Select Board - Regular Meeting

Uh we will be in executive session to start the meeting um coming out at 7:00 or before uh for our regular meeting. Um, that being said, I need a a motion to go into session to concern the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of 65 Main Street, 73 Main Street Plane Road as the chair declares that open meeting may have a difficult effect upon the town's negotiating position and also to conduct surgery sessions in preparation for contract negotiations with Hager Crystal Loss regarding her plumbing contract as open session may have a deterable effect upon town's marketing position. Is there a motion? So moved. All in favor? John, Adria, Chris. I thank you. We'll see you when

April 8th, 2025, which we will call to order and start with the pledge of allegiance uh led by John to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. So, a couple things in open form tonight at least from from me and probably one from Kristen and I think maybe one from the audience. Um, so first of all, yesterday we had the groundbreaking for Boston Road project in case you didn't see all over the website and both sun apparently in Westford Cat. Um, so that project is now more than just trees being covered actually going to start working out there. So, uh, good news is it's underway. bad news is underway, but it'll be done someday. Two years. Also, I wanted to um acknowledge last Thursday, if you live around the depot playing part of town, you lost power for several hours and you probably wondered why. Um we had a mass casualty incident. We had a van with um seven special needs adults going to telephone pole. Uh take out the pole, drop the wires and the transformer under the van. Um um so really want to thank police who are probably first to the scene dealing with that. Um the fire department um as well. I think Captain Lefay was the one that called the um the mass casualty. eight ambulances, uh, Actton, Carlilele, Littleton, Graten, Tinksboro, two of ours, and then we had, um, Shirley as well. So, thank you to all those towns that came in. And here how how stretched out we are. Our mutual aid coverage came from air, Chumsford,

it met, New Hampshire, sorry, back from Nashville, New Hampshire. That's how far we had to go to get more trucks in here to cover our own stations. So, um, thanks Dispatch for making all that all that work and thanks to Highway for blocking off roads and detours. It's amazing how fast it can set up a detour. Um, just make sure we thank all of our inress public works um people for for doing that. Um, and I think we got Yeah. And just to add to Scott, we also had an accident earlier in the day where another vehicle went into a telephone pole where there was loss of power as well. So, National Grid was in town for both items. And then that evening, there was an accident on Carlile Road with two ambulances involved from the town of Westford. So, it was quite a day for our public safety and DPW, and we really appreciate all of the work that they did. Um, and hope everyone is healing and recovering from those incidents. Please drive carefully. Yes. Um, a bit of good news. Uh, I'd just like to thank the select board, the finance committee, and our, uh, town staff. We have uh again received a AAA bond rating by SNP which is the highest rating possible for a municipality. Uh we went in for a bond rating in advance of the borrowing for the library project um the Oakhill Plane Road and um more road uh advancement and the Blanchard Middle School project. So um again, thank you to the teams who put that together. We're really proud of that bond rating and put out some press on that earlier today. I forgot to add to that. So if you if you read their the statement from S&P, it acknowledges the fact that town's got you know uncertainty and stress and actually they acknowledge that the confidence they have in town leadership to address that and give us AAA. So I I think it's really important to say not only done great work to earn a AAA, we've done a lot of good work ensuring the the credit agencies that our management team in

place can handle um what might come our way and still keep aaa. that to me speaks volumes for the quality of our T manager, France director, tax leaser, FR committee, everybody who has a role in this. Um, you know, thank you because that saves all taxpayers serious money when it comes time for bonds. Scott Vicky Berry who's online um would like to speak. So, yes, my figure was next. Yes. Vicki, please. Yes, I just did. Uh, good evening. Hi. Uh Vicky Giri, 51 Carlile Road. Uh I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Westford to bring forth two items to the select board and the public. First, the league wanted to draw your attention to an email we sent to the select board um that is in your packet on page 197. Last week, the league steering committee emailed the select board suggesting that they again discuss the creation of a committee with the goal of beginning a community conversation about town governance. Per our email, creating a committee to study alternatives to open town meeting, including representative town meeting and other forms of local governments, was discussed and agreed to at your March 26, 2024 meeting. uh the email does contain a link to that meeting and notation of about what time stamp this was discussed. Further, this topic was raised again at special town meeting in October 2024. There continues to be an interest in t in the town looking at alternatives to open town meeting. We not only encourage the select board to create a plan to move forward with this, but we also request respectfully that a league member be appointed to the committee as it is when it is created. We do have some uh good resources that we can share

uh from other towns in exploration of this this uh topic. Second, and this is shorter, town meeting is less than a month a town elections are less than a month away. Tomorrow night, the league is hosting candidates night and would like to invite you to either attend in person at the Millennium Building or watch it live on Westat and YouTube. This event along with our voters's guide and the Westford Cats candidate minutes are a valuable tool to learn more about who is running for these very important positions. Thank you for your time and your attention. Vicki, do you want to share the time for tomorrow? Oh, yes. Thank you. Um, it is at um Oh, wait. 7 o'clock. I'm sorry that brain freeze there. It's at 7 o'clock at the Millennium. Um, so yeah, thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? Wendy Glidd, 16 Pleasant Street. Uh, just wanted to bring your attention to a fun item happening at Westford Academy on Friday, May 30th. It's going to be salsa night. It is um being sponsored by the black black and latinx club of Westford Academy. Um we are going to be I'm going to be helping them with um getting sponsorship. They have sponsorship packages um that they're going to have available to companies or people in the area willing to help fund this event. And it's described as instructor-led salsa dancing, live music and food. All are welcome. No dance experience required. So is the salsa also the food? Um I I'm not sure about that yet. We haven't I I don't know the menu, but that it it likely could be.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, that being case um contour consent agenda request to approve the following a street and road closure for Memorial Day parade applicant is services officer Terry Stater. Date will be Sunday May 25th 2025 from 9 to 11:30. Um they'll have various roads closed in the various villages Forge Village, Grrenville and Navnasset. Um secondly is a town cover request for mental health awareness month flags. Applicant is Nicole lovelette our community coord leader. Those would be on the common from May 1st through May 9th of 2025 and a flag raising for LGBTQ plus pride month ceremony. Applicant is Westford LGBTQ plus allies and friends. Wendy is here tonight. Um that will be on Sunday, June 21st from 10 to 11. And then we have a request for two requests for a special license. Um, one is the pan mass challenge fundraiser applicant is Eileen Robin. uh April 17th, 2025 is a date that the mill works at 22 Town Farm Road from 4 to 10 p.m. And a also request from Sullivan for the Broden Bush Treaty Center 50th anniversary gala on Saturday, September 20th, 2025 at the Roden Bush Treaty Center, 65 Main Street from 6 to 10 p.m. Is a motion to approve sub public safety comments? Some move. Second. All in favor? I sorry. Any comments to the public? I should have. Sorry. Um, next we have a request to approve a master license chapter 140 section 183 entertainment license for Fushi

Restaurant LLC doing business as Fushi Asian Cuisine located at 355 Littleton Road. Is anyone here to speak to that tonight? um with the paperwork order P. Well, I have to tell you I've not done the entertainment licenses. They go that's the one thing I've not done. However, I looked at it and I think it's fine. The only one I rec from a long time ago is the British Beer Company. I think it's all good. I reviewed it as well. It appears to be in order. So, absolutely anybody here to advertise for their business. Is there a motion to approve the request? So, moved second. All in favor? I request to approve mental health awareness month proclamation in our packets. Um request from chair of our community behavioral mental health committee is here to speak to that tonight. Um, she's she's panelist. Nicole, when you're ready. Hello. Good evening. Hello. Um so the community behavioral and mental health committee is requesting approval from the select board for mental health awareness month um proclamation. Um in the packet is um in addition to the memo is the proclamation. If the proclamation is approved by the select board, um this um will be shared with the community through our um May 1st Hope Blooms Here event and social media, the town manager newsletter and other events that will occur within mental health awareness month. Are there any other uh schedule

activities for the month? So, we are in the process of um scheduling those. We will have adult mental health first aid and uh self-care and guided meditation. Um hoping to schedule yoga and a few other events. We should have our community communications consultant um um put out a broadcast a press release or some sort of release about the events. Absolutely. And we can highlight that. Um what I didn't mention under open forum is there's a new town manager newsletter design. This could be a feature in the May newsletter perhaps as well. Okay. Any any other questions for Nicole? Nicole, sorry. Nichollet Nicole first time. Gosh, I have been drinking honestly. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second that. All in favor? Thank you. And um thank you if you want and we'll have the board sign the official proclamation at the end of the meeting. Thanks Nicole. Thanks Nicole. Thank you. Next have a request to approve construction of a barn to sell agricultural products and store equipment at 35 Cut Road to farm property. Um I do see Keith and Lauren here. So do you want to come forward and tell us who you are and what you plan to do? Yeah, please. Okie do. Um, I'm Lauren Hill. I'm Keith Bon. There you go. Both from Drew Farm.

So I guess just if I give a little quick overview because I mean we have a practice a lot of tanos which you're Okay. Um so what we are proposing to do is to build a 40x60 barn um that will be part um retail space to sell agricultural products. It'll basically replace the usual white tent we have out there. Um and then the other section will be for equipment storage. So it will replace the whole greenhouse tent complex that's um usually in that space. Uh so at this point in the process um we need permission from the town to build on the property because it's an APR and the town holds part of the APR. Um and the conservation commission is on board. So we are here to ask you guys if you could be on board too. Any questions? Um Just just a reminder for me. So the process from here would be with this approval. Does it go before planning or what's the the route? So the next thing I think is we start working with the building permit and then through that process. So this is just to get us to the point where we could then enter into the normal process for building a putting up a building in town. Yes. Chris. So would you be operating the the retail side if you will year round or just during the sort of um right now the plan is September through November. So we might go a little later than we have been. Usually we're done by Halloween but we might go into November. No plans to extend it year round. Not at this point though. You've sold mums and flowers in the past in the spring. Are you going to continue to do that or not? No. So, we haven't done flowers in the spring and summer for a while. Yeah, for a while. So, we'll do moms in We'll do moms in se the usual. Okay. No.

