Select Board - Regular Meeting

the May 13th meeting of the Westward Select Board. We are going to begin as we always do with the pledge of allegiance today led by one of our two new board members that welcome in a second, Sean Kelly. Sure. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Sean. Uh we will now begin as we do uh with uh open forum and I've got a few things to start with. Uh, one is we'd like to offer our sincere thanks to all the election workers who assisted the clerk's office during the annual town election. We're always grateful for the work that you do uh greeting the public and facilitating free and fair elections here in town. Uh we'd also like to welcome uh our two new board members, Sean Kelly and Noel Donovan. So, welcome to you vote. Congratulations. Thank you. Uh we would also like to thank everyone who put in the time and effort to run. It's a huge commitment and it's much appreciated and and your your role in democracy is uh is highly valued and we'd like to welcome our new colleagues on school committee planning board uh and all the other boards that uh that were elected in this most recent round. Uh we'd also like to offer congratulations to resident uh Kelsey Faraher for completing the Boston Marathon on behalf of the National Braille Press team raising more than $10,200 for the conference. So, thank you. We're going to have her um at the May 27th meeting. She wasn't able to make this meeting. So, we'll congratulate her again at that meeting live and in person. Worthy of two. Congratulations. It's a long way long way to run. Um those are what I have prepared. Kristen, do you have anything or any other board members have anything for open forum public? I have something, but I'll open it up to the other board members first. I can go after if there's anything else.

I don't have anything. Okay, great. Um, I just have one thing. At our last meeting, we bid farewell to Dan O'Donnell, our finance director, uh, as he was seeking other uh, career opportunities. And this evening, I'd like to welcome him back. Uh, he has joined us back as the finance director again. Things did not um, pan out the way he had thought that they would, and he really uh, appreciates being a team member here in Westford. So, uh, we welcomed him back with open arms on Monday and just want to formally let the public know, uh, that he is he is here. So, we're lucky to have you did a great job. We we wanted you, Christian, to recruit someone who's an exact replacement. Thank you. Well done. Good. Any uh anything from the public or online, Kristen, for open form today? So, I don't see anyone at the microphone and I don't see any hands raised um online. Okay. Well, uh for those of you that have not been through the process of selecting the various uh roles of chair, vice chair, and clerk for the select board, uh we now do is I step aside and Kristen actually takes over the meeting uh and we will conduct elections and then whoever is elected chair will take over from there. So, good luck. Thanks for that. All right. So, um, as we can see, Tom is remote, so all votes tonight will be roll call votes. Um, Patty will be taking our minutes as she normally does. Um, our chair was Scott Hazelton. He is no longer on the board. So, at this point in time, we would take nominations for a chair of the select board. We'll also be taking nominations for vice chair and clerk subsequent to that. So, are there any nominations for chair of the select board? I'd like to nominate Tom Clay for chair. Are there any other nominations? Is there a second to that motion?

All in favor? Sean. I. Noel. Hi, John. Hi, Chris. Hi, Tom. Hi. Thanks for All right. So, since you are chair, I will gladly turn that back over to you to do vice chair, unless you'd like me to do it from the room. Uh, no, that's fine. Thanks, Kristen. Uh, I will uh now accept nominations for vice chair. I nominate Chris Barrett, vice chair. Excellent. Uh, any other nominations? Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Uh, all in favor? Sean? I. Noel. I. John. I. Chris. I. And I'm also in. It's unanimous. Thank you and welcome Chris. Uh and finally for clerk, do we have any nominations for clerk today? I'd like to nominate John. And I would like to second that. Uh are there any other nominations for clerk? Okay. Uh all in favor Chris I. John I. Noel I. Sean I. And I'm an I. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, John, for your willingness to serve. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna make a a run at continuing to chair. Uh, by practice, sometimes we ask the vice chair to uh chair if the the chair is remote. I'm going to continue today. Uh, and as long as we don't have any technical difficulties, that should work just fine. Uh, but Chris, at some point, if we run into any kind of struggles, I may ask you to to take the role, chair. Happy to do so. Uh okay, great. All right, let's move to our 710 uh agenda item, which is the consent agenda. And I

