financial articles U to authorize our traditional revolving funds to approve the fiscal year 26 operating budget and thank you to all who provided input and feedback at our finance committee public hearings we still do have a balanced budget next article is to appropriate our chapter 90 funds standard article article uh 12 is to appropriate our water Enterprise opep funds again traditional article uh Article 13 is to adopt a uh veterans tax exemption for cost of living adjustment to uh make sure that we are mirroring the hero Act of 2024 article 14 is is to establish a 300th anniversary celebration fund um as I discussed at our last meeting many municipalities are coming up on their 300th anniversary of being an incorporated municipality and many communities are

creating funds where uh community members can raise money to go towards activities such as fireworks or parades or concerts or other memorabilia and this uh fund would allow that to be uh that those funds funds to be placed kept with the treasure and then expended for those uses um I also Envision potentially asking the select board if this fund moves forward to establish a 300th anniversary committee planning committee many municipalities are doing that now as well some are partnering with other municipalities to do their 300th planning events as well um Article 15 is to authorize a select board to accept easements which is a traditional article that you um provide article 16 is specifically related to easements associated with the Stony Brook Bridge Project article 17 is to authorize the acceptance of easements for the West Street and North Street pedestrian safety Improvement project article 18 is authorized to accept easements for the Acton Road Culver project and the Reed Brook Culvert project we do have one zoning bylaw Amendment related to FL plane you heard this a few meetings ago from Jeff moriset that's currently going through the planning board process public hearing process um again it's in my opinion very minor in detail just making sure that our flood map language lines up with the federal flood map language and then we get into General bylaw amendments um so I do want to make a few comments related to um the adoption of the specialized energy code um right now we have that the select board would sponsor this article um this has been brought before you uh for the March town meeting in 2024 as well as October of 2024 and we respectfully requested that the select board um give

us some more time to review what this meant for the community uh as well as for our sustainability efforts and our overall Economic Development efforts so to date um we have met with uh National Grid um to understand the grid capacity If This Were to be put in place um as it's currently proposed in July of 2025 what that would mean for the community um we've had uh the luck and benefit of our current building inspector Eric tardiff who you met at the last meeting um who actually enforced the code in his previous community so he has some understanding of what the code means um and we've just had some more time to gather information um there are members of the CC here this evening they held a public forum on February 6th I believe it was um which was totally virtual where um the department of energy resources and the clean energy committee help to provide um a PowerPoint presentation with overview of what that code means uh and what it provides um and we also have the benefit of um having a strategic outcome area in our strategic plan that we just adopted this evening that nods to uh clean energy and sustainability but also nods to housing production and economic development um so what we have learned to date is that um National Grid has some significant concerns with our grid capacity today so if we were to adopt this code and have it be eligible uh in effect for July 1st of 2025 um that is a viable option in terms of just adopting the code but National Grid does not believe that they have the capacity at this time to actually service new projects that could come on board primarily multif family housing projects or commercial development um that would require these upgrades to be made um so in speaking with our staff um and gaining more knowledge uh we

understand that National Grid thinks it's going to take two to three to four years to actually study their grid and bring this up to capacity so again as the way this language was proposed by the clean energy and sustainability committee for a July 1st of 2025 adoption we would respectfully request that that be pushed to 2028 or a similar date um it's under consideration of what you ultimately want to do uh but we do not believe that we would have the electric capacity to handle this code at that point in time so I do want to just have that discussion this evening if you're comfortable moving forward with July 1st of 2025 that may stunt our economic growth and our housing growth over the period of time because of the capacity of the Grid or if you're more comfortable with going into an effective date further out two to three years um knowing that we would have the code in place that the that we could still move forward potentially with a climate leaders designation and other efforts that the clean energy and sustainability committee are um moving forward with we've also been able to gather some more information from the Department of energy resources about the construction costs and that the construction costs are greater if this code is implemented than if it is not but that's just for your consideration at this point in time so Mike I know you've been really close on this as well say National Grid says that our grid can't is is our Westford or is our Statewide Statewide Statewide State that's why it's four years because it's not a yeah the grid modernization plan um that they have really covers all of the marac valley and theyve they've as they said capacity concerns are real so just on the capacity concern so I mean the way the Grid's built they proposing basically they're they're like if if ad joining towns approved it that would put stress on the grid that

