Select Board - Regular Meeting

uh welcome back to the J January 14th sort meeting which we will now um get officially started with pledge allegiance led by Tom to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all so first item on the agenda on open forum is to congratulate Wayne burgard and his retirement after 45 years of service with the West FR water department and Mark did you want to say a few words I do thank you uh Mark Warren Westford water department superintendent I would like to take a moment to recognize our recently retired drinking water treatment Foreman Wayne buard Wayne retired from the water department on January 3rd after nearly 45 years of service dedicated service for a little perspective on that Terry Bradshaw was the MVP of Super Bowl 14 when Wayne started at the water department so um Wayne a lifelong Westford resident started as an operator with the Department in March of 1980 back then the water department was a very different place we had no water treatment plants few were customers and everything was done by hand automation consisted of a phone call from the boss telling you to turn a valve over the years we've added two sophisticated treatment plants with two more on the way provided many more residents and businesses with public drinking water secured an additional water source and laid countless miles of new water M Wayne has played a vital role in this development and growth of the town's public water system on behalf of the Westford water department I want to express our heartfelt thanks and

appreciation for Wayne's tireless work in ensuring Westford residents have access to safe and reliable drinking water being a drinking water operator is a physically demanding job much of the work is often carried out under less than ideal circumstances extreme cold heat rain rain snow at night on weekends and on holidays away from your family it's a 24-hour a day 7-Day a week vocation it's not simply a job but a career Wayne's work ethic exemplified his high level of commitment to the water department our customers in the town itself on a personal note I'd also like to thank Wayne uh for the opportunity to work alongside him and learn from his wealth of knowledge over the past 14 years it's been truly an honor and a pleasure Wayne's taught me so much about both the drinking water industry and the inner workings of the Westford water department as well as the town of Westford he's always been willing to offer a hand sorry offer advice or lend a hand often in his uniquely colorful way for those of you know Wayne know what I'm talking about so after 45 years of devoted service we wish Wayne a long happy and welld deserved retirement and as we say in the water department goodbye tension hello p thank thank you thanks Mark and once again congratulations Wayne I was when when I pulled into his goodbye party um this G I didn't know pulled next to me I asked you know who he was one of our contractors who was there to say happy retirement he said he had learned a lot of of business from Wayne so those 45 years picked a lot of stuff he trained a lot of people uh in our department and elsewhere so we're we're going to miss him thank um next I would observe we have um

later on in our agenda we have uh hopefully the appointment of one of our also members on the to building committee to a full-time member voting member which means there'll be um two open alternate seats for the permanent Town building committee so we're encouraging anybody interested um to fill out a resident activity form uh to uh engage to the town clerk's office we'll take a look at that in another probably about a month so we get to the committee to look at talk to you and then a point from here later on similar we have open seats these are actually voting seats on the football Housing Trust so if you have interest in foral housing um have two we have two applicants now so um but we we welome more um and then finally um on the posted um forum we have um the West facilities assessment and master plan public input sessions being held on January 15th at 7 at the Millennium February 5th at 6 at Millennium March 22nd at aown meeting W Academy and April 5th um at 10:00 a.m. in Millennium so um many chances to listen learn and opine about the um West facilities assessment and master plan anything you want to add to that Kristen just that we will also have a hybrid option so we hope that people will join there's also um the events on Facebook if people want to sign up and get the links there as well um we are looking for input from the public on many of our public buildings of how we move forward with our uh use of them and our maintenance um so really looking forward to getting the public involved there's some really fun activities that our consultant has planned uh and I think people have a good time and learn a lot about where we're moving thanks is there anything else from the board okay I know I know Ellen asked for a moment so