Yeah. September 13th we open this year. And the current parking gravel. It'll say that we're not going to pay anything. No. Nope. It'll just The only thing that we're going to be that will change is we'll get rid of the you know the tent and the greenhouse and that stuff and put up the barn, but the parking remain unpaved and we'll clean up a lot of that. There's part of a foundation there from a barn that was taken down in 1984, right? Oh, no, it was before 84, actually. Okay. So, it's a cinder the remains of a cinder block foundation kind of. So, that that that will all have to be removed before we can pour the the new foundation and concrete floor. So, all that will be removed from the site. questions from the board. Any comments from those in attendance or online? Okay. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Favor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good luck with it. [Music] So, we're running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I know Miss Harkness is here. So, see you if you want to proceed out of schedule. I think it's a public meeting. public hearing public hearing. So, um yeah, I think it's fair. Welcome. Come on down. So, um yeah, for just a review of what I think went very well in our annual town meeting. Um there were a couple of things I just wanted to bring to your attention. Um first of all, the um estimate for voters attending that was done by the town was pretty much right

on the money. Um we estimated 500. We had 511. I don't think we can get any better than that. Um that's not to say it won't be as accurate. It'll be as accurate next time, but it was it was very accurate, which uh which helped. We were prepared for 1,600 people because we want to be overprepared, not underprepared and make sure that if a lot of people do come more than we expect, we always are ready for them. Um, pretty much everything went really well. The coffee that was sold in the morning by the um, participants in the roots program was great. Um, they sold about 45 coffees. They're very anxious to do it again. I'd be very happy to have them do it again. Really went well. Um, lunch went very well. Another another area where the estimate was right on the money. Um, we estimated I [Music] think 40 is that right Kristen? 140 lunches and and we had 15 left over. So again, I couldn't have been much closer than that. Um the staff according to uh the staff they were they were well manned and and uh had planned everything uh to go really well and it did. Um check-in was quick the way it has been for the last few meetings. Lori does a great job with that. I don't think we could do better. Um the people who were outside handing out flyers and advocating for their positions. Um, no, there were no issues out there. The according to the police, everything went very smoothly out there. Everybody was gone in the building and in the meeting uh by 8:55. So by 9:00 the whole outside was empty. There were um 11 kids who took advantage of the free child care and um well not the kids, their parents took advantage of the free child care and uh several

people who took advantage of free transportation. Um primarily to go back and forth to the Robinson, although there were enough spaces in the WA parking lot, uh people still uh elected to go to Robinson and took the uh transportation that we provided back and forth. Um, I had a couple of people, several people, um, thank you for the improvements to the Wi-Fi. That's a big hit. Everybody's very happy that we were finally able to do that and, um, they're making use of it, definitely. So, that's that's great. Um, we can still work on a few things. The screens that were midway were not as visible as they might have been, I think, because they were very low. So, next time we'll we'll work with Cat to try and raise them a little bit so people can see them better. Um, I had a couple of complaints about the postcard that went out announcing the meeting ahead of time. It was so small that it was very, very difficult for people to read. So, um, maybe look into something that would uh um increase the size of the font on that so people can read it. There's really not much sense sending it out if people if people can't read it. [Music] Um people continue to ask about being able to vote at town meeting without being in attendance. So um you know it's worth saying again state law requires people to be in attendance at town meeting in order to participate and vote. There's nothing that we can do about that on an immediate basis, but I think it would make sense maybe on the town meeting page and also on the town moderators page to put something in there clearly stating that so that we can refer people to it when they ask the question um telling people that there

are there are only two ways of doing that. we have to either uh change state law or um change our form of government. Neither which can happen before the next 10 town meeting whenever that is. [Music] Um I think that's about it. Um did I miss anything? I think just on our end uh from the town manager's perspective, we're working on getting the resolution for Boston Road into the state as they require. uh we are looking at a charge for the 30th anniversary committee to bring back to the select board for people to join that and we are looking at the resolution for the community preservation and the nut fields and what that means for the select board. So um and then we've collected some communications data from capital strategic solutions on the town meeting social media campaign. That a report is in your packet on that and we're working with the IT department to get the uh logistics and the uh the communications related to our web pages and the news flashes. So that will be coming out the board as well. But I think the overall social media campaign was a huge hit this year as well and attracted more uh knowledge about the town meeting. And I I guess what I forgot to do is really thank the voters who attended town meeting because um interestingly the town meeting can take place without a moderator because the meeting itself can elect a moderator without town staff although it would be hard to put it together without town staff but the voters have to be there in order for town meeting to continue. So I just want to thank everybody that made the time and effort to come and participate. questions. Do you want to mention anything about the success of the lunch? Yeah, the lunch. You mean the lunch that we serve? Yeah, it was great. Um, so I mean I thought I thought it went very very well. I was we Tom and I came in towards the end and we were I mean I was pleasantly surprised that the cafeteria

was completely full and it sounded like we almost sold out or sold out most of the lunches. It seemed like it worked up a bit and almost at the end too. Everybody seemed to be having a very good time. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, our food service director who was in charge of the lunches, um, uh, sent an email saying, "The comments I heard were mostly favorable. I do think that most people were happy with the food choices. From our perspective, we had just the right number of staff and the timing was perfect. The attendees were served quickly and had plenty of time to eat." And, and for me, that's interesting because that was only a half hour. Usually, I've been giving 45 minutes, so half hour is plenty. I think if we could, unless we have a really, really huge meeting, half hour is going to be my go-to for the next meetings. You think you'll continue that though in the future? I don't see how we can have an all day meeting without having some food there. And this has certainly been the most successful attempt we've made at having food there. Um, you know, there have been a couple other things we've tried that have not gone as well as this. So I I think that and it's it's just so convenient. It's it's right here. So um I think I would I would suggest that we continue doing that in the future. Yes. And it was good. I know in past meetings comments from the Peter Gallery that it was good. No, no, some of the others weren't that we've had in the past year. So that was good. It's good. the I know in past meetings we've planned for people who had accessibility issues who would participate remotely with special technology or solutions. Do have we had anyone take advantage of that? I don't think there was anyone at this last meeting. This this is the first meeting. We haven't had anyone. So you know why that was I couldn't say. I would certainly say we continue doing the same thing with the same publicity that we've been doing until now. So that uh people who do have accessibility issues can contact us and we can handle it. Okay. So the outreach was the same. awareness

is the same, just the choice of who who chose to come that day. Yeah, I think it's accurate to say it was actually even more uh publicity about that than usual than in the than in the meetings prior. Yes. Um Wendy Lloyd, 16 Pleasant Street. I'm on the Commission on Disability. And I do want to thank Angela and Lori for working with us um to help us. We had a staff of three folks willing to help anyone who wanted braille clickers, hearing uh hearing headsets that we borrowed from the Cameron Senior Center. We had some people take um take that opportunity. We also borrowed some tablets from the high school um that were available in case people needed live captioning from Westford Cat and didn't have uh access to a device. So, um that was helpful as well. And we continue each time to see where we can make improvements and um increase the parking was great, you know, to have so many accessible parking spots. Um didn't require a placard, but please, you know, save that spot for someone who might need um a little to to park a little closer than someone else. And I I think all that went terrifically. So I thank thank you both for all your input and your time. Just probably isn't an easy way to do this. I know attendance and engagement is often driven by the issues. Uh any any read or any feeling about how our outreach to getting people there work this time? You feel like it went well? Did our did our footprint exposure grow? How do you think we did in this meeting broadcasting it, making as many people aware of it as possible and drawing? So

I think that um many people didn't see these as contentious issues or issues of tremendous interest and taking that into consideration having 511 people attend I think is pretty good. Um, I know our moderator ameritus is here also, but I think that's an uptick from a reg what I would call a regular town meeting in prior years before pre-COVID. Um, I think we were more at the the 250 to 400 range. So, um, I think with 511 people, we've increased our footprint. And I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it just takes time um to inform people of how important it is to be engaged. Yeah, I think we had great participation, great engagement in the room. I'm just I'm trying to think about it's hard to measure, right? Because the issues are driving things. So, it's hard to know. We did 5% better at outreach and bringing people in than we did last year. It's just not an easy calculation. I think with you know with we gained 65 Facebook followers with this outreach and 21 LinkedIn followers. Our LinkedIn is fairly new. So we can measure this from meeting to meeting if the outreach gains more followers. Um again we'll work with the communication consultant to see how we're measuring and if we're measuring consistently or properly. Um, I don't know if other board members have heard from the public of the outreach or uh why people did or did not attend. Um, just a thought, have we ever considered maybe some sort of exit polling to maybe ask the people that attended why they attended? Considered that it's a good suggestion. Maybe we could run that. The other question you did you did mention some of the metrics um and I what I saw and I'm not a social media

person by any means but I did see some very high quality posts done by the that group so I thought that was positive didn't look like there was a tremendous amount of traction from those posts so you know how we how we get them more visible I think we're going to need they did provide in their their memo to us some thoughts um but it was mostly driven by the town sort of sharing and and liking and the town departments doing that which I don't think town departments really should be doing that type of work necessarily. I that's not well I think the town the results I mean yeah you're reaching the town department maybe they're liking it they're putting it out among themselves but I don't know that that gives you a real sense of how how community and the residents themselves are responding. So I think what we we so I think we need more thought on how do we get out to community groups and have them get engaged with doing some of that u because I think that would be far more effective than and I think more appropriate in my opinion. Um, I also think we we we definitely need and I I hope we're working on this the ability to allow our communication consultants access to our analytics from the town's side of view the town website analytics and that the Twitter and the blue sky analytics seems is that something that they're working on? Yes, I actually learned from Mike Wells today that he had a training session with uh CSS last Friday. we just haven't been able to pull the data based upon schedules but yes they are working on that together so I think that's I mean certainly new new to me that we had a blue sky account no idea so fantastic um so yeah I mean I'm looking forward to

see some more details on our plan to you know increase our outreach on social media and to engage the residents again there's some thoughts in here that I I think would need a little bit more um fleshing out to implement, but I think they're good good initial thoughts. So, I'd like to see what we can do in the future with making them a reality. Um just one thing about the staff liking posts and stuff, if I'm wrong, correct me, but doesn't that bring it up to the top of everybody's um timeline again? I think so. And there's different f so the police has a Facebook page, the fire does, the health department and different people follow different right pages. So I think our communications consultant would say that that actually helps us because it gets it out to other groups. Again, I'm not the expert. I believe that that's the case. I mean, maybe there's a way of weeding that out of the statistics they're putting together, but I don't know if we want to discourage them from doing it because I think that that broadcasts it a little a little wider every time somebody likes a post. Yeah. My thought was more um how impartial should town departments be, you know, with promoting town meeting, particularly specific articles, right? That that I might be a little bit I don't know. I don't know how I guess it really depends on on the circumstances, but I would be more cautious there. I see what you're saying. And also I know that town departments are extremely overburdened and so for them to remember, oh, I got to go to Facebook and Blue Sky and Twitter and X and LinkedIn and you know that's a lot of extra work on their part that I just I I hope we can find a better way of driving engagement than relying on that in my opinion. Anybody else on the board? I just don't want to miss the opportunity to thank our moderator for service, but that went

very well and you know, some tough calls made on the floor. So, thank you to the board and the staff and everybody that makes it happen because that makes it much easier for me to focus on the things that I have to take responsibility for. Thank you. I'd also like to do the you tried to compress more things into the consent agenda to give more time to debate the conversation items. They didn't always work this year. We actually had you hoped out, but it didn't um and town staff was I mean always prepared. I um you know as select board members, it's great to see that they know the staff. They present well um and so again thanks all of our staff for for being ready with questions that can always forecast. Yeah, if that's that's it. Okay. Well, so I would just suggest that we come up with a date for October town meeting as soon as we can so that we can start putting that on people's calendars. Believe it or not, people have already asked me when annual town meeting is next year. I love it so much. Well, I can't answer that because that's done by by law. We can't do that with October. So, we probably want to do that. The third uh Monday is October 20th. So that's been traditional, but I think once we get the new board in place, we'll put that on the agenda. Sounds good. And make that a priority. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Angel. Thank you very much. Now we're progress. Okay. Discussion of um city road housing project. I know here. part of your board as well. So, welcome Brian. Thank you, Brian.