would affect us too so I guess I'm just they're basically saying that they just don't they don't they can't guarantee they're going to support if any communities move forward with rapid implementation it could affect everybody and affect everyone's ability to proceed I think if I understand their comments correctly they'll eventually get the capacity it's just they're a lot of it I think comes down to the way that they are projecting the demand um the way their projection models work is they're not contemplating a couple of pretty significant things one is is specialized code which is probably the smaller of the issues the other one is the MBTA zoning right they're not factoring that into how they're looking at their capacity uh needs in the future they are simply taking one project at a time um so a project gets a work order in that's the first one that gets capacity we've got I think seven or eight potential projects in the pipeline uh for the MBTA District overlay uh of those the first one they had capacity for the second one they didn't um and significant cost to the developer to do study uh and then additional cost to do design and then of course the grid upgrades so um the the short answer is is they can't tell us when capacity will be available but they know it's eventually going to be available and just even without this topic at all if if a bunch of programs were seeking approval and going through planning board and then putting in requests some might be delayed or depending on so we're having conversations with um the land use Department who's having conversations with the developers right now to potentially put in a full application to National Grid encompassing all of the potential developments so that we're not stacking each other again stacking all the projects against each other that it's one comprehensive and cohesive project we're also contacting the state

so that they understand that they are are telling the municipalities we need you to build more housing we're asking them do you understand that we have these grid concerns that is May potentially prohibit us from building these housing units or building economic development in general Andrea so so I have a couple of thoughts so first of all I think what's clear here is that we have two at least what are being presented to us as opposing goals building housing grid saying they don't have the capacity okay um somehow we need not just we but communities in general need to mesh those two goals I mean quite frankly the state should have thought about this when they were passing the thinking about the MBTA obviously didn't they didn't so I I am not inclined to give give National Grid a large long Runway okay I know from experience I've seen it They're saying four years Mike it'll be 10 if you don't put pressure on them okay if the communities don't put pressure on them if the dpu of the state doesn't put pressure on them if the governor doesn't put pressure on them they'll just keep you know extending this out so forever so I think the way to counteract and maybe I I think July 2025 is too soon okay I mean I think you're talking about five months and and and that may be too soon but personally I think July of 2028 is too far I mean that's that's you know three and a half three years from now and I think you know we should talk about a compromise position um in terms of when we might put these if assuming if the specialized tret code passes that town meeting when we might put an effective date in place and meanwhile um

I think that if we and other communities are you know putting this kind if they pass if communities are passing this and if they're putting in deadlines that say you know this has to be done by such and such a date that's is going to be pressured to bear on National Grid to say hey you you folks need to look at this and you need to figure out how to do that at the same time I think that we should be approaching Jim marero he's chair of the housing committee um in the you know in this in the state house so I think he needs to be brought up to speed on this and and to be informed on this I think we should reach out maybe it's through Jim but you know the dpu at the state level really needs to get involved in this um and to and it's not just National grit because I'm I'm probably pretty sure that NSTAR has the same problem and Unitil probably has the same problem as well so it seems to me that you know um that the state needs to Bear you know bring pressure on these um on the utilities because that ultimately is the only way that they respond um and they're not going to respond to you know tiny little Westford putting in a application for all of its projects so um that's you know that's sort of where I'm coming from that's that's my um feeling and I think um I do think that clean energy should be brought into these discussions I also um you know the maybe you've already done this Mike and I just don't know but everything you told us uh earlier tonight about am Esco and what you're doing there um um I think that's great um I'm hoping that clean energy knows all about that because that okay because that factors into we got a working group okay that factors into it so I mean I just want to make sure because um you know as Kristen as you said we made it part of our strategic uh plan um it was also a town meeting resolution um uh so um and you