um Ellen you can make your request or observation whatever it may be thank you very much Scott I'm Ellen Hardy of 39 Main Street and I'm also the president of the Drew Farmhouse Incorporated which is a Westford nonprofit that was founded just a year and a half ago for the sole purpose of preserving the red Farmhouse at 70 Boston Road which was then a vacant real estate office and to transform that building into um affordable housing in The Farmhouse and in the barn also here tonight with me are members of the board and what Scott McKay called The Drew Farmhouse posy we're here tonight to let the voters of Westford know that 14 months after they voted at the October 2023 town meeting to entrust the Drew Farmhouse with Community preservation money for both affordable housing and for historic preservation the work is done our contractor Steve gothier of Westford has created four extraordinary one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment in The Farmhouse designed by Westford architect Jim ztz and we're just waiting for renters to move in application for our occupancy permit has begun and we have two leases signed with hopes that we will have two more by the end of this week with an on or about uh March 2025 move in date when the board of appeals allowed the Drew farmhous to put five apartments in the barn I mean in The Farmhouse they also gave us permission to do two additional units in the barn the building that you see on the right in the picture and we are honored to have Habitat for Humanity of Greater lle do that work for us the volunteers from Habitat for Humanity have gutted the inside of the Barn back down to the

studs and the post and beam it's extraordinary and by this summer they will have created two three-bedroom homes inside the barn which will be owned and lived in by Habitat for Humanity eligible families we are here tonight to thank especially the first three boards that we approached when this was just the embryonic stage and that's a polite way of putting it the affordable housing trust the community president reservation committee and the historic commission who all unanimously said yes go ahead when we were just working it out as we went through the process assistant Town manager Jeff Moore set in his inimitable style could not have been more gracious and helpful in Walking us through the permitting process with both planning board and the board of appeals and town meeting vote of two-thirds meant so much to us we have also had beyond the town meeting appr preparation close to $400,000 donated to the nonprofit as we have to pay off our mortgage that we took out in order to purchase the property we still have dollars to raise and we have been um honored to receive a $100,000 challenge Grant through next month uh 20,000 of that is already been raised and we have created a Giving Tree and I think we have a picture of that local artist uh Alice faen has created this on our barn door and uh each one of the apples of course it was the Drew Farmhouse so it had to be an apple tree those are apples um represents a donation to The Drew Farmhouse and in the next six weeks as we get close to the deadline for the challenge we hope that as you drive by you will see Apple after Apple grow on our Giving Tree and bear fruit so we just say thank you

Westward for having faith in us thank you thank you thank you well done is there anything else open for him tonight then here we move on to our Cass agenda um first we have a request for the town common and Bandstand by the Westford Scout Troop 437 Barbara Evangelista for the annual Scout Troop bike and Sporting Good sale May 3rd 2025 from 7:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. um we have Banner requests uh first um the town Minister's office for the 2025 annual town meeting dates of display from March 14th through March 24th 2025 location in front of First beish Church Second um the Boy Scout bike and Sporting Good sale um with West Scout Troop 437 Barbara Evangelista uh Banner dates April 25th 2025 through May 5th 2025 also in front of First Parish and then finally uh the 2025 Town election requested by the Tag's office B are Run April 29th 2025 through May 9th um also in front of fir First Parish church it's a motion to accept can I just make an amendment U before you do that we have noticed that there's an overlap between event B the boy SC The Troop uh at the First Parish and uh the annual election so we'll be moving the boy scout uh troop to the Fletcher Library location that amendment is there a motion to approve second second all in favor I next we have a public hearing request for a transfer of M General law section

sorry um chapter 138 section 12 all alcohol restaurant license from AquaSource LLC doing business as stur bartini bar kitchen to to RT rctm LLC doing business as seberger Lounge located at tup Power Road is motion open the public hearing second all in favor I um I have a question y I know I know this is unusual to actually have a question um so it looks like this is a transfer from stir on Powers Road to the new restaurant that's going to go there did stir which moved to Route 110 get a different alcohol license they did they got the transfer from okay all right I just wanted to make sure that all the Ducks were in row in a row this one the audience here for the okay yeah so if you want to if you want to come forward you can just tell us who you are and and and speak to it I see suits I assume lawyers so you're correct not not me not us sorry so to your question yeah I'm sorry we we you just need to tell us who you are oh I'm sorry Rey Richards um Caitlyn Anan both owners of St Martin bar on 110 okay thanks and here um so yeah the liquor license was transferred from Chili's to us over there and then we maintain the one over there from what was Stir to the new location you here so we open a new restaurant over there mhm great right perfect thank you guys very much I appreciate paperwork order Patty looks good to me okay so when when do you think you'll open soon as this comes back weeks that's on them we're ready to go over there just just just s a license yeah we did all the internal um changes that we need to make for the most part