Thank you, Scott, for allowing us to be here. I'm Ellen Hardy. I'm president of the board of directors of the Drew Farmhouse, Inc. I'm Brian Alorn, attorney for Drew Farmhouse, Inc. And we also have uh one of our board members, Cheryl Major, is here and Jan Smith is on her way. Um, two weeks ago at your March 25th meeting during correspondence, there was reference made to uh correspondence that was in your packet and both John and Chris Barrett asked questions. I'm sorry I wasn't here. I got word that that was on the agenda too late, but I did watch the um Westford cat about it. So I asked uh if we could come tonight to answer the questions that Chris and John had asked. Um and he was kind enough to let us be on the agenda. So there were two the first question that Chris asked was just what is the situation with a Drew Farmhouse? And uh Kristen as uh town manager said and I quote that your office was quote getting some phone calls and emails from prospective tenants that they are not receiving proper information regarding their prospective tenency at that location meaning 70 Boston Road. I'd just like you to know that there were 13 applicants in the lottery. Only three of those were ultimately approved by Chumsford Housing Authority. The others dropped out or were not had their files approved by Chumsford Housing, not by us. And all three of those applicants have signed leases to live at 70 Boston Road. We have not rejected one applicant, and I want that to be made very clear. We have four

actually um signed rental agreements. All of those people have been vetted and approved by our then monitoring agent chams for housing. So we have followed absolutely every single rule that we have been asked for. All four of the applicants fall into the affordable category. In fact, all four are section eight. So, we are dealing with four housing authorities and we have done that well and I just want this board to know that all of them have a March 1st occupancy date. You may notice it's April 8th and there is no one living there. So, that brings us to another comment that was made when Kristen answered Chris's question last week. She said there have been quote issues relative to fire and relative to occupancy. And that's absolutely true. not in the farmhouse. The farmhouse is in complete compliance. We are ready to have people move in. But there was a misunderstanding between our board and the Western Fire Department when they told us what condition the habitat project in our barn had to be at before our five tenants could move in. And we found that out on February 4th, anticipating March 1st move in. So, we're working on that as fast as we can. The work is being done now in the barn that the fire department asked us to do and we hope we will have occupancy by May 1st for all four applicants. So that's where we are on that. And John said quote he had concerns with compliance. They were not elaborated. If you'd like to ask those questions now, John, we'd be glad to answer them in terms of uh anything that you think we are doing that's non-compliant. We we see none. Um and maybe at this point, uh Brian, you'd like to talk about the monitoring. Yes. As far as the monitoring agent, um there was the

monitoring agreement between Jump Street Housing Authority and Drew Farmhouse, Inc. Um that has terminated. So the uh the board is without a monitoring agent at this point. So, uh, we'd like to request that a new monitoring agent be appointed, um, out of it's something that we have to reserve time at the next meeting for someone to be officially appointed, but as of right now, there is not a monitoring agent. Are you putting forth, and I'm not saying that you have to, but are you putting forth any um, suggestions for a monitoring agent? I was not sure whether we could. Um, we can certainly send We have signed a contract with a housing consultant who is in this field and that is the person that we had anticipated um and and Brian can tell you about the conversations he's had with the town about whether we were able to do that or not. I I saw that you know sort of one-page agreement and yeah that's it. What I wasn't clear about actually was is is was it just a consulting agreement sort of to help you folks along, you know, sort of stay in compliance, do the right thing, you know, make sure all your docks and ducks are in order, or is this or was this a person who actually you were putting forth to be a monitoring agent, which I see as a sort of bigger role for that person, and so you didn't understand it? Yeah, certainly if Elizabeth Rust uh who was the consultant, if she can do it, I would suggest that she is the monitoring agent. She's already, you know, consulting on this. Um I have not spoken to her directly about that yet. She was on vacation for like a month um and just came back. So I have not asked her the details of that. I guess my question was though, the state defies marketing agent, correct? I guess is is she a state recognized her as a marketing agent or or not? Because if if so,

that's worth considering. If not, we need to have a plan B. Okay. We can find that out. Yep. Absolutely. She is the executive director of a housing agency that that provides monitoring services to I believe eight towns, Actton, Lincoln, Bedford. I don't know them all, but we have hired her in a private consultancy basis. she is a private consultant as well as so we can certainly get from Liz her credentials and get those to the board. Um where we are at the process at this particular moment since we have four leases signed and are working on um the fifth apartment from here on in. We will need um you know annual assurance that we are staying up to date every year that the people who are living there still comply. And um so you need somebody a monitoring agent. I know you're working on the fifth one, but you need a monitoring agent to um ensure that um this fifth uh person complies with fair housing. Absolutely. Y so y if she is a state um authorized, accredited, whatever the correct word is, individual training, I think certainly absolutely be willing to consider. Yeah, we'll review that with the state to ensure that we are meeting the right criteria as set forth in the regulatory agreement. Even if she's not, sounds like her organization that she works for is. So, could they also serve as a potential candidate? I don't know that answer. I need to look into it, but we don't know the answer to that. Technically, I mean, by by contract, we have to approve the margin, right? I don't I don't desire to go searching for one. So, if we can find one that is usually agreeable. That would be the way to go. Okay. Okay. And then John, I didn't know if you had other specific questions because you didn't finish your sentence in the reporting. Yeah. I was concerned about just uh at the time we were discussing it, it

seemed it appeared that you didn't have anybody or that you turned down several applicants. So the question was were you complying with the requirements and so you can now you've got four in. That's good news. And that's not new news. We signed the first lease in December and you you told us you were before us a month ago, six weeks ago in which you uh um reported on the progress and I think at that time you told us that you had four. Thank you. I I didn't think that was new news because we've had them since um since January. Yum. Any other question comments? Anything from our audience? [Music] We'll do that later. Okay. Thank you. Hope they clear. Thank you. Thank you. We are doing everything we promised town meeting we would do. We've restored the thigh house and we have affordable housing. We have not let the town down in one way at all. Thank you. It's really exciting. Glad that you're going to you have a moving date coming up. Thank you. Convey that to to others. Thank you. Uh, next we have a update on 12 North Main Street. Um, my sweet pet that's best friend Jeff and Joe I think presumably it's Jeff that's joining us. So, thank you. So, good evening. Show us good news. Well, we're going to throw a lot of stuff at you. We'll try to be efficient and we'll have uh walk away hopefully with some input. We'll try to be as brief as we can. So, um Jeff Moriceet, assistant town manager, land use and economic development. With me tonight, we have our town planner, Joe

Gennowitz. As you mentioned, we have our consultant from Novous Group, Jeff Bruno. So, we'd like to start by providing a brief update about all things 12 North Main Street, including some of the key milestones to date, funding sources, and ongoing activities, which include both the environmental cleanup as well as some other ongoing studies. We'll then try to get some clear direction from you folks about the approach to gain access to the building to complete the site assessment. We'll provide a series of options for your consideration and we'll even be so bold as to make some recommendations for reference. So why are we here now? Um there's a couple of reasons. So first of all, while we currently do have funding to conduct site assessment activities within the building, we do not yet have a plan or funding to gain safe access to the building to do the work. So we got money to do the assessment, but we can't do it yet. So we got to deal with the building issue. So we need to develop an approach and at high level there's really three different ways to attack it. There's either total demolition, total preservation or some in between option. That's a combination of some preservation and some demolition. And we also need some direction from you folks so we can give Nobis their structural engineer some direction because with any preservation component there needs to be a study. There needs to be a plan to make sure that those structures are safe in order to do the both the assessment and any related cleanup activity. The second reason is many grant applications are due within about two months from today. And so it's important that we kind of know the town's approach because that would greatly affect what types of grants we apply for, what buckets of money, there may be more options for preservation. And so there's different pools of money. We need to kind of know that to ask for

the right grants and the right amounts for each type of grant. And then lastly, um we're looking for your guidance because there are two ongoing studies happening right now through additional grant monies uh for that property and they have to complete by June 2025. So that's not very far off. So some of the direction you provide may help to shape or inform those studies or even take some options off the table. So to help you um with this, we're now going to turn it over to Joe, who's going to walk you through some of the progress and the project funding to date. Thanks, Jeeoff. So meant to go into any details on this slide. We simply just wanted to get a snapshot for those that aren't familiar with 12 North Main Street. Um you know, some of the activities have gone on since the town acquired this property nearly a decade ago. Uh the second, I guess right column here really has an emphasis on the last two years of activity. So, next slide, Mike. And a lot of those activities uh that are ongoing now are really since the land use management department has taken a more active role in this project. And with that has come kind of an influx of money as you can see in the years listed on here. Um project funding towards here is now over a million and a half dollars. Uh the good news is by the end of this calendar year, vast majority of these funds are going to be expended and the exterior of the property will be in a really good spot. as Mr. Bal's going to get into in just a moment here, please. Part of the complexity uh with 12 North Main Street is really the property configuration. Uh it's outlined here in this sketch in yellow. Uh some other ownership outlined in a couple other colors up here. Uh but despite the, you know, I guess geographic challenges, access challenges, really has been some meaningful work since Novas Group has come on board. With that, I'm happy to turn over to Mr. to go over some of the ongoing and future cleanup activities. So, as you saw on the last slide, there's a a

couple of different area areas of concern which are specific areas that have different environmental challenges, structural challenges, physical challenges. First one, we can start with this area of concern one. You can see the outline sort of covers the uh northeast portion of the building. This is an area where there's historical groundwater impacts. There's some metals that were detected over some state standards there. Um we've already conducted some baseline sampling to get uh updated groundwater data and uh we've conducted a structural assessment of the building. One for safety as as Jeff had mentioned earlier. Uh we want to make sure that if we get in there for investigations, we're not going to run into any physical issues, any health and safety concerns. Um but also as Jeff had mentioned, it looked at you know some different options to preserve or shore up the building. and then uh sort of started to lay a little bit of a path forward on some options. Next slide, please. AOC2. This one is, as you can see, along Stonybrook. If you uh come across the bridge on Broadway, you can look down into 12 North Main and see the back side of AOC2. This is a portion of the of the uh site where there was historical lead and arsenic impacts to surface soil from the electroplating operations from Westford anodizing back in the day. And uh there's a pending remedial action for here. The approach uh would be covered under the mass development grant where we will do soil remediation that includes up to 200 tons of soil to be remediated at the site. Next slide please. Um this is uh AOC4. This portion is uh along Stony Brook. You can see on the bottom of the figure there, it sort of connects to the the shore the bank of the brook there. Uh this is this spot of a historical incinerator where there is uh some