request to approve the following special license for the grand opening celebration. The applicant is Julia Rendro. The date is June 14th, 2025, and the time is 12 uh to 4 p.m. Location is Iron Rose Fitness 478. Do I have a motion to approve? Some moved. Second. And uh any questions or comments from the board about the special license request? Tom, I just have a brief question. Um as a newbie, what's the reasoning for this? Is it the number or the alcohol being served or? So, it's a one-day alcohol license, which is generally it is a select board action. Um, because it does not require ABCC approval, which is the state alcoholic access beverage commission, uh, we can approve that under our consent agenda after the town clerk receives all the proper documentation. Understood. Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad you asked the question. And and this is also where we approve banner requests and certain kinds of signage requests. So thanks for the question. Uh so I have a motion in a second. Uh all those in favor unless there are any other questions. Okay. All those in favor? Sean I. Noel I. John I. Chris I. And I'm that takes us to our 7 uh 10. Also 710 the agenda item uh for National Grid petition for joint or identical pole locations. Um Kristen, is there someone here from National Grid that uh can present what they have in mind? And there is um as this is a public hearing, we cannot start before 710. So I'd respectfully request that perhaps we do the public works proclamation as Kyle Fox is here

to to fill those three minutes if you're okay with that. That's a great idea. Thanks. Thanks Kristen. Um, so we'll hop to uh to just that request to approve the National Public Works Week Proclamation. Kyle, maybe if you can tell us what this is and just read the proclamation out loud so the public can appreciate and support. I'd be happy to. Thank you, Tom. Um, so every year, uh, through our partners at American Public Works Association, we like to celebrate Public Works Week. And before reading the proclamation, if you don't mind, I just say a couple words. Uh good evening uh select board members. Uh thank you for giving me a moment to recognize an important tradition. As you know that next week is National Public Works Week and I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight uh the incredible work that Westford's public works staff does every single day. Excuse me, the pollen's deep in my throat tonight. Um often behind the scenes but always in service to our residents. This year's theme is people, purpose, presence, and it speaks directly to the values that guide the men and women of our public works department. First, it's about people. Every mile of road we repair, every load of snow we clear, every storm drain we maintain, every park we care for, and every gallon of water we treat, it's all for the people of Westford. Our work isn't about helping students get to school and preserving I mean isn't about infrastructure for infrastructure's sake. It's about keeping families safe, helping students get to school, and preserving the character and livability of our community. Uh the next one is purpose. Uh public works is often taken for granted because when things are working, you don't even know we're there. Uh, clean water comes out of the tap, roads are smooth and safe, playgrounds are

welcoming. Our purpose is rooted in these everyday details. Um, essential services that form the backbone of a thriving town. And finally, presence. Public works may not always be visible, uh, but we are always there. Whether it's a 2 am water main break or a major storm event, um our crews respond without hesitation. Even during times when most people are sheltering or resting, our staff are out um ensuring public safety and maintaining continuity of life in Westford. I'm incredibly incredibly proud of the dedication, professionalism, and teamwork that our public works staff brings to their jobs every day. They don't do it for applause. They do it because they care about this community. And that's what makes public works more than a job. It's a passion. So on behalf of the entire department, thank you for proclaim proclaiming May 18 to 24 as public works week in Westford and thank you for your continued support. So I can read the proclamation. Please do. So whereas public works professionals are responsible for the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of infrastructure, facilities and services that are vital to sustainable and resilient communities, public health and a high quality of life for the residents of Westford. And whereas such infrastructure and services including transportation systems, water supply and treatment, solid waste management, public buildings, and other essential facilities depend on the dedicated efforts of public works professionals, including engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector. And whereas it is in the public interest for citizens, civic leaders, and young people in Westford to understand the