just paints and stuff like that changing some stuff up and um we're waiting on the abcc to come back to oh that's great well thanks for being here in West thank you so much appreciate it you guys have been great thank you so as a motion to uh approve the request so moved second all in favor I and close the public second all in favor I thank you Lu appreciate you guys thank you thank you yes excited so stay tuned more to um next we have a request to act and acquire we have an act review to yeah review an act to acquire by gift two vacant procs of land off Howard Road and one vacant press of land on cury Circle for general mpal purposes as authorized by 2024 special town meeting um I know Jeff is here is be here the um who wants to speak to this first Jeff or I I can be brief and then uh Sam Palmer is here representing the Aubrey D AER Inc company as well as the Palmer family so uh Mr chair thank you very much uh this is a follow through item from the article 9 at the October 21st 2024 town meeting the Aubrey D acur company uh volunteered to donate three Parcels of land to the town of Westford um and the town meeting authorizes the select board to actually fall through and accept that authorize you to accept that that gift all the paperwork has been reviewed by Town Council it's found to be in order and we're simply asking the board to vote tonight to execute the deed that is uh here tonight and draft is in your in your packet um and we do want to again uh extend our thanks uh to the Palmers for their gener generosity here uh they were great to work with and just happy to answer any questions or if Mr Palmer wants to add anything as well Sam do have anything

or thank you board Sam Palmer um I just want to express my appreciation to the land use Department um for their willingness to um work with us through the process um it's it's taking a while it's taken a while um you know we've had the parcel for many many years but L use was receptive and helpful every step of the way and I I want to express my gratitude towards them and this board and uh the the town people for the um positive vote at Town Meeting thank you and thank you for for for the donation much appreciate as somebody who lives on ciry Circle and knows that parcel very well thank you very much we use everybody in the neighborhood uses it over time we've had it for many many years but it's time than we very much appreciate it my pleasure thank you anything further from the audience anything online by any chance okay so I guess is there a motion to um I'll move to accept the to the gifts of the two vacant Parcels of land off of Howard Road and the one vacant parcel of land off of ciry circle there a second second all in favor I great and thank you once again thank you very much um next we have a joint meeting with the economic development committee for an update for the town Economic Development consultant tro advisor services on potential slogans and graphics for Westford hi I'm Cheryl surpi I'm the chair of the economic development committee and just by way of a little bit of background most of you will recall select board that you approved arpa funding to provide a um an economic development consultant to help our efforts in achieving economic goals in Westford and I'm pleased to introduce tro advisory Services we got Jack tro and Mary Lin Boon here to share our

first major initiative um some of you may have gotten a preview in the packet but really exciting stuff going on and I will let them take it over great thanks please does anyone like a copy a hard copy of the sure I'll take one sorry the ca thank you hopefully thank you I'll take I'll take right thank you thank you very much so uh good evening um it's a pleasure to be here thanks Cheryl for the introduction um if we can advance to the next slide um this is our uh Mission um but rather than go through the details of what's in our um scope of services I'll try to summarize it's really three parts um it's strategy uh marketing and branding and Recruitment and Retention and those are to the um exercise of our primary objective which is to help essentially attract grow and retain businesses in Westford um so tonight we're going to focus on as Cheryl mentioned a key phase of our work which is uh the marketing and branding part of

this work and um I'm GNA ask Mary Lynn to go through the the uh details of the report and at the end um I'm happy to provide a brief summary of our overall project status um in addition you know next steps but uh Mary Lynn why don't you okay and take the next great thank you um and it's been just wanted to say it's been a pleasure getting to know the members of the economic U development committee and members of town government throughout this process over the last several months um we really dug in during August and September with um some creative in um development we surveyed members of the committee members of town government and some local business owners um asking them for some input on Westford as as a place to do business um and some of the questions are up in the presentation what makes West special a few words that come to mind when you think about doing business historical and cultural landmarks that might lend themselves to um graphic uh to Graphics in the slogan in the overall look and a style or tone that kind of best represents doing business here and I have a few of the responses if you're interested um what makes westf special were excellent schools easy access and location distinct business zones with free parking um an educated Workforce rural character and a great town staff so those were some of the things that were came back some of the key characteristics or attributes for uh reasons to do business in Westford it's an affluent Community a friendly diverse convenient and it has a growing population some of the historical and cultural landmarks that were um mentioned are town hall building Ren Bush the Westford Knight which I chose