incinerator ash that can that helped to create this uh debris pile ash piles that are contributing to soil contamination at this area as well. So, this would be remediated under an EPA cleanup grant where um there's been several things that happened at AOC4 so far. We did a lot survey to solidify the town boundaries of all the parcels we saw earlier. We did a hazardous building materials assessment of the incinerator to prep for demo. And then we started some um minor site clearing and erosion control installation for the section as well. So, uh, as Jeff said, there was a a few going things that had happened so far, including building surveys, lot surveys, baseline sampling, and site prep to hopefully get out there within the next few weeks. Right? And as you can see from this slide, we those are the two studies that I mentioned with benefit grants that must be completed by the end of June. Um, so the first is the wastewater study. So, some of the things you may not know, um, this site and some of the neighboring sites, they're in what is called a nitrogen sensitive area. And so, sometimes that can create challenges, um, for septic systems. Sometimes there can be some limitations. You may have to do some additional uh, treatment before it can be discharged. And so, that can have an impact both on the design flow, the amount of flow that you can have going to the leeching area. um and it could impose a limit on the range or types of uses that could happen out there. So, the wastewater consultant is looking at both on-site options. They're also looking at some off-site options for consideration, whether municipally owned or privately owned parcels because once you step off our site, um you kind of jump quickly into an area that's not nitrogen sensitive and so there's fewer restrictions. So, they're looking at a whole range of options there. Uh and the second study is a market analysis and so what that

that is with RKG in partnership with Gamble Associ Associates. I forgot to mention the wastewater consultant is Lombardo Associates. Um so the goal of the market study is to basically take a look at what kinds of uses whether it's one use or multiple uses make sense that could be economically viable for that specific site in that location. And that doesn't mean to say whatever they come up with is what should happen there. We're just going with the approach that look, you have all this information from the 12 North Main Street task force. We have nois group doing all this great environmental work. We think you should have benefit of market analysis and the wastewater and you take all that information and we think you can make a more informed decision about what what the future of that site could be. So that's a great So Brook School weed added housing project into that system. We have day school and we're now looking at putting counter into that system. Is it capacity the place for this project? So that is one of the things that the u the consultant is looking at. They've gathered input to the flows. They're aware of the 35 ton farm issue and again they're looking at it from a technical aspect. So they're going to say this is the relative cost if you were to provide you know septic and and bring it to that system or connect there. It's a separate policy question whether or not that's a good idea. Um and then it may um it may come down to what are the kinds of uses are going to happen at 12 North Main and does it make sense for whatever you're going to get for flow there. maybe it is or is not necessarily a good idea to put it at either of those locations. So, they're not saying whether it's right or wrong. They're just going to look at is it feasible and what is the relative cost for those situations. Yep. Um and that brings us now to some

options that we talked about for the building itself. And we say the building, but it really has multiple components that Joe's going to go into later. So, first demolition in general, it's the simplest. It's the quickest option for consideration and while it is not cheap, it is the cheapest of the options. Um, however, depending on cost or the level of contamination, again, we don't have benefit of that assessment for in the building. It may be possible and with some demolished materials to retain or incorporate them into some future use at the site. I will also note it is possible even if uh portions are demolished, you could certainly require through a process that impose some architectural standards uh even for new construction that mimic the historic character of that property. Preservation, like I mentioned, is really the most complicated, time consuming, expensive, but it does potentially have some added uh buckets of money that you could go for. So there could be some grants that are historic related. Um so while it is usually more costly, you may sometimes have more options to seek grants for that. Um things like CPA monies could be eligible for preservation, historic grants, some tax credits. Um but all those things, you know, you need to have like I mentioned an assessment, a structural assessment and a plan to make sure that that works with the ongoing activities there. Um, the other thing to think about is if you're intending to preserve portions of the building that aren't really, say you have a building that doesn't have a roof, it may not be the best use of monies to support portions of buildings that at the end of the project short term, they're still not going to be protected. So, it may not be the best use of monies to do that. it's far more costly to try to preserve structurally those elements, especially

if they're not, it doesn't give you a permanent building at that point. Um, and then lastly, with the combination of demolition preservation, um, it could represent a more more balanced approach. You could look at some of the most historically significant portions of the building that are also in some of the best structurally sound shapes, make a decision to try to preserve that, which makes the most sense. And then you could um well maybe say a uh thank you and goodbye to some other portions that are just you know that may not be financially worth saving. They may not have the same historical interest. Um so that's something that we're going to look for you folks to get some guidance on u starting tonight. And to help you go over this complicated portion, I am going to turn it back to Joe who's going to go through, as I mentioned, there's like six main components to the building that's really not a building. So, yeah, to to this point, we kind of broke it down into six components for you to start to consider what uh you may think is a a priority to preserve if if anything. Um, so we'll we'll kind of get into each one one by one. So, next slide, please, Mike. So this section here we kind of called the the main mill. Um if there were a portion of the structure to be demolished, this would likely be a kind of one of the top candidates. Um you know, currently lacking a roof. It's in some of the poorest condition compared to other components. Um and removing this portion of the structure could help to solve kind of two ongoing issues. U one mentioned getting access to the interior of the structure in order to do that assessment of the interior of the structure. um could additionally open up some access to that that back portion of the property right near the brook. Um additionally in terms of looking at an on-site wastewater treatment system um it does open up some more area uh for consideration with so more area potentially some more capacity on site.

So next slide please. Uh so here along with the other components we just have some more like current pictures in case you haven't been up you know by the property as of late just for your consideration. So next slide please. Now the bell tower um certainly kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum I guess in terms of you thinking of what would be kind of towards the higher priority of preservation. Um this would certainly be worthwhile. uh it is in better condition um compared to other components and there really are you know several redevelopment options that could really tie this nicely uh into it that really pays homage to the history of the site and history of Granville as a whole. So next slide please. Again a few other pictures here you can see on the right hand side there where in the main mill the roof has collapsed the bell tower set back a little bit has been able to to keep in in better shape. So next slide please. here we're calling the the north edition. U certainly one of the more visible portions of the building especially when you're on North Main Street. It gives a sense of the scale of the structure out here. It holds that street edge on North Lane. Um certainly I think it's worth considering some sort of uh preservation element out here. Uh there could be some details from the forthcoming market analysis that can really help inform what to do with this portion of the building. So next slide please. Two more. Few more fors here. Again, really see how it really ties that north main street street edge there. So, next slide. What we have here is the the machine shop. Again, kind of one of the more poor condition of components. Um partial roof collapse. Um backside here, less visible uh when you're out there. Um and then it gets a little complicated as you get along the Broadway Street side of this of this structure. um the closer you get towards the dam,

the more likely it is that the wall and dam could be integrated with one another. So at least in the short term, what could be for consideration is at least preserving that that wall that's small Broadway street while some investigation is done to to see what's going on between the wall and the dam. So next slide please. Uh so in these couple pictures here again the third one from the left uh you can just you can see that proximity to Broadway Street and you can visualize how it gets closer and closer to the dam and where with this component and the next one we'll talk about the we're calling the south wing the second picture from the left you can see evidence of some settlement and the crack that's going on along here. So next slide please. Uh so again the the south wing um this is one of the more um I guess historically significant portions of the building. There's uh elements within the basement that could show you know some history to the to the dam here. Um this one is a little bit better condition compared to other components of the building. So weighing those factors in this may lean more towards the preservation side of the spectrum. So next slide please. And you're out there. When you're out there, you can just hear the water flow and you can see the proximity of this portion here right with the dam. Next slide, please. Last but not least, this kind of standalone smoke stack uh standalone structure. It's visually interesting. Um from a practical perspective, uh could create more reliability to the town longer out there. Even though there has been some shoring that's been done to the top, you can see it called out in the bottom left corner there. It's they're not antennas. it's just shoring on the smoke stack. So, um, practically speaking, it it may make more sense to consider removing this from the site. So, next slide, please. So, in a way that kind of leaves

you with this sketch, this visual here. This, you know, subject to change based on what we hear once we get the wastewater analysis, mark analysis, dam investigation. Uh but this seems to be practical realistic path forward to see some viable redevelopment out here. Green identified here's lean toward preservation. Red potentially towards demolition yellow more investigation to be done. With that I'll turn over to Jeff to wrap it up and start to get your perspectives. So in short it's complicated. There's a lot of chicken and egg situations here. how you approach it could affect the uses, could affect the need for septic, the septic could affect the uses. Um, we don't know which buckets of grants that we apply for we might be more successful with or not. Um, but for tonight, we're really trying to get two things out of you. One is high level. Is there one of the three approaches that you're more open to? Are you firm mind, take it all down, uh, save every brick, preserve everything, or something in between, a combination. If we could start with that, that would be awesome. Just um, you want to Dave, do you have any opinion from a SW perspective? Yeah, please. Well, first of all, that's a really well done oversight of the building. Thank you. We've been working on this for probably 15 years as you know. So it's gone through a lot of desks and one thing I would just hope is that we exercise a little patience which we are doing but the reason I say that constitutes patience. Yeah, it does. The reason I say that is because when new people come in they just kind of want to resolve it

but there's been a lot of input already into this project. Um I agree with the assessment that part of if you could go back a couple slides to the yellow red green uh the red part that's to the west there or no is that to the east is definitely a candidate to come down. Uh John Mangerati asked the historic commission to give some feedback on partial demolition and we had drawn a line from the tower perpendicular to the red. only taking half of the red down. Um because the one thing that's not being discussed is the National Register eligibility um which then could qualify for mass um preservation fund which we did uh for the museum 12 years ago. Um so the repeating windows of the larger unit is something to consider. Uh the other way to look at it would be materials. So rather than just use the word red demolish uh for a our R RFQ we could say uh the highest uh number coming back from respondents would be given to reuse of the material. So, if we had uh partially of that red line removed, especially because it's going to enable access to the billing, it's kind of uh I I agree with that removal, but the repeating window may uh elevate the qualification for National Register eligibility. Also, the thing that wasn't mentioned, which you did a good job of actually putting in a black box, is the building

on the green by the by the dam, which has working parts to a mill, electrical mill converter in it, which is one of the highest points of national register eligibility under one of the I think it's criteria C, which gives a a fine-tuned example of of the conversion into electrical energy. So, I I think you're on the the right track. Um, are there any questions that you wanted me to direct specific? I just wanted to get your your opinion historic here and thank you. We want to inform ourselves. Chris, yeah, I have a followup question. So if this was to be placed on the I think national historic register what amount of grant would it be? The the MPPPF usually the maximum I think you can get is a million. Okay. Um CPC obviously would play with that role as well. Um and then you have the cleanup fund which we could still extend once we get inside that building. But in order to qualify, would we need to do a complete restoration? No. Oh, no. No. No. The plan would be to get a third party um which we've, you know, we've tried before, but it's been too it's too large for them. So that you're doing the right thing by shrinking the problem down a little bit. And then, you know, packaging it a little bit better. So I think by taking that lower part up to the tower down, getting access into there and shoring up those walls, you shrink the problem for a visionary to say, "Okay, now I start to see the endgame here." Because right now, nobody can see the endgame. It's too difficult with the cleanup. So I do think there would be people, companies, developers,