know it does give us you know having the specialized stretch code if we become a climate leader there are other portions to the specialized stretch code that come into play here that aren't dependent upon grid capacity and so even if we're making those small incremental uh uh steps taking those small inter incremental steps in that progress I think that's something that we need to do I mean we heard from the town we made this part of our strategic plan we need to start doing something as a opposed to just talking about it and if we do adopt this at town meeting with an effective date that is later than July 1st of 2025 we can still move forward with that clim climate leaders designation right that doesn't prohibit us and I think you know from what you folks have told us that that that helps us you know and that you know um uh opens up for the grants uh for us and so I mean I think all of that is important and then finally one last thing I did attend the um February 6th webinar and um I thought those folks did a great job they were so much more concise and clearer than they were when they appeared before us several months ago so I I just want to I just want to plug that because I think they did you know they took our comments and they went back and they were you know sort of rework the whole presentation and it was um it was definitely much better and and for somebody like me who is not versed in all of that was clear and understandable so I just wanted to give a plug for that do you know how many people were on that that web that it was I agree with I thought it was really well done sure yeah somewhere in the 20s that's all yeah yeah it was it was like one hour nice concise up to the point yeah they they worked they they did a good job they brought it to us early gave us a chance to to review everything it it was I think the timing helped a little bit that some time has passed they were able to complete their their cost analysis

study at least on the residential stuff um as I understand it they are still working on some level of cost analysis for impacts to Commercial and multif family but they don't have that information yet but they did have uh cost estimates on the residential side that that we looked at and felt they were you know they they were accurate questions we had asked as as boards they answered in the presentation yeah yeah glist but one one observation so we could I think I agree even if the state would say that that July 1st is too quick they want like I think one year not not five months but um I thought it was six months I mean I thought January 1st would be a yeah I guess you could you could pick I I agre 2020 is kind of I mean if you give naal grid a yard they'll take a while so um but you could pick a date that it was say July 1st 2026 January 1st and then if it's if if it's a complete mess the to meeting could push a back another the year but rather than considering all that ground up front you could fight a delaying action if you had to John you I just be concerned if we had if we pass it and then we look at an effective date two years down the road I'm not sure DEC would react to that you know I think they're looking for six months or so I don't think they had a yeah it's a get us who you are sorry yeah and we do have a few more articles to get we on this one happy to take comments on this um Beth Perkins from Patriot Lane and the clean energy and sustainability committee so one easy well one thing I'd like to say up front is that we requested a January we're co-sponsoring

this and requested a January 1st 2026 date not not the July date um also we we have heard um about the meeting with National Grid and the issues that they brought up we asked on two occasions to be able to attend that meeting because we are co-sponsors and we knew that this is you know the issues with National Grid are a big issue and we were um asked not to attend that meeting we heard there were 12 people from National Grid there so that was a big meeting and we saw we were given notes on the meeting and have compiled a list of questions for National Grid because we don't agree with some of the things that were presented in the notes and with' like some feedback and some more details on those things so we also were not involved in the discussions of moving the date out to as far as 2028 you I don't think any of us were so right so we would like to be involved with Town staff to kind of do what you people are doing tonight to see if we can come up with a compromise or a better approach um I did talk to Dylan who's our representative and the one you heard at that meeting the other night from doar and he said that no town has ever come in with a date that's over 18 months away this isn't written up in a rule book or anything but he doesn't believe that they will look favorably at a 2028 date so uh um also what he made clear is let's say we uh voted in a date of January 1st

2026 and then things with the grid got worse or something bad happened we could at another town meeting modify that date so that would be another way of moving things around if we want and we could still move forward with that climate leader status so so um we do not believe you know the subject here is the specialized energy go we do not believe that code is the problem with the grid issues here in Westford we believe it's these giant uh multifam uh developments that are going in within a short period of time you know one for I think it was about 500 units and one for 300 units and they're on the same circuit um you know we we believe that that was the ma major issue in this case and I could I know we're short on time make a case for how the specialized energy code actually makes things better because for those big developments it requires a passive house that's the standard that you have to build those developments to and it's a super low energy load standard so we think things could get better for big developments like that if they were done with the um stand the uh passive house standard in fact I'm sure that's one of the reasons that the state is requiring that for big multif family developments because we want to get the the load as low as possible for the grid so I mean that's it for tonight we would just ask that we have some more time to figure out the date uh implementation date working with Town staff that's why I wanted have a discussion I didn't really want long discussion but I wanted enough discussion do we do we get progress so we need to make a decision by February 25th on what we're proposing to town meeting on the implementation date it