not to uses graphic influence uh kimbles apple orchards and the appid mill and overall style and tone people said Westford is warm and welcoming somewhat traditional Innovative sophisticated vibrant and energetic so throughout we use those and as a basis for coming up with the number of slogans and the initial um list of slogans was about 75 in length so we first had the economic development committee and a small working group round those down and then we held two focus groups um one with sort of larger business owners like um representativ from gueras company from BTU International Collins Aerospace um aami and then um the second second one was small business owners and more Paul Steiner um eoo ideal concrete block were some of the people who attended and through the feedback and the various surveys we did for those companies we were able to round down the slogans to the three that are listed on under phase two of the testing which are discover Westford success is just around the corner discover Westford a hub for growth the home for success and discover Westford where Innovation meets opportunity um um I think the most important aspect that we gathered from the focus groups and the the research that we did is that people wanted to discover West as a place to do business it's somewhat of a rural Town that's SE far from Boston and we wanted the idea of of an action item to get people to come out here and realize what Westford has to offer as a place to do business I would also interject too that these focus groups were broader than just to focus on marketing and branding and we

got a lot of feedback in General from the different types of businesses and and a lot of positive feedback I would yes I have I have some of that feedback as well if we want to talk about that afterwards but um so phase three after we were able to round down the the slogans was to come up with some graphic identity to go along with the slogans and um after about two dozen initial designs and some U modifications we came up with the six that are listed under phase three in the identity um and then we let the economic development committee make the final choice and they chose you was supposed to be a surprise for today but however I think you all saw it which is phase four um sneak peek and what I personally like about this is I I think it's a nod to the technology and Innovation that you find in Westford by use of the circuit board um but yet brings up some of the historical and Rural characteristics by shaping the the circuit board as a tree and the addition of the Apple which seems to be a themed tonight um was actually something that was workshopped during an economic development committee meeting somebody suggested the you know the idea of representing the apple orchards and we literally drew it and showed it to the committee that day um so we are hoping that the select board is on board with us moving forward using this branding and marketing for trying to develop our our the rest of our program in Economic Development here in Westford comments from anybody or be it for me to to contradict the economic development committee and all the work that you folks have done I also add that Mary Lyn has a little exciting thing that happens with that Apple when you're on the on the right link W I did

a little fun animation which unfortunately you can't show in the in the PDF but we'll we'll have it in Footers of people's email and whatnot so you'll get to see it in motion I will say when I first looked at this page the graphic that caught my eye first was the one that you guys ultimately are um just so you know the second second and third choice the second choice was letter D the Discover westro road signs and then the third choice was discover Westward with the um technology park building so yeah I think it'll be very flexible I think it's very friendly um but it does have that nod to technology so we'll be able to use it on all kinds of things um some of the items we have coming forward will be a new business toolkit for piece of people interested in doing business here a new website or at least a web page that will be devoted just to Economic Development um hopefully some signage and some other collateral materials so social media we're looking forward to using it as often as possible and we're also hoping to get the buyin from local businesses to also be able to use it their Communications and some of the business Community groups and we've also made the first steps to link uh tro with our communications consultant so they'll be working hand inand together on some of the Town Communications as well and can we announce the date the part yeah um we're we are planning to have an event to kind of to let people know that this is happening and Cheryl just confirmed today that that event is going to be on March 14th that's Swit is Pi Day which we thought was kind of appropriate for apples so TI it all together where where is that going to be it'll be at net Scout okay I I just got that confirmed yesterday so it'll be a breakfast event and we'll make sure all of you get the save the date and so