uh, jumping in it trying to do a green, you know, a green building conversion. Um, but I do think it's supported by the historic commission to remove at least half of that red line as drawn. Um, the only question would be, and it may be for for you as well, it would be that red line that the crane is holding up right now, and I don't know, is that building wall coming down as we speak or that crane is holding up? Is that what that's doing? But yeah, that crane was just a snapshot. Doesn't it look like it's almost supporting a b a bent wall? Crane is telling good good intentions. It's not there now. So maybe one of the conclusions uh from the historic commission would be can we get more language in there about reuse of materials? So I think we're on board with supporting this partial demolition process and giving ABC criteria. Uh but also a little bit more language on um are we going to be able to reuse the stone? Um repeating window images um and then we can get into the nuts and bolts of the tower and what has the workings of the mill inside in the basement still. Would you agree that the chimney can come down? If so, are those worth anything? I I I believe the chimney is a secondary addition to this. I think this is the stonework is earlier and the chimney came later. Um, which supports, you know, bringing it down. I I don't I wouldn't say it's the top five. You know, I think one is the way you you played it out was the uh the bell tower and number two is the mill dam workings, which maybe you didn't mention in the the electrical side of things when the when the the water is

actually moving a you know, a mechanism. And then maybe a little bit more consideration for materials. So one of the things we see in our loss of history is scale and materials lost which we don't talk a lot about. So the scale is going to get brought down. So we're going to lose that scale that wow look. And then uh you know bringing in foreign materials, updated materials. That's two things that maybe we could add on to the topic. But you know, you're on the right you're on the right path for sure. Sure. Thanks. Yeah. Um, so, uh, to for your first question, I'm sorry, there's a question. Your first question like tear it all down, save it all, or something in between. I think something in between. Can if there's any um, so you've got some short-term decisions. Maybe you're getting to it, but if if you need direction from us, I just want to make sure we're being efficient with you and that we're we're giving you the direct input on exactly what you need to make the decision between now and June 30. Yep. So, part one, that's gets to question two I have for you. Okay. Okay. So, question one, let me let me chime in. I I'm I'm in the same place where Tom is, which is, you know, partial demolition, partial saving um preservation. Um I don't think we should trail the whole thing down. Um and clearly the whole thing is not worth preserving at this point in time. Um so that's where I come out. Um I just want to backtrack for a minute. I mean just let people know. Um we have been talking about 20 12 North Main Street since 2014. So you know 11 11 years now that you know this has been on our radar. And it isn't that we haven't done a lot of work. It's not for lack of trying. We put it out for RFP and for purchase

three times and we're totally unsuccessful. Um, but what we have been successful with is that we've gotten over a million dollars worth of grant money to clean up and to study this property. And I I I think that's a credit to our staff um um you know, all of you folks. Um, and so, um, I just want to say thank you for that because if we hadn't gotten that grant money, you know, God knows, you know, what would be happening with this property now and and and how it would look. So, um, I know that it looks like that no progress has been made, but um, it's just been, as you said, a really complicated process. It's been filled with fits and stops and starts, but it's never not been on our radar. Um and we are sort of we are working on it. You know what you you but what we're doing in terms of cleanup and analysis is just not something that you can actually v that the town can actually visually see. So I just wanted to take a step back and say that and also to say thanks. That being said, um I I do agree. I think you know part of this needs to come down but part of it needs to be preserved. And I I would agree with what you're what you're preserving. the bell tower for sure, the the building next to the dam. Um, you know, the facade along North Main Street, you know, um, I know it's in poor condition, but I when I drive by there, I look at it and I think, you know, I I can sort of see what it used to look like. So, if we could somehow bring that back to what it used to look like, if we can use materials, as as Dave said, that are, you know, coming down and we, you know, demolish some of it to do that. Um, I think, you know, we sort of hopefully gain the best of both worlds, which is that we preserve, you know, an integral part of Granville. Um, but at the same time recognize that, you know, just some of this is just not

salvageable anymore. So, that's where I'm coming from. Yeah. Uh, because I recall, we had a proposal generally at one point in time, somebody wanted to develop that. the issues came down to is they wanted to have a clean site and that put us in a position of having to fund that. Now we've been working toward a clean site. Uh and then the other issue was water rights. They wouldn't maintain rights to the water and so uh the question would be could we do some kind of a combination. I agree with the doing the park thing halfway or preserving part of it and washing the other. It's kind some kind of way of having a commercial interest in the part of it. and using our CPA funds to take care of the rest to take care of the stuff we want to really preserve. U the other thing is are we even close to getting a clean site? What's it going to take to even say that we've got a clean site? I mean, we've been working on it, but uh yeah. So, so again, the goal is to have the soil remediated by the end of the year and both those area concern two and four. And then it's complicated by area concern one, which is the building, which is where the groundwater contamination is. So, initially our structural assessment was, can we even sneak one of our drill rigs through the back door there to put a well in to get some samples? And uh if if you went out and look at the building, I mean, you could see Jeff had mentioned that the that there's no roof on anymore, but it's it's the roof and the first floor are in the basement in portions, you know, and those are all structural components. If you uh look at the sort of the the structural assessment, that roof and those beams and those floors and everything are what keeps the walls up. It ties everything together. So, so that's sort of the challenge of, you know, how it it is a daunting task. It has all these different puzzle pieces that are integrated into one another. Like Joe said, the building could be key

to the dam. So, how do you take that down without affecting the dam? How do you get to the water if you can't get safely within 20 feet of the wall? How do you assess what's inside the building for reclamation if you are worried about something killing you while you're doing your study? You know, like that's But, you know, there there there is hope. There are these fantastic portions of the building that have tons of character. And out of all the industrial mills that we've worked on, this stone mill has a lot of character, you know, and and it's a great thing to have in town to consider on how you're going to move your project forward. So, we've got one person audience from Grill. if anybody's online. So if anybody who's grful wants to speak to that they might want to see they're welcome to do it. Scott, could I talk to the reclamation for one second too? I think another thing that complicates things are that you have all these building materials that you don't know what's in there. And when like I said, we did a hazardous materials assessment on the incinerator. We're looking for asbestous. We're looking for PCBs. We're looking for lead paint. We're looking for different universal ways that you'd have to pay somebody to remediate before you just throw it in the landfill and or render the stone usable for somebody else. So, I think that's another thing that comp complicates sort of reclaiming some of these materials. Once you have a co-mingled site like this, it's really difficult to unccommingle it. In fact, you it's almost impossible to meet the regulations of cleaning up the building to a level where you can certify there's no hazardous materials left in there. It's not impossible, but it's not always easy. So, that's just something to consider with the reclamation as well is you basically have to clean the building to a level where you're trying to certify there's no hazardous materials in there. That's why you're hitting that way.

Nancy Cook, 25 North Main, and this corner of the building is what we see from my house. And I think uh we talk about 2014, the first 12 North Main Street, but Bill Turner was working on it five years before that with um trying to get something done with it. I think our very first meeting, David talked about a church in Boston or someplace that just used the facade. And his thought then was that perhaps that's all we could save was the facade. It's I love this idea. I mean, I hate that any part of it is going as we've talked. But if we can save that Broadway Street, the bell tower and across the front, that's that's awesome. Seriously. Anybody else? Anything else that's online? I don't see anything right now. So, are you requiring a decision on direction from us tonight or will we have an opportunity to get say the market analysis study? That's number two. So, first of all, chicken and the egg. You give me far too much credit. We can't require anything from you folks, but we would love to have clear definite direction from you by April 22nd after your next meeting. And what we would like to do everything after April 22nd before I just don't understand what's happening on April 22nd. On April 22nd, something very special tax day, I think. No, it means April 22nd means we have about a month to submit all our applications to that's my my real deadline. So we will have some preliminary conceptual uh options from the market analysis consultant. We didn't have them for this meeting and honestly I think it would have been far

too much to stomach in in one night from us. You know everybody has limits. So we already got the direction. You're open to something in the middle. Some demo, some preservation. That's good. It seemed unanimous on that approach. That's good. And then we we have a starting point which even Mr. Garrod feels like we're not crazy getting it wrong. It's huge success. So if we can take the concept plans that we don't have yet from the consultant that might help to refine the the approach and we think if you have benefit of that um I think that that's a good starting point and again as we move through this even if you pick an option we'll have more data once structural looks at it you know all these things it doesn't rope you into that it's just it's going to define what we apply for as our as our start but we'd like to get as good as we can the first time around because that can, you know, create efficiencies down the road. So, so if you'll stomach us, we'd love to come back two weeks, April 22nd with another consultant to give you some more options for some preservation, some demolition, and what maybe some things could be done with the site. So will you be able to at that point say you know we've got this range $10 million to you know completely bring it back to original state or something within 1.6 I think it was to demolish it and then something in between. Are we when will we be able to narrow down that something in between number? So I think honestly if we walk out of that meeting with um you know greater clarity I think then at least their structural consultant would be able to put together how much the study would cost um to do that a study to to I'm sorry Jeff a study to give us a number on partial demolition on either the permanent stabilization or or temporary

stabilization of the structures are going to remain so you can do the other activities like the assessment and the actual theme. So that'll pin down what will it like it was complete demolition, but you don't need to do a study necessarily to to figure out how you're going to keep things safe and intact. It's all demolition. So, but it sounds like there's probably at least two buildings at a minimum that you want to retain and preserve and something in between. And that something in between is a little more in flux, I'd say. And we can come into it with, hey, this is what we might like after you see whatever concepts, but at the end of the day, when the structural engineer goes out there and they look at it, you know, you might get hit with additional information that might help refine your choice, you know, based on real money. What will it take? Something's in better shape than you think. Or, hey, it's not so bad shoring, you know, a facade up versus, you know, the the death trap of the, you know, one of the floors that doesn't have a roof above it. So, uh, when we get that direction, we can have more info on the price, but until they have benefit of the actual structural assessment, there's still going to be some variation in what would it take to actually carry that forward, but we're making progress. We got consensus and just wants to try. I was just going to say the the structural assessment is sort of the feasibility study of how let's take some measurements. Let's take some uh samples. Let's do a a a very thorough survey on what do you really need to do to make this be a viable building again. And that's where that sort of drives the design after that on well now that we have that information on what's here, what needs to be fixed, what's the scale to fix it. Then you can go forward with the design to develop the shoring and you know putting the fixing the cracks or putting the mortar back in or or you know just figuring out how to move forward. And that's that's the cyclical refence reference that Jeff