importance of public works and to recognize the essential role these services play in our daily lives. And whereas the year 2025 marks the 65th annual National Public Works Week um with the theme people, purpose, present, highlighting the heart, mission, and visibility of the public works profession. Now therefore, be it resolved that you, the Westford Select Board, do hereby proclaim the week of May 18 to 24 as National Public Works Week in the town of Westford. We call upon all residents to join with the American Public Works Association and local agencies in celebrating the contributions of our public works professionals and in recognizing their dedication to protecting public health, ensuring safety, and enhancing the quality of life in our community. Thank you. Thank you, Kyle. And for for all of us that have the opportunity for all of us that uh that have the gift of observing what your team does and seeing the dedication and high professionalism that you come to work every day, uh thank you. So, we're lucky to have this opportunity to recognize you uh and your team. Uh any other comments for the from the board before we vote to uh enthusiastically uh endorse and approve this proclamation? Okay. Well, thank you. I think we're unanimous in our support. Uh so with that in mind, uh I will entertain a motion to approve the National Public Works Week Proclamation. So moved. I'll second. Excellent. All those in favor? Chris? I. John, hi Noel. Hi, Sean. Hi. And I'm also an I. Thank you very much, Kyle, to to you and your entire team. Thank you very much.

Okay, we're going to hop back now to the public hearing uh for National Grid petition for joint and identical pole locations. Uh and if I can welcome the representative from National Grid to give us a brief overview of uh what's being proposed, I'd appreciate that. then we'll go to comments. Yeah, of course. Um, hello, my name is Brian Sler and I work with National Grid as a designer. Um, we're currently located 11:01 Turnpike Street in North Andor. Um, as you can see in this, um, work order here. Uh, we will be proposing to remove and reinstall pole 164. And as part of this project on the right side, you will also see uh pole 169.8 or -84 is also another proposed pole on the opposite side of that street. And just for uh for members of the public, what's the what's the need or reason behind moving these poles? Yeah, great question, Tom. Um, pole 164 will be moved about 40 ft over to the right and that is because it is a little too close to a well that's located nearby and part of uh National Grid's environmental awareness program. We're trying to move away from keeping our treated poles too close to well sources. Um, regarding poll 169-84, that poll will be put in place along with an anchor, and that's to support the existing polls there to help with upgrading your poll system. Tom, just a point of order. Um, I don't believe that we open the public hearing. So, we'd like a motion to open the public hearing and um, accept all testimony that we've received so far uh, into that public hearing if possible. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. Do I have a motion? I'll make the motion that we open the public hearing. Second. Yes. A motion to open the public hearing.

So, Chris, did you Chris, you made that motion? Yes, sir. Okay. And a second. I second it. Okay. Thank you, John. Uh, all those in favor? Sean, I. Noel, I. John, I Chris I. And I'm an I. Thank you. And thanks, Kristen. Sure. Um, so one other question before I open up to the rest of the board. Have the all the abutters and affected residents been communicated with and have you had any concerns from the the residents involved? Um, yes, they've been communicated with. Uh, we had one resident come to us with a question. Uh, it was regarding the safety of their mailbox since the poll be putting up uh nearby. Um, there should be a stake at the location. and we've informed them that it would be at the stake and not it and should not be able to um hurt or uh relocate their mailbox. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Just a quick question. Um is there a proposed date for when this is going to be worked on? Um not that I know of as of now. Um this is part of a large project so it could happen a few months from now maybe. Okay. Um and then when it is being worked on is there an idea how long it will disrupt traffic or be working on conquered road? Yeah should be one day um two days maximum if there's trouble but one day more than likely. Great. Thanks. Yep. Great. Thank you. Any other questions on this? Yeah. Any questions? Yep. Chris question just asking DPW engineering. Any concerns with this work?

We reviewed the uh proposal um and had no negative comments to offer. Thank you. Any questions from the public? Yes, I have some. Yes, we have one. Hi, Emily. Hi, Emily Taylor, 9 Texas Road. Um, will this be a new poll that's put in or will it be the same poll that obviously has weathered for a while with the um chemicals that have been put on it? Um, so yeah, 16 uh P164. Um, that will more than likely be a brand new poll. Okay. Yep. And the 712 agenda item is identical, right? Is there are there two on here? Looks like they're the same. Yes, I think we're I think we're addressing both at once. I think they look identical. Look, it looks like from the way it's agenda, Kristen will have to vote on the first one, close, reopen, vote, and then close again. Does that sound correct? No, I think there's they're duplicative. Uh is different. One is pole. Yeah, one is pole, one is wire. They're they're not duplicates. One's a joint owned pole and one's a solely owned pole by uh grid. Welcome. Okay. Thanks. So, there are two distinct ones and we'll cover them. Anything else from the public on this before we move on in this first one? Okay. Okay, with that in mind, uh I will entertain a motion to approve uh the national grid petition for joint identical pole location in in the first in the 710 agenda item uh in our agenda. So move a second. I'll second.