apple muffins not pie but yeah small level one I think we should have pie little I think pie is good for breakfast Pie's great for breakfast thank you actually I was going through like the Chris mention I said well I really didn't like really did not like the around the corner because that f is like you never actually find it um but I I I was happy to pick this one that I love that you the circuit tree it's it's nice so any looking for more guidance from us or you just sort of um no I don't know if you need to vote on it for us to move it we can just start using it but I think we got a pretty clear consensus if you want to have a motion to accept the um logo and slogan as shown on you know phas for approval make a motion yeah why not let's make the motion second all in favor I great so yeah thank you that was good work are we gonna hear the rest of the Pres yeah I'll just do I'll just summ same before printing anything make sure we were you were legal we appreciate the uh the action um so I I began with the idea that we have these three inter connected objectives around the goals of of you know attracting growing and retaining businesses in Westford and so this action sets us on a course to build the brand um so in terms of Recruitment and Retention I'll provide a quick update we've been working closely with the EDC to build a database of businesses here in town and we've identified about 535 businesses and Property Owners we have approximately 130 contacts with those businesses and the goal is to expand that um so that

essentially we have you know a robust list of businesses and contacts in those businesses um you know as you can imagine there's a lot of um resources right under the roof here but it's just a matter of pulling it all together connecting the dots and um and you know enabling us to to um fill in the the database um some of the other things that that we've been working on and when I say we I mean the EDC and the town staff as Mary Lynn was quick to point out have been um essentially on building Outreach um we want to continue to expand building onetoone contacts with businesses in town and then um ultimately uh to engage if you can switch to the next slide um engage with the community um by developing greater resources around our knowledge of the business community so you know better understanding of the types of businesses that are here what their needs are and how the town can meet those needs one of the other things I would point out quickly about the brand is it's part to grow the businesses that know Westford but also um the Discover Westford and and the banner Westford is important to attracting those businesses that don't know Westford so we have that sort of Dual Purpose we want to be able to familiarize people that don't know Westford educate them to understand and and learn about Westford and at the same time for those companies like the stir Restaurant Group um they're familiar with W Westford you know what kind of

resources do they need how can we help them so um that's essentially what we're hoping to accomplish and we appreciate your support in taking the next step on the road and I'm open to any questions we're open to any questions you might have about our Chris Mission so I think there's some great stuff here uh with the database one I was surprised that we just didn't have that already so I'm glad that we're building it question is once you folks end your contract how are we going to maintain it how do we collect information from companies that are leaving Westford because that's I think one of the more critical pieces of information we want to be able to get is why are you leaving um and and because there's nothing that would require them to notify the town that they're leaving I mean how how do we keep this date up to date I guess what's your recommendation there okay so that's a good good question and so technically businesses are required to notify the town that they're leaving um and there is a database uh it's maintained in the clerk's office and we're in the process of we we started the platform really working off the assessor database because I felt that was the best way to have every address and then we filled it in with all the businesses you know through the personal property tax records we know then who all the tenants are in the business complexes so we have businesses we have landlords and then we want to try to build on some of these other resources like the certificates that different businesses file with the town when they come and go another thing that we're we're trying to do specifically Chris on your question about you know why are companies leaving one of the things that we've talked about and Kristen has

mentioned is we'd like to conduct like exit interviews so that we know you know why did the company decide not to stay here and you know why would they relocate to another uh building or facility so that we understand we have that feedback we've measured it that's definitely it um a part of this process in terms of how to maintain it that's part of this communication strategy and Kristen I don't know if you want to expand on that um we have not figured out how to maintain it yet we do have tro for a number of months more and one of the main things that we've discussed with the EDC and trast is that anything that they build we want to be transferred to the town right so it'll all be under Town ownership so we do have a little bit of time to develop do we then have a position for this because we'll be increasing revenue or is there another way but everything that tro is doing is being transferred to the town we're being trained on that so it will not be owned by tro it will be owned by the town of Westford and we'll be able to maintain and move that forward so we're hoping at the end of their engagement that we'll have processes and protocols to continue these good things that are being done for the benefit of Westford okay thank you Tom um this has come up before and I know I know you're working on it from the EDC meetings and I can see some of it here but just for the rest of the board I think one of the challenges we've had with the past 10 years is I feel like we we sort of get what we get in terms of the business footprint that we have here in town we don't feel like we have a lot of influence Over Control we feel like maybe we're in some state of steady decline it' be great to have some vision of like what it looks like when we're nailing it like with the choices westford's made about Green Space which we value and about residential character which we value with the land that we do have dedicated to the business district what's what's