had mentioned earlier. Everybody wants to know what the other guy wants to do so they can direct their focus to that. You know, septic says, "How many condos do you want to put in here or apartments?" Then we can try to meet that. And and the developer wants to say, "Well, what can the septic support to put that out there?" And the structural wants to know which portions of the building do you want me to study to try to control the cost as much as we can and focus on that renovation or restoration or or preservation. And it's just everybody is sort of trying to make we see the big picture but we're trying to refine the resolution to know exactly the the direction to move forward. Do you need anything else from us tonight? Just your blessings come back on the 22. No sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Look at your library. Well, Jeff is still here. We have the request to sell a marker until the property council 0117009. [Music] Yeah, we're going to still here. Um so as you may recall, town meeting recently approved and you folks signed off on acquiring um that parcel um while still in your care and custody. It uh conservation commission would very much uh like your support to allow the installation of that trail head. It's really just a post. I I was just going to say I just want to make sure you're just putting a post there, right? Well, yes and no. It's a monument to somebody who works on the select board that lives

on that town road. And the little sign that says entered, right? I mean, that's half of it. So, it's it's a post. And so, one of the issues is that where people have actually been walking is actually on private property. So, the other part is to sort of blaze and inform people this is where you go to be on the town owned property. It's not like they're putting down a 4ft wide pavement. It's it's blazing and putting the appropriate signage. So people go on the town owned property instead of the private property owner. Okay. I that I wasn't clear because I was looking going, are they putting in a whole new trailer? Cuz you know, we just we just we just walk in, you know. Yep. It's just that's all it is. And the neighbor may do something to discourage folks from, you know, trespassing, but it's just marking, blazing, and putting in that one post. Thank you. Thank you. So is there a motion to give permission to marker? I make that motion. Is there a second? All in favor? I thank you guys much library is Ellen. Yes. So, I'm going to promote Ellen and Jennifer, our owners, project manager and assistant library director as well as some um board of library trustees like 25 foot statue. That's what I'm thinking. Classic Jurassic toga staring up at the horizon. Statue of Liberty on courtesy circle. Sorry I not a bit little jealous human here. U so welcome to uh the meeting. Um I guess this is my second of three meetings with this week. So I'm looking forward to running it off and moving on. Um, if you want to go through the list of things that we've uh discussed on Monday, pretty much

introduce Jennifer McCroy. She is from CHA Solutions and the town's owner project manage um project manager on this town project. And there are uh a number of things as we are um uh proceeding through our bidding process and our contractual process that need um the approval and the um uh go ahead from the select board. So good evening. I just want to make sure everyone can hear me before I start. Yep. Great. Thank you. Um so there are four items on the agenda. I'm going to take them through one by one in the order that they are listed. Um the first item is to a request to approve our application for the MA Massachusetts Architectural Access Board historic entrance var um variance. And so the um JB Fletcher Library addition and renovation project is applying for a variance to allow for the continued use of the historic south entry as an entrance um without being brought up to current accessibility standards. One of the requirements in the state variance application is a signed letter from the building owner, which is the town of Westward, that grants permission for the applicant, which is Fineold Alexander Architects, to apply for the variance. And um we brought this up to the um joint committee and they um at the meeting last night and they uh approved recommending to the select board to provide a signed letter from the town granting permission for fineold Alexander to apply for the variance. This makes perfect. I mean, for anybody who doesn't know, the the southside is the entrance on Main Street. Just so anybody who doesn't know that and um you

know, given the discussion we just had about preserving 12 North Main Street and the historical uh significance of that, I don't think anybody's going to argue about the fact the historical significance of this entrance. And so I'm fully in support of applying for variance for this. I would hate to see that disappear. And the reality is that everybody mean the park's in the back. So, and everybody who comes I mean nobody go I shouldn't say nobody people park out front people do park out front and walk in the main entrance but the majority of people use we're not we're not the first we're not hindering anybody to get access well I support the application u is this in uh what's included in the bid the uh the contract at the moment uh we bid it out for construction is the current in uh maintaining the current entrance in the design or do we have in the design or in the contract the uh the change? I could answer that if um so in the current bid um which we're going to speak about as one of the points after this um it is with the assumption that our variance would be approved to maintain that south entrance as a historic um in the historic manner that it is currently um in it's currently built as yeah I hope that that would be approved because I see any other way to do it. You destroy the whole thing. Yeah, Mr. Chair, do you want to take all these at you take them all at once? I don't see any really controversy. I just assume way to do them all at once. Final thing. So, just want to go to B. If you want to go on to item B, Jennifer. Okay. Thank you. Um so the

second item is that um we are requesting that the town of Westford um approve the the select board approve our request. Um we are about to submit for building permit and demolition permit as well as some additional related permits. um for example the um notification to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection um as well as our um driveway permits. There's a series of permits related to the project. the um permit documents and applications are being put together currently um with Fineold Alexander Architects and also our apparent low bidder which is Hutter Construction Corporation. And we are requesting approval for the select board to allow these um to sign the building permit applications. Sounds good. To build the library, I guess we have to sign the permit. I think it's a yes but we'll do up all at once before I move on to C then. Um so the next item is um CHA Consulting which is who I work for. Um we are requesting an extension for our contract um which includes updated personnel language and so um the current contract um is um ends at the conclusion of the bidding phase which is where we are now. It is to extend the contract through construction and close out. There is no change to the contract value uh the monetary value and there's also no change to the um contract schedule. It is just an extension of the contract through that time period. I feel a lot of nodding heads. So I think we're okay with that. So John

and then um hang on a minute. Jennifer, I got some questions about your contract. U in in your contract, you talk about u appointing representatives to from which you would get direction on this contract. You call that uh representatives of the uh the appointing authority. In your contract, it says that you we would appoint one. the owner will appoint one or more uh representatives and I wanted to understand who those repres in your mind who are those representatives of the town that you'll be dealing with in this project. Are you the representatives? Well, I'm I'm looking at the whole contract. This is an this is a change to the contract, but in your original contract, you call for the owner to appoint representatives for which you would those are the ones that you work change orders through and everything else. So my question is who are those representatives in your mind? Who do you who are you working with in the town to make this happen? So I mean I tell you what I'm getting at. Okay. because well because I mean because the the working group exists to to accomplish that but any decisions that get involve changes have to go through the library trustees and the current town building committee if it involves money it has to come to the select board so they're pretty well constrained what they can do well I guess my point is this you know you talk about uh here it says monitor review and analyze proposed change orders and claims recommend an appropriate action and the resolution to the owner and then in the contract it talks about representatives to you that you deal

with. I guess I'm concerned about number one cost control, change order control and and and staying within the contract. And the other thing is well that's my concern and I I still maintain the permanent town building committee should be one of those and we did have a conversation in two permanent town building committee/board library trustee meetings so we'll call it the joint meeting. So two or three meetings ago we talked about the parameters of cost control and if there is a change order what is the threshold to bring that to the chairs of each board? What is the threshold to bring it to the entire joint committee? what is the threshold to bring it to the select board? So, those are all under current consideration by those by that joint board at this time. I believe it was $5,000 that triggered a review for the I thought it was 12,000, but I could be wrong. 15,000,000. You're right. Thank you. I know we're going between 12 and 15. So, keep throwing out numbers. So, is it under consideration or has it been agreed on the on the fire station? It was a It was voted upon. Yes, there's minutes to voted for this. Yeah. Time for the fire station with with the pleasure rate to 12. So, how many guys are you going to be dealing with what are the points of contact to consult the joint committee? The joint committee. Yes. Okay. Okay. One I got one other question. I guess that has to do with the the last bullet. I think I had have a question with the construction contract. Okay. So, you have three then. Well, I would contend that had we used the town building committee originally, we would we would be a lot further ahead than we are right now. I would disagree with that. Well, it says here, yeah, we didn't issue the design contract for April the 10th of

2024. That's a year and a half time we got we approved the project. and that's been my concern all along and it took us a long time to get up to speed here. Anyway, that is where we are in the agenda. That's that's where we are. So, I want to make I just want to make sure that we're controlling the cost. Uh and my next question is going to be on the contract itself. We have a new budget. We have a new different con construction cost and you'll be managing to that contract cost. And so we're on number four now, right? Yeah. Okay. So, so three is Yeah. Okay. We're on number four. Questions. So, and if you wanted to to Jeff, if you wanted to address number four. Um, so, um, for number four, we are requesting that the select board approve the bid. They award and sign a contract with the apparent low bidder, which is Hutter Construction Company, in the contract amount of 20,471,6340. Um and that represents um the that is the um contract val value that is in the full um bid for Hutter Construction and the budget was originally how much? So the um last reconciled construction estimate was $23,67,956. So that represents a um a cost that is lower um that is under our construction budget by $3,136,322. I know I know you share with the with the committee last night, but could you

share with the board uh the background of Hunter that they are um have some background here in building? Sure. Um, so just for everyone's knowledge, we did receive six bids for the construction of the project. Um, five of those bids were um, underneath our construction budget. Um, Hutter Construction was the apparent low bidder. They are from New Ipsswitch, New Hampshire. They are DAM certified um, for a single project limit of 31.6 million and an aggregate project limit of $200 million. and their average project rating of for DAM is a score of 94 and their workers comp safety rating is 75. They um we reformed all the statutory review of their bid documents. Everything was complete and they also were pre-qualified um because our construction value is over 10 million. So that was a requirement. some of their recent project work that we contacted um for reference checks um and spoke with the owners of. They are completing a small library renovation and addition in Malbor, New Hampshire. Um and they also um just recently completed um the North Andover Middle School project that also is an addition and renovation. The value of that is approximately $19 million and it was a 25,000 square foot addition using the public construction chapter 149 process. So there are a lot of alignments in that project process, fee, size, schedule, and scope. Um there are some other um public projects within Massachusetts. Um in the Upton Community Center and the Town of Actton Fire Station are also two recent

projects that they completed um successfully. Thanks a question. Yeah, Jennifer um you used the term apparent low bidder. So your intent would be to award the contract to the apparent low bidder. Yes. At this point in time, they are legally still the apparent low bidder. We did um perform the statutory reviews and um and they have submitted all of the required paperwork including the um um the diversity office required paperwork and uh everything that happens within the 5-day period of the bid. All of that is complete. So they still remain the apparent um qualified low bidder. Any other questions? Let's hear the question. Well, I I just uh Okay, so we have a new budget. Yeah, this is a a question for Ellen. Have you have you redone the budget to account for yet? I I would clarify that we have a bid that came in lower than expected. Our budget is still the budget. So the town has still authorized the full project amount. We have a contingency amount that was included included. This allows if necessary and there will be proper controls by the permanent town building committee, the joint committee and the select board if we need to go into contingency for any unforeseen changes. So, Jennifer, would you add anything to that related to the project budget per se versus the bid uh amount that we received? No, that is that is accurate. Maybe we should remind everyone we did have to put an addendum