doesn't mean that there might be a motion on town meeting floor to change that so um but it maybe it makes sense but I mean February 20 that's our next meeting yeah so your proposals we come back to at the next meeting come back and I know Mike Edwards spoke with Mike ginsky yesterday to give him um some of this preview before our meeting this evening but maybe you know between now in the 25th you know you folks talk figure out if you can come to an agreement as to a date that we put in there um and um is there I guess and then listening to Beth I mean they have a bunch of questions they want to ask National Grid we're happy to pass those along and bring those in our meeting you know and thinking about sort of efficiency Mike you know maybe you pass them along and if there's another meeting with National Grid you include these folks so that they can ask their questions and we don't have to go back and forth with a third party I think the the meetings with National Grid are are really multifaceted so we're looking we're talking about tree trimming we're talking about Emergency Operations just invite them to the part that just invite them to the part that that involves them I'm sure they don't need to sit through tree trimming and they probably don't want to sit through tree trimming just just in the interest of schedule I'm wondering if we already have our our answer for what we're doing on right now we're just going to work on the date because the rest of the stuff takes care of it St later on we will do that so so Mike and Beth that works for you guys too you you can get together with Mike and come up with a date okay move on on to sure so article 21 um in speaking with the Animal control officer and Town Council are um current fines in our general bylaw related to uh dogs and and ISS issues with dogs are not up to dat uh so we're

looking to increase those um to come up with to um State Standards uh right now for the first offense we charge $10 we're going to be upping that to $50 second offense $25 upping that to 100 Third offense we currently charge $50 upping that to 300 and fourth and subsequent offense is $500 this is in line with non-criminal disposition through uh chapter 140 section 173a of the general laws this is not a late fee this this is a a dangerous dog kind dangerous issues yes nuisance and dangerous Mr CLA if you're listening not this is not a dog fee no it's not a dog licensing fee in terms of the clerk's office that's correct um article 22 is a resolution to accept Boston Road as a public way um this is a very pecular peculiar state law that um do requires a town to accept a public way before they start construction we are not comfortable with that because we don't know what the final construction is going to look like and if there's going to be any issues with that so in speaking with Town Council and Dot they will accept if the town meeting passes a resolution to accept Boston Road and then once the construction is complete we'd go back to town meeting to request the full acceptance of the way article 23 as we discussed a little bit earlier this evening is to accept Diane Lane as a public way that is in proper order and then article 24 is a Citizens petition to change the uh date and time of the annual election from the first Tuesday of May to the first Saturday of May um and just for the board's information I am working with lorri Shaw the Town Clerk and Jeff Goodwin the facilities director to understand the implications of what a Tuesday to a Saturday um change would mean for Town operations and and costs and um and and our pole workers so um we will be prepar

prep to present that to the board um at a future date um and then as I alluded to at the beginning of the meeting um I may be asking to re open the warrant um on February 25th to add that one article related to this specific um position for the classification and Compensation Plan so basically civilian flaggers is a so what is exact I mean I guess what is exactly the position that you're looking for without um civilian traffic control so right now no so it's it's the the position is called civilian traffic control right now the only people that we can have on our roads directing traffic are police officers um the police department has written a civilian traffic control policy and procedure and has written a job description to create that position on our pay and classification plan that retired firefighters or a firefighter or a highway worker who's not working at Highway could become certified as a traffic control officer and then work those detail details for us so when we have so many details occurring within the town we don't have enough police officers to cover those details those civilian officers would come in and provide those details and be paid a rate to do that work okay so just as you're looking at this sort of too I know you realize it has to go through town meeting I believe it also has to go to the personel Advisory Board correct secondly the other question I have is with respect to our police officers um does it impact the Union it doesn't and they're actually in favor of this they've they've talked and they're very happy about this for question too that was my question great question so do you need a motion to reopen the warrant not yet no because we haven't closed it yet have we we did close it last close it last week I can't we don't any motion yet so we have wait till we get I mean I guess we have something to add which we don't have yet so it'll be 25th yeah 25th okay

um and then I guess cost implications I know most of I mean if it were a third party contractor obviously they would pay for right so we be build detail rates into all of our public projects and then if it's a private project they pay those rates as well so it's no impact on the general fund and we're not paying um benefits for these people either what if it's a project that you know we're doing inhouse and they want we we budget that in our project cost all right so is no for fincom to take a position that's that's the question um is it's a new position I don't know if fincom has I haven't dealt with a new position since I've been here I don't know if they ever take a position on on that I will ask Dan O'Donnell that question okay um which means the I guess we need to look with the talk about the order M moderator you have any opinions on all right I guess that that that's if we we don't want to vote until next week orrect which checkes us to old a new business take that down and um easy one is to appoint approve request to approve chrisy Bates as a full member to the affordable housing trust committee with a term to expire June 30th 2025 so moved second favor I I congratulations Christie and thank you um an next a request from The Armenian National Committee of merac Valley to sign the proclamation remembrance of the amidan genocide of 1915 it's a motion to some approve second all in favor I uh minutes for approval um regular session and release January 14th and January 28th of 2025 is there a motion to approve some moved second all favor I and then um for Le executive sessions so to be clear we