Okay. All in favor? Sean I. Noel I. John. Hi. Chris I. And I'm an I. So it's unanimous. And I'll now entertain a motion to close the public hearing for the 710 agenda. So move second. All those in favor? Sean I. Noel I. John I. Chris I. And I'm an I. I will now entertain a motion to open the 712 public hearing national grid petition for poll and wire location. So moved. Second. Excellent. Uh, any additional com commentary from the representative from National Grid on this second public hearing? I think we need to do a roll call vote of the vote. Nope. You're correct. Um, Chris, hi. John, hi. No, I Sean. Hi. I'm an I. It's okay. Thank you, Kristen. Any additional commentary uh or description uh from the representative from National Grid? Um no. Okay. Uh any questions? So just just to be clear, this you you basically did describe this second one when you were giving the description of the first one. You described the moving of the pole and then the second support pull being up. So this correct we're talking now about the second one you described. Okay. Uh any questions from the board about this uh second public hearing? Okay. Any questions from the public? Okay. Looks like there's no questions from the public. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the 712 agenda item, National Grid Petition for

pole and wire location. So move. Second. And second. Uh all those in favor Chris I John I Noel I Sean I I'm an I and I'll now entertain a motion to close the public hearing for the 712 agenda. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? Noel I. John I. Sean I. Chris I. And I am an I as well. We will now move to the 720. Uh we already did the 720. We'll now move to the 725 agenda item, which is the update on the Boston Road reconstruction project. For that, we'll welcome Jeremy DS, the assistant town engineer. Good evening and thank you for uh letting me uh give you an update um this evening. Uh for the record, my name is Jeremy DS. I'm the assistant town engineer. As Tom said, I'm here tonight to give a a brief update on Mass DOT's Boston Road reconstruction project. As I'm sure everyone's already aware, the project is well underway and has been for the last couple months. Um, to date, the contract at Newport Construction um has been concentrating on the initial uh phases of construction, which have included setting up a staging area behind 70 Boston Road, uh building a temporary storm water sediment basin, removing trees, and clearing vegetation within project limits. uh installing erosion controls at wetland areas and also widening shoulders between Crown Road and Route 495. Um Natural Grid has also been working on setting new utility poles and moving their wires uh in preparation for the planned improvements and it's been going actually quite fast. It was surprised but uh uh once National Grid completes their work uh Comcast and Verizon will follow and move their wires. Uh we anticipate that utility

work continuing over the next month or two. Um last week Newport uh started installing the new storm drain system in Boston Road. Um this work is starting at the project lowpoint down near the fire station and it's going to continue uphill to uh to the town center. Uh the new drainage infrastructure includes more than 100 pre-cast concrete drainage structures and more than 6400 ft of drain pipe. So it's a big endeavor. Um the storm water drainage work will be the primary focus for this 2025 construction season. Uh and that will extend likely through November. Um in order to accommodate the drainage work, there's going to be a planned detour. Can you pull that up, Mike? You can just scroll down. Yeah, it's on the website. Um you know, so there's a planned detour that's going to go in effect uh later this month. Um most likely after Memorial Day. Um uh the detour route as you can see on the screen uh is going to include Main Street, Tadmuk Road, as well as Littleton Road. Um in order to facilitate traffic on the detour route, we're installing temporary traffic signals at the intersection of Main Street and Depot as well as Main Street and Tadmuk Road. Um once these signals are completed, they'll have to be in operation for at least a week before uh the contract can take advantage of the detour route. And once in place, the signals will be in operation for 24 hours a day until the detour is no longer needed for the project, regardless of uh the detours uh in place that day or not. Um and then once in place, uh the detour will be in effect on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. over the next several months. Um otherwise during uh normal construction hours, Boston Road will continue to be reduced to one lane with alternating traffic uh as needed and when necessary. Um and the road is going to be fully reopened at the end of each day. Um for project communications and public