out with input from town council as to how to have biders include the potential for tariffs because between the time the bid was advertised and the bid was due um the president issued an executive order that there might be tariffs. So that is a potential that may still hit this budget. I would like to thank Mike Patton and Mike Edwards because together they did create some good language to protect the town. If a bidder can't just say, "Oh, tariff increase my price." They have to provide documentation that the original bid was X and the tariff increase is Y to justify that. So, they can't just blame tariffs willy-nilly. It has to be documented. Did that answer your question, John, or are you still not clear? Okay. We can answer further questions if you have further questions. Well, we are operating at a certain now. It's $3 million less. So, that would be $3 million less the town would be spending if we hold to that budget. If we hold to that budget and don't have any for unforeseen circumstances. I had one question for Ellen. Uh the library is going to uh contribute $1.3 million to the budget. How's that coming? You're on mute. I have a little more volume. Yeah. 1.3 million. Volume. Yeah. Part of the part of the budget was 1.3 million for the library of money to be raised. How's that going? The question was, how is the fundraising going for the $1.3 million? Yes. So, um, at this point about $748,000 uh has been raised. That's half of the promised amount. the 10,00 homes

for $1,000 campaign is still um going forward and um about $260,000 in naming opportunities in the building uh have been uh either purchased or pledged for. Uh, additionally, we've received two of the five dispersements from um our original grant with escalation funds to follow at the end of the project. And once we sign the contract with uh Hutter Construction, we will receive the third grant dispersement. So we will have received three dispersements of 1,570 uh and $994. And um then once that is um concluded um we'll get a couple of more dispersements later in the project when we hit particular benchmarks and but we will then be using the bond which is floated in May uh to be paying for the project. Okay. Thank you. Any more questions? Okay. So I guess is a motion to I move to approve all of them. I'll second Chris. Okay. Chris went through four. Um, all in favor I Thank you, Ellen. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you. Meet you, Jennifer. Got away. Uh, enough for the fun ones. Um, hopefully quick ones. Request the housing trust to appoint Susan Martin to alter alternate position for term to expire June 30th, uh, 2026. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I welcome and thank you Susan. Request to approve on the May 6 town election warrant and let's think is still diligently here. I am here. I'll move to approve. Second. All in favor? I um request to approve

special municipal employees. You want to describe that quickly? Come to the mic. Sorry to keep you here for this, but that's okay. I learned a lot tonight. Okay. So, section 20 of the conflict of interest law restricts municipal employees from holding more than one position. So, designating special municipal employees will allow more flexibility, but it does have some restrictions to become a designated um municipal employee, which is not an actual employee. It's the position, not the employee. Uh the position has to um hold unpaid employees and it also has to hold any employees that work under 800 hours a year. So basically what it will do is allow any municipal employees within that those guidelines the ability to work a second job within the municipality or within the town. What I did. Uhhuh. Yes. And there had been a period of time where we were keeping up with the all new boards and committees and the employees that were applicable to this. The select board has not heard this probably since the early 2000s. So with Lori coming on board, she and I worked to um audit the list to determine what new boards and committees needed to be brought online as well as what new employees needed to be brought online. So, in looking at your list here for special municipal employees, you said um there are committees here that are no longer in existence. So, um I think we need to go through this. I mean, before we approve it, I would suggest we go through this and take out the one. For example, we have no permanent school building committee anymore. We'd have no Stapinsky Land uh uh committee anymore. We can go back if you want to. Pardon? You can go back there if you like. No,

that's all right. Thank you. We did our job there. Um there's no um um what was the um there's there's no Stony Brook master plan committee. So I mean there several in there. So I think you know we I'm certainly in you know in favor of this but I just think that before we do this we need to go through it and figure out what we have. We still don't have Do we have an inspection of milk and dairy in this town? I have no idea. I believe that's falls with the health department, but Lori and I did audit the list. I think we could just be more clear maybe with a pres I'm happy to send you one committees that I know are no longer sure. Yeah. And it may be that the board the select board at that time never sort of formally dissolved them. Right. Or they may Yeah, they may have dissolved it, but we may not have dissolved them as special municipal employees. Kind of a twostep. At least go through some of this and I'll send it to to both of you as to what I know is no longer in existence. So what we can do moving forward is just keep on top of any committees that have dissolved and also the formation of any committees they need to be designated. Right? So we can keep on top of that list. I also have some information. I don't know how up to date you are on special municipal employees. I did contact um the director of ethics in Boston and he put together um a couple pages of some information that's a little bit more straightforward than what you can find on the um state website about special uh municipal employees. It also gives examples. So, it's a bit more straightforward. I can email that to you in the meantime if you're looking for some more information on it. That would be great. Yeah, it's not real clear what's on the state website. It's a little confusing. So, we're going to hold this until 22nd. Oh, Jesus. You don't have to come back for that. I can handle it. I mean, I I'm perfectly fine with sort of accepting except um uh

accepting it tonight. And, you know, subject to scrubbed. Yes. So, I was going to try and put it a little bit more um you know, subject to refinement. Refinement, you know, updating of of boards and committees. Okay. So, that's a motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for the work. Oh, thank you. And then Lori, I don't know if you're able to just stick around for the discussion that we're going to have about the June board and committee appointments just to get feedback and understand. Sure. If you don't mind. So, so we you know when I was chair last night, which was three years ago, um we have a habit of mixing if you want to if you want to be reappointed, just say yes. Um and I I don't want to go through a to discuss what to do but I don't want to go through a whole furious process for all how many hundred there are but I would like to think that we have we ask chairs of these committ to say if if someone wants to wants to renew are they actually showing up to meetings I don't I don't we have some cases where quorums are hard to hit and so I'd like sort of a affirmation from committee chairs that yes these are the right people. Um, but a suggestion of how we would perhaps either business as usual, a point of black slate or or do a little bit of I think you're right. What we did a couple of years ago, maybe three or four years ago, is we when memberships were coming up, we sent out uh an email to the chairs of the various committees and said, you know, listed the names of the folks whose um appointments were coming up and asked for confirmation from the the chairs and those folks were they still interested or not. Um, and so I makes sense that we should do that again, but we can do it. I'll be just That's one idea. We're open to suggestions on how to I'm I'm trying to

what what problem are we trying to solve here? So, we have a number of board and committee members who are up for reappointment in June. So, every June. Um, Lori has a brand new office right now. So Marilyn Frank, who was the office assistant at the time, would just send out letters to those whose appointments were up and ask them if they were interested in reappoint or not reappoint. My understanding from Andrea and Scott is that in the past there was also some outreach to the board chairs if these members who were up for reappoint were attending meetings, were engaged, were participating. And I think what I'm hearing is that there may be a desire to go back to that outreach to understand that if these members who are up for reappoint before we even ask for them for their consideration to get some more input from the chairs related to their participation. And there could be other options that we could explore as well. We we're just gearing up the town clerk's office to get outreach going because June 30th is coming quickly and we want to make sure that we're we have full boards and committees. Yeah, I do think this is useful. I mean, I know myself as the chair of commies in the past, it's been challenging in some cases to have a non committed appointed, you know, volunteer to to vacate that position. Like, there'll be times where I've had to, you know, email call to try to get them to say to the town clerk's office, I'm no longer interested. And until I can provide that documentation, I can't free up that seat for people who want to take that position. That's exactly right. Right. So if that but is this allowing the chair in a sense to make that determination versus what we what we've done in the past, which is to try to get the actual person to eventually reach back and say, "Oh, yeah, no, I'm not interested."

I mean, the the idea ideally, you know, you send the letter out to say, "Yes, I want to do it." and they're they're valid. So there are a few and um we had that with I don't know that the commission used to build you know I was sort of like acting as chair trying to get a member to say are you in or out and at some point you know I think the chair should tell the town clerk I problem is the select should not reappoint that person then now it is a free seat and you can go out and advertise for it. So I think we need a we to me my mind we need a process. So you know it's either we have x number of outreach attempts and if we do not get in contact then we reach out to the chair and say is this person participating do you want them to be on the board committees and then we take action we've made numerous you know I don't know numerous but one or two attempts to connect to that person. I I think that the idea is you go to the chair. So your your example would be you get a letter and you say these people are coming up for reappoint. Do you support the reappointment or not? I I like So I like that. Yeah, but I think it's a little I'm going to think let's think about something where a person's not participating because they have a bad relationship with the chair and maybe they're waiting for a realignment or of the committee or some other reason. I think that's I I would hesitate putting this decision solely in the hands of a chair. I think we still need to do some outreach to the individual and give them an opportunity to say yes, I still want to be I agree. we we would do is always ask the members if they want to be on the committee. Yeah. Again, y would want to reup um I don't want to throw away experience. Yeah. And but if they say yes and the chair says they're here, I think we could do more of an attendance check with the chair rather than a preference check. Yeah. It should not be about do you want the person is about are they are they participating in that? Yeah. Again, I think that's going to get it might get us into, you know, somebody's

going to say, I I'd love to attend, but the chair never accommodates the time that I need to attend and the chair's, you know, blackballing and I don't know, you could run into some potential problems with this with just unilaterally saying, uh, you're out, right? So, I think there's a problem this way too, though. It sort of it changes the permission structure. So instead of it being like automatic someone who's an active just automatically comes back in it it changes the permission structures that they have to attest yes and if there's disagreement between the chair and the person then it gets raised and absolutely should not be an automatic they they need to sign a form saying that they want to reup and they need to come and right but if the example came that they didn't respond and the chair said yeah they're not active would that that I would be okay as long as we did the outreach first gave them the option. Yeah, guess what? We were in violent agreement. Sorry, didn't mean to be violent about it. Um, but yeah, anything that can help the three process because I say I've been stuck with that scenario and it's it's painful to resolve. So, if it's if if we're aligned with saying there's one letter that goes out, if we do not hear a response, we go to the chair. The chair will affirm or deny whether or not this person should be a member of the committee. And that's we go with that decision. Simple. Okay. Okay. We'll work on that process. Okay. We'll do that. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your time tonight, Lori. I know. Sure. I hate to wait till 11:00 for this, but here we are. Um, so time manage performance review and um, so just we did this last year in May. So it's uh so by by contract Christ gets review annually and something happens on May 6 that would change this board's composition. So it did make sense have have two new