like a great goal for us to have in terms of how vibrant it can be uh there's a revenue generation there's a service to town There's creating a good Community like that that's what i' I felt for a while was not um we didn't have yet is that something that will come make will make some distance towards here as part of this work absolutely I think the whole point of the three parts the strategy part whether it's a long-term strategy and a short-term strategy would focus on that and I think what we're going to try to Define with the help of the EDC and the town staff is what does that look like um you know we have some ideas we we've been moving those around um and I think we would like to come back uh quite frankly with an update and that would be one of the things we'd like to do is sort of paint that picture um of that vision of what it could look like um as you move forward uh you know what what are the great things to keep building on what are some of the other things to think about um that could make it even better and the EDC and and trast has been fully made aware of our strategic outcome areas and that Economic Development outcome area so we hope that we can use some of that framework to inform their work and bring back those metrics to the board for future success yeah I know we love to have you back with helping us Envision that absolutely any other questions Chris so presumably you've done this type of work before for other communities right so you've done this branding and this Outreach and marketing do you have any hard metrics on what those efforts yielded in those communities in terms of you know next year's growth five years growth in terms of new businesses coming to those communities that you've done these types

of Endeavors that I don't offhand have any any metrics in part because this may sound like a an excuse but every town kind of goes down a slightly different path so that there I I can't say honestly that there's a direct relationship between for example I I spent a lot of time in walam working with them I spent a lot of time on the state level working with state state agencies on different branding campaigns and so it's a mix of experiences um I'd say the state is better at keeping metrics than the than the towns the towns tend to have different ways of how they want to measure what those metrics are whether it's inbound whether it's internal growth um but I would say that one of the things we would hope to accomplish with the town staff and with the vision is some potential metrics that we would leave the town so that you could say yeah these are the kinds of things we'd like to see with the tax base these are the kinds of things we'd like to see with respect to the feedback we're getting from businesses um and you know I don't know if you want to add to that Mary Lyn but I think we we definitely want to leave you with some ways to think about how to measure success if we sort of paint that picture at the same time well I think so to what Kristen's one of the things she stated is you know we don't have a position for this so once you move on how do we how do we make the business case to say hire a consultant again or to hire a part-time or full-time staff to handle this type of work and engagement how do we how do we make that case to the taxpayers to say hey we need

$100,000 to hire X to do y y meaning bring new business businesses and help retain businesses in the community unless we can quantitatively tell them this is what these efforts yield yeah I mean I think we have to we have to offer that perspective um you know at the by the end of the assignment and as Christ said we have a a few months meaning we really have the rest of this year uh so but it's going to happen fast and so I'm I'm conscious of that um you know a lot of towns have created Revenue stre dreams whether it's been through you know Hotel taxes or other dedicated sources of revenue and I will be prepared to offer some of those examples um and and share how other communities have have done that um and and you know what the potential is for Wester to you know look to those experiences great thank you yeah that' be really cool to see that of get my question in terms of do we get at the end of this process you know specific recommendations we've got rout Route 110 full of obsolete office condos right so how do we repurpose those intelligently um we've got retail strips that are not really a capacity how do we re-envision those is are those kind of action items we can expect from this work or is that beyond the scope no I think we've we've spent some time talking about the office condo mark Market I mean on a uh relative business basis I Westford has a lot of office condos um and so we've talked about that issue and I think for that type of real estate product compared to an office Park it's more challenging to think about how that you know becomes a a more

attractive investment you know the office Park is a little different type of investment opportunity in terms of a guer as invest ing in upgrading a building versus an office condo so absolutely I mean I think that's part of the vision is you know if we're going to lay it out we're going to lay it out I don't want to say block by block but we're going to lay it out certainly product type or or commercial uh property type to the fullest extent that we can okay good anything else I guess when will we next have an update um I think that depends on you know we'll we'll talk to the EDC and depends on their work we'll we'll um I I think probably it makes sense to come at some point in a couple months and give you an update so you know not not certainly not to wait until the end that's what I was hoping You' say okay there's no contractual daysis but it's when next logical Milestone yes I think that's right whatever it might be I think that's right great so thank you all right thank you thank you we'll see you on Thursday yes um next we have a request to lay out Diane Lane as a public way and to refer the matter to the planning board for a non-binding recommendation I'm sure that's Jeff thank you Mr chair uh so Diane Lane it's an eight lot open space res Cal subdivision off of Carlile Road um and as a reminder Street acceptance is really a three-step process the first step which we're here for tonight is for the select board to State their intention to lay this out as a public way I will say throughout the planning board process it was designed and always intended to eventually become a public