voted an executive session two weeks ago to um release we need to do it in a public meeting tonight so we're authorizing release of minutes we've priv previously said we can release so there's motion to release the executive session minutes of February 4th 2022 February 22nd 2022 May 19th 2022 August 3rd 2022 September 13th 2022 October 11th 2022 November 15th November 17th December 1st December 3rd all 2022 and then May 5th and August 15th 23 so moved second all in favor thank you Bo report for updates that appearing um 10 minutes report sure so the first matter uh we've discussed in great detail in executive session we are asking you to authorize the town manager to sign a settlement agreement with Waste Management so moved second all in favor um the next item is to accept a donation from the EST family to the Westford Community Gardens in the amount of $100 to accept second all in favor all right uh the next thank you yeah yeah with our gratitude um the next item is to approve contracts um the first is uh you see this annually on your February agenda to approve a stoploss contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts for our partially self excuse me partially self-funded health insurance plan from March 1st 2025 through February 28 2026 in the anticipated amount of $2.49 million was requested by the health insurance trust um you will note in your memo that this uh premium amount is less than last year um the health insurance trust had many many conversations and decided to

increase our deductible from $125,000 to $200,000 based upon our claims that we saw um we do feel that even if the claims go up slightly with our $200,000 deductible that we will still be paying less in stop loss than we were last year if we were to stay at the $125,000 deductible we would have seen an over 42% increase in stop loss so we felt that at this point in time the way the trust is running and the way our claims are running that we would be comfortable moving up to that $200,000 deductible can you how does that work so if somebody who's on that plan gets sick they have to pay $200,000 before the plan covers so so if someone gets very sick a cancer treatment or heart transplant um the town of Westford pays up to $200,000 through our health insurance trust through the premiums once that patient hits $200,000 then the stop loss kicks in correct um and then the next two um Guardian energy management for the Abbott wastewater treatment plant electrification and heat pump project and out of 67305 as Mike alluded to earlier this evening and um item three tekon architecture for the existing conditions assessment and elevator feasibility study at the Westford Museum in the amount of $29,500 as requested by the facilities Department this funding came through CPC where there was just going to be an elevator feasibility study and we decided that it would be prudent to also do an existing conditions assessment with those funds because we don't want to just slap on an elevator there and not know what other components are available or positions within the building so that is what we have for contracts this is there a timeline for them to do that as soon as possible you're having a kickoff meeting next week I think yeah we're having an initial discussion with them next week

it's um to point of clarification the um the town meeting approval was for studying elevator and accessibility uh requirements we had um our direct access actually did the accessibility audit of that building so we're taking that information we're we're basically doing the full study of that building that we're doing with all of our other buildings under the space needs analysis plus the elevator feasibility study so we'll come out of that with really a well-laid out Capital plan for maintaining and restoring the building for the same price okay yeah but we're doing it quick but they anticipate completing this I was going to say yeah I mean we're we're going to know for sure we just kind of came came to the idea that we really needed to to get this study underway that had been in the court of HBC and the museum since it was approved Jeff Goodwin has basically pulled it into our office and his office um and so we're kind of jump starting it we're meeting with the architech to get a timeline um believe next week fast rocket okay as much as possible and really want to see like an assessment of the conditions of the building yes okay so do we yeah very much okay there's a motion to approve so move all in favor can we actually release the the subm agreement yes we can release the agreement I think so I mean congratulations to Mike and Christen because the Su agreement with um waste management was $110,000 there abouts 110,000 that was U well done thank you was good good job GL glad to have it behind us and just for clarification This was um due to their Mis recycling pickups throughout January through June

plus 4,000 for legal 4,000 for legal covered all of our costs yes so thank you thank you very much well done is there motion to W correspondence second all in favor I motion to adjourn so moved second all favor e