preturn. So we'll be pushing it forward a month to um do the review uh this week. And so each member of the board is uh gets a a handy uh survey 10 questions on um the favorite one my f my favorite first question service and supports the board of selectments. we put ourselves first. Um we do ask questions about you the budget preparedness um uh personnel issues um handling media handling the public. Um you can you know feel free to ask all the criteria. I won't bore you with that at 11 o'clock at night. Um but there's 10 criteria that we grade a scale of one to five. One being is awful, five being is is wonderful. Um, so perfect score is 50. I have been around for a couple of years. I have never seen scores aligned such as this year. Um, 45 45.5 and 46. So I think we have pretty good clear agreement here. Um, one member likes to do five. We didn't even talk. I was like I was gonna say I didn't know five was an option. I'm going 025. I like the decimal. I like the decal.5 which did mess me up because you know um there was one category which was the handling of of media and and citizens and communications that was fives across the board. Um there were other categories uh the first one to the select board where we're all five but for that 4.5 um but u basically uh very very good very good marks and um in fact I think

the one that had the the low score um well there were three three low so no no no the one the one item that so everybody had a four a 4.5 or a five except for again one person with a 3.5 on um on HR type basically employee hires or management of employees and so forth and I don't know if that was my my five there because I thought it was from the better ones how how you look at it right so the my standpoint was um who have you hired and how they worked out so um you've had a lot lot of attrition and and I think some really um hires to replace people that have left. Um other hand, we do have a lot lot of contracts that have to be negotiated because of timing with time meeting and so forth. Those aren't completed yet. So in some ways you can give incomplete on that item. So that's the only one that actually didn't have a four or five even there was very high score. So, um, again, from my perspective, um, you know, first year we gave Kristen a budget crisis and she handled it and we had a lot of good scores last year. Uh, this year was a chance to actually say, what's the future look like? And so, you know, I was impressed with was the um setting of goals, u doing the research to make sure we have smart goals, we're looking at facilities, um looking at our master, our town's goals, strategic plan, um and bring us all together into a where we're going to be in two years, three years, five years. So, we we're kind of overdue for that. And so, I was you're really pleased to see all that happened. Uh so, thank you. I think that was um I I was the 46, so I'll take that. Um, but if anyone I let each of the board

members say what they were thinking um, briefly. I don't go through all the comments, but if you want to have any high points you wanted to mention, just or low points as well. I'm happy to take constructive criticism. Well, for me, it was just like another year of sort of extraordinary times. So we I mean tackled a whole bunch of new things, a whole bunch of kind of high engagement uh issues. I think some of the things that are really important for us to be good at you've you've gone at head on. I think communication engagement is a big challenge for us and for all towns like us. And I think you've you've leaned forward into that in a really good way. So yeah, I mean if you think about where we'll be a year from now, it'll be a very different reorganized town of Westford staff with sort of refreshed and renewed goals. So, it it's it's a big journey and uh and a lot to take on, but I feel like you're you're doing a great job. Thank you. So, I always enjoy doing this because it's you make it easy, right? You know, it's it's you overachieve in so many areas. So, it's it's not that difficult to for me to fill it out. Maybe that's why I was first this time. Um getting submitted. Yeah, I know. Trying to brown no it is. But I I do have a question for you. So, um, in your opinion, does this assessment actually help you? Do you think it's actually a good assessment of your achievements and skills and what value you bring to the town? Is there anything you would change in this review form? So, I think the form is a little archaic and we could spend some time on it. Um, I would love to see the form reflect the town's strategic plan and the goals. That's why I provided you some backup documents related to the goals and how we are working on the progress of the goals. Um, so I think that it could use some refinement. One of the other things that it doesn't include is feedback that you may receive from board or committee members, the general public, or even the staff. So potentially building those

components into the review in the next review period as well. Was this something that I don't know if you guys know if it's been around before? We've talked about refining. I know we but we've never but we've never in fact last year we had the very same meeting we had the same conversation last year and we just you know with everything that's coming up you know I guess the question is is it our responsibility the five select board members to refine this or would it go to HR HR you know maybe incorporate some feedback that you had bring it to bring back to us something for us to I think we started that we collected some from other municipalities uh I believe Scott and HR worked together on that it just didn't come to fruition but we'd be happy to facilitate that I with your chair. I don't know where you're going with that, but I do think it would be great if we could You're going with April 22nd with with maybe another attempt at that if the rest of the select board agrees. And I would also think, you know, we remove references to the board of select right stated. And if we could make this a little bit more computer friendly, make my life a little easier. Yes, it's very unfriendly. Even I who am not as deliberate as you are. It's like I mean Scott will tell you the first time I sent it to him it was blank. What do you mean it's blank? I just spent an hour and a half. Went out all my work. Well, somebody actually just circled what things were red. Okay, that's me. Well, I highlighted in yellow. All right, there you go. I think that's what I did last time, but you know, whatever. Just trying to keep it festive. I just make a bold bold number. I really want to know how you got the 0.5s in there. That's what I want. Type it in right here. So, I think that would be great. So again, feedback's all great. I would love to see us making another stab at revamping this for the future if you don't mind. So, um, so I mean, I'll echo what Tom said, you know, um, and and I I do agree with you and I tried to I don't know if you've seen them yet or not. Not. No. So, but I I tried to put in in my

comments um exactly that is that you know we we um really focused on you know you really focused on the future on goals on strategic plan on a long you know the facility study or the long-term capital plan um which I I kept struggling with where do I put this in the categories and couldn't find where to put it so therefore I put it in the comments um and maybe some of them are in the categories and they're probably place, but I didn't know where else to put me. So, um, but yeah, I think, um, I I think this is a year where, um, yes, it's been challenging, but I think with with you and with Mike and with Jeff and the input of, uh, the other staff, um, have, you know, said to the town and to all of us, okay, where are we going? You know, here's where we are, here's where we've been. Now, where are we going and how do we get there? Um, and I think that you've really led, you and your team have just led the town in that whole process and the whole procedure. And now we have a strategic plan and I expect we will have a facilities plan and a long-term capital plan that will lay out where the town is going for the next, you know, three to five years. Um, which I think is um, you know, which I think is important. Um, you know, uh, so um, I I think you've done a terrific job. I think I think Um you've certainly got some challenges ahead of you next year. Um but um having seen how you met the budget crisis, how you operated this year, I have absolutely full confidence that you will meet the challenges that you face for next year as well as you've met all the ones um to date. So thank you very much. I'm done. And then there was one. No, I think uh what I saw is uh two most important ones. You know, you may have

marks all the way, but dealing with uncertainty and changing a remarkable job with that in addition to what you did with the budget and getting through that override situation last year and then also putting the balance budget together this year. And then personal and professional growth as a town manager. I watched you grow significantly in in in your ability to handle contracts and do the things that I thought that you you really worked hard on that. So I think I've seen a lot of improvement there and just your ability to handle yourself in different situations in front of the town meeting and then meeting with us. So I think it's great. So thank you. So we also met executive session. Love to discuss the remarks. Could I just make one comment? So I really appreciate all of this. I look forward to reading this. But um none of this would be possible without the staff as well. One staff member is here. Many others may be watching or in the room. I could not do all of this by myself. So I want to give huge kudos to the staff to the board and committee members because they are all supporting me as I support them. And um thank you to all of you for your support and your guidance over the past year as well. It's been tremendous. So thank you. So um yes, what I was going to mention was um rejected. Thank you because it's I should have gone to you. That's okay. Sorry. Um again, you share um but we do uh as part also part of the contract there's a an option for a merit increase to be given with the review. And um so we discussed that at the executive session earlier and what you know we we we decided upon was the there is a pool for our non employees of uh where where 2% increase is the uh amount given to high performers. So we agreed that person we get a 2% um merit increase and because

the contract works that's retroactive back to February. So um thank you. Thank you for your for your uh work past year. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you. Any other comments? Because probably very few people left out there. I'm sorry. But um maybe just Kristen, something we talked about before is the idea of syncing up your contract with the regular contract cycle, which I think we fully intended to do and just didn't do. Yeah. So that may be something that you want. I think that might be up for discussion at the next meeting where it may not happen the next year, but it may happen the following year or we could try to sync it up next year as well. So I think there's opportunity for that. Yeah. But right now that we're the plan that we also discussed. So um we would get the current contract in place for one more year. Exactly. But the new one would kick in on the July 1 schedule it fiscal year. We could change it by the current contract. It just gets more complicated. Yeah. No, absolutely. What what's what's already been laid down? It's just a great plan. So minutes for approval. Um March 11th, March 25th, 2025. Motion to approve and release. So move a second. Second. All in favor? Hi. Where are your updates? I'll give a very very quick update. So, Park and Wreck had a meeting last night. Uh we had about 35 to 40 residents attend uh to talk about the Netting Roads Fields project. uh park and rec commission voted to um have town staff present at our next meeting a comprehensive cost analysis looking at the cost of replacing the fields with artificial turf versus the cost associated with replacing the fields with natural grass. So um we'll be holding that meeting May 5th. Location is still under discussion, but anybody

who's interested in that discussion, we're we're welcome them to attend. And it will be also hybrid. Hybrid. Hybrid and recorded by question. Yes. Anything else? Okay. So, moving along to Kristen. Great. So, uh we have a series of grants, purchase orders, and contracts this evening. The first is that the town was awarded the community compact IT grant for firewall upgrades in the amount of $73,300 as requested by the technology department. Uh we requested a higher amount from the state but they had such a high pool amount um they were only award able to award us a portion. So we'd be looking to go to town meeting to fund the rest via capital but again looking for the town to accept that grant at this point in time to secure those dollars. Motion to approve money. Second. All in favor? I um I'll go through a series of purchase orders. Uh there's a lot based upon the tow meeting actions that occurred back in March uh for Lloyd and excuse me, Taylor and Lloyd for two Everest heavyduty 11 ft uh power reversing plows in the amount of 47,87 as requested by the public works department to allegiance trucks for two Monroe heavy duty 11 ft power reversing one-way plow with lights and control valve in the amount of $42,456,93. 33 as requested by the public works department. CDWG for IT hardware and services in the amount of $35,672 as requested by the technology department. Axion Enterprises for Taser electronic control devices and related equipment in the amount of 40,000 as requested by the police department. Apple for Apple laptops and desktop computers for classrooms in the amount of $118,665 as requested by the technology department. CDWG for student Chromebooks

in the amount of $222,440 as requested by the technology department and bump armor for cases for student Chromebooks in the amount of $17,284.35 as requested by the technology department. Any questions? Second. All in favor? I um and then contracts uh we have several one the first one is for Dodson Flinker for the pedestrian improvement plan in the amount of $300,000 as requested by the land use management department that's being funded by the MBTA catalyst grant. Another for Premier Mechanical for the replacement of the forge wastewater treatment plant dehumidifiers in the amount of 900 excuse me $99,997 as requested by the water department. RH White Construction Company for the construction services at the Forge and Nutting Road POS treatment plans in the amount of 19,783,000 as requested by the water department. Zel Medical Corporation for the cardiac monitors in the amount of $158,5724 by the fire department and Crrave Fire apparatus for the rescue pumper in the amount of $1,375,657 as requested by the fire department. Move to approve. Second. All in favor? I move to wave reading correspondence. Second. Second. All in favor? Second. All in favor? I. Good night, Wford. Good night, Wford. Thank you. Thank you.