way and both the planning board and the engineering department they reviewed it accordingly um after tonight if you vote your intention it will be remanded to the planning board for a non-binding recommendation which will then come back to this board as part of a public hearing process where the neighbors uh get invited to attend that public hearing and offer any comments they may have on that um the second step in the process is really vote by town meeting to accept it and then the last step if town meeting uh votes to accept it is finally acquisition so that's the follow through where you actually uh acquire rights on behalf of the Town usually in the form of an easement for the right of way so as I said tonight is just the the first step um we're looking for you to see if you're willing to lay it out as a public way um this would be before the planning board if you take such action tonight at their meeting of January 21st so next Tuesday and I do believe we have attorney Melissa Robbins and professional engineer Matt Waterman from lantech associates they are attending via zoom in case you have any questions tonight and I'm also happy to try to answer any questions you might have any questions no I okay Ive to I moved to request the planning board to lay out Dian Diane Lane as a public way second all in favor I I thank you thank you very much I think I'm sure you're here also for the zoning board zoning by Amendment to the planning board yes so um you may recall um at the April annual town meeting we did make some adjustments to the flood plane section of our zoning bylaw Amendment FEMA came up with some uh required changes to uh bylaw l language we actually already did the heavy lifting at the April um town meeting so the language is all good but right now there's new flood map coming into effect um actually today we received in the mail the actual date it's going to be

July 8th 2025 and so we are obligated to update our zoning bylaw to refer to the updated flap uh flood insurance study and the flood insurance rate Maps uh so we must refer to the correct date or we fall out of compliance and we're no longer eligible as an nfip community that would be bad for people who need flood insurance so we're hoping um that you will uh remand this to the planning board in accordance with the zoning act uh for their public hearing process I move to remand second joh second okay all in favor I I thank you very much thanks Jee thanks Jeff thank you je you've been busy yeah we're we're usually not you know not so it's good um next on oldo business we request to approve Tom wimberg as a full member of pent Town building committee with a seat expiring of June 30th 2026 is motion to approve so second all in favor congratulations and welcome Tom um we've already appointed him to the Roberson school committee so we've assumed this this be happening and he he he um he was volunteered but uh he did accept the volunteering um I request to approve Katie Kelly to the high school student seat on the diversity equity and inclusion committee all in favor I congratulations welcome Katie um great resume yes saw in a packet very impressive um request to establish a term limit of one year for the high school student seat on the Dei committee such expired June 30th 2026 second all in favor I um which makes sense give it the students we have the one year they graduate

yeah uh request to authorize uh $ 27,5 31 of the summer Village gift fund to supplement a housing Choice Grant to conduct a market study analysis for 12 North Main Street property as requested by the land use management department and would that be you again jefff I'm sure yes sir Mr chair so we are actually requesting that you consider taking this item up with the rkg contract whether you take them both together now if you want to wait till the contract section because they are related um or you can stick to the agenda we can talk about the merits of the summer Village GI fund now and then delay acting on it's whatever the board's preference is let's just do it with with a contract that's fine okay so if you're listening the contract is under um item 13 section c thank you so was that do you want to do that now or you want to wait for I think I think I do it now but anything okay that was that was the confusion okay sorry I was I was just pointing out where where the where the document was so okay so thank you um so the town was awarded for background a housing Choice Grant in the amount of $190,000 to conduct two studies relative to the 12 North Main Street property uh we had recommended um we thought the town could benefit from having some additional information that would allow you to make a more informed decision about potential Redevelopment of that property so two studies uh we got approval for one is a Wastewater um analysis if you're not familiar with this property it does lie within a nitrogen sensitive area which dramatically limits the amount of on-site uh septic capability it's very restrictive so unless you find a way to provide some off-site uh Wastewater Solutions your use options are very

limited there so we thought you know whether or not ultimately it made sense to go offsite we thought the select board Andor maybe town meeting should have benefit of what are the options for offsite what would that cost we also thought it would be useful to take a look at what some of the most viable uses could be for that property both from a uh just a financial standpoint what's viable what could perhaps bring the best value if it were to come back on the tax book books which is completely separate from policy related questions like what is best for the community but we feel that this board can make the best decision if they had those answers to those questions so we were uh awarded that Grant and um we did put out an RFP for all of that as as one proposal we did not get any respondents so we had to separate it into two different proposals we did receive uh a number of uh very responsive uh proposals and so unfortunately though the total of the two studies exceed the $190,000 grant that we received so we are looking permission from this board to uh take some money from the summer Village gift fund to supplement the grant money so that we can actually conduct both studies which must be completed per the grant agreement by the end of June 2025 so it's not a lot of time but you get a lot of information in a short amount of time if we're able to make use of these funds and so just for some background information the summer Village gift fund it did uh come out of the the summer Village project it was a form of uh mitigation and so there's been um some of the projects that have been used for in the past some of you folks here on this board would be very familiar with but has been used for the Westford Academy track the Norman Day School playground uh the Gren Dunville Road intersection Improvement project uh East Boston camps a few times for some repairs and the EBC bath house the forge Pond Beach and some courts resurfacing so if um there's currently about

$109,400 and so I'm happy to try to answer any questions you folks might have there's a motion to authorize the use of that money so second all in favor I I and to approve the I should have pointed out earlier though the planning board did um it's not a requirement but you folks usually look for a recommendation from the planning board they did recently vote uh to re make that recommendation so I'll make a motion to approve the rkg associates for 12 North Main Market study analysis in the amount of $8,400 is requested by the land use Management Department second second yes any there a second all in favor thank you very much next we need to finalize and approve 2025 Su Bo meeting dates which were in our packet so hopefully it review that with calendars and right so we did discuss this um in 2024 there was a conflict November 11th is the second Tuesday in November so the calendar that we have before you this evening suggests that perhaps we have a select board meeting on November 18th and November 25th I think it would be prudent to review this again in the July or August time frame depending on what business we have before the board and how uh town meeting shakes out in October okay is that better than than say the fourth me think than Thanksgiving week do you want have a meeting that Tuesday right so we meet October 28th which is the last Tuesday in October we could do the 4th and the 18th if you wish as well um that was just a suggestion so we're able to take any anything that the board desires any

preferences I'm okay with it as it is now okay so I guess then the motion would be to accept it with readings on the 18th and 25th okay is there motion to that effect so but we will still have the review and yes yeah we do anyway we always take a look at at August and and December when we get into the into it so okay so there a motion sorry was there a motion to accept second okay all in favor I board reports for updates I just give a shout out to the EDC since they were here tonight look like that the uh the EDC is like in such a healthy place like the people on it are so impressive everybody shows up it's like a really thriving committee and uh I think you put in many years on that committee I've been on that committee for a long time and I don't think it's ever been as like the mix of old new people the kind of people are sincerely interested in doing the work so it's just if you don't ever go to those meetings it's like a it's it's sort of a high Watermark it's nice to hear that you're finally going to have a really good database we started working on a database when I was on that committee which is now a good 15 12 15 years ago and you know we had volunteers you know citizen volunteers trying to do that going to the assessor's office going around town looking at all the businesses and you know we did um you know it it was a group of gentlemen who um came out of the Villages at ston rdge really first started the EDC committee um and so you know they did the best they could for sure but and they did a lot of good work they did they did an incredible amount planning guy they did a bunch of stuff but just yeah I mean the scale of work is different yeah this is just terrific but shout out to the committee and to the original gentleman who really established it

yeah of which Ron is one of the loves yes still still involved okay in that case Chris on to you yeah absolutely so um we have two grants that we would like uh approval of acceptance and we're grateful for these individuals um the greater L Community Foundation and uh don Patty Mason family fund uh submitted a donation in the amount of $250 for pet friendly safe footing kits for vulnerable Westford seniors when they're going out to walk their pets um and then Nancy Fletcher donated uh $300 for police vests and helmets um so we're so grateful for their donations and we just request that the board approve those move to accept second all in favor okay thank you um all those making donations that's that's great and then uh one purchase order for turbidity meters at the forge Village Water Treatment Plant in the amount of 1867 $3 as requested by the water department move to approve second all in favor I motion to wave reading correspondence second second all in favor I I does anyone want to adjourn so move second all favor I

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