engagement, we have set up a dedicated Boston Road uh website. Um it can be found on the town's main web page down at the bottom under special projects. I can also be found where it's shown on the screen as uh part of the uh Westford Engineering uh department's web page. Uh we'll also be posting uh regularly to the DBW Facebook page and sending out news flashes for the subscribers through the town website for road construction alerts. Um we also have message boards set up on Forge Village Road, uh Littleton Road and both 495 offramps. Um and those messages will change throughout construction depending on what we're doing at the time. Um, and we're also working with Mass Dot's communication staff to to make sure that we're coordinating any kind of public communications and outreach efforts. So, really excited that the project's ongoing. We've been planning this for eight years. So, it's it's really exciting to actually see, you know, shovels in the ground. And so far, we've uh no major issues and as far as we're concerned, the project's on schedule and and um you know, you know, we're happy with the way things are going so far. I've had a lot of communication with Mass DOT staff um as well as the contractor. So, with that, I can answer any questions the board may have. Thanks, Jeremy. Um first, could you could you explain how the residents on Boston Road or if there is anybody that can only access their home off Boston Road, how will those folks be affected during the closure period? Well, all properties will be accessible throughout construction. Um and there will be detail offices on, you know, at either end of the detour. So, um, if someone needs to get their property, they can approach the detail officer. Uh, you know, it there may be some situations where they may have to go around the detour, but part of the, uh, contract, the way it's written with Mass DOT, is that the contractor, even though the road is detourred, they have to maintain

at least access for emergency vehicles, police, fire, buses, trash, um, and then residents as well to be able to get to their properties. Okay. Thanks. Uh, and do you have an estimated duration, Jeremy, of of how long we think this detour will be in effect? So, the main focus is having the detour in effect between Crown Road in 495. It gets really difficult with the drainage with the curves in the road uh to keep a lane open and make it safe um and it would be less efficient for the contractor. So, we anticipate the next couple months. Uh we've talked to Mass DOT and once the detour goes into place, uh we're going to reconvene and meet um after two weeks and kind of reassess and see see how things are going. So, and that's also that the day the detour goes into place. I know we've talked to Westford Police Department. They're going to be doing uh additional patrols uh just seeing, you know, how the traffic or how the um you know, the roads responding to the detour. Uh engineering department will do the same thing. Um, and if there's any issues, we'll we'll make adjustments as necessary. But we will be meeting again with DOT, you know, two weeks after the detours in place to discuss kind of the long-term use of the detour. Um, having the road detour makes construction go much faster. It's safer. Um, but it really depends on the traffic impacts, you know, along the detour route as well as on other roads in town. Great. Last last question before we go to the board for questions. What's is this is this website the best way for uh members of the community to stay informed about this project? Yes, I I think you know we're going to be posting uh any updates u to this uh website. So I would say in all of the communications kind of point to this website so I would say yes this would be the best source of information and also my contact information is on this page. You know, we've had a number of residents reach out. Um, we're here to answer any questions. So, um, they can either email or or give me a call. And I think last week we did a news flash. So, if you're

signed up for town news flashashes, that went out to your email box. It also went on the DPW Facebook page and the town of Westford Facebook page. So, if you'd rather get your news on on Facebook or via email, please take advantage and sign up for those types of notifications. But primarily looks like there's a primarily the communication will be coming from the town of Westford and not DOT. And is there there's probably a link or a flashing badge on the on the homepage Kristen? Yes. So Mike, if you just want to go back to the town of Westford's web page, we can walk people through that. Um it takes a minute to just resize. I think this is Matt Spartender, new deputy fire chief. So Mike, if you scroll up all the way to the So scroll up a little bit more. So right now under news and announcements, the third one over is the Boston Road construction update because that went out Friday. I think we scroll through at least eight news items uh now as they get updated. And then if you want to scroll down a little bit more, Mike, we do have under special projects the Boston Road reconstruction. So it's not a banner flashing at the top, but it is um a few scrolls down on our homepage. Okay, that looks great. Thank you, Kristen. Uh questions from the board. Jeremy, uh you did mention you were gonna have message boards up. Can you just tell me again what locations? So you said Littleton Road. So Littleton Road um eastbound uh both 495 offramps and then Forge Village Road eastbound. So, if I'm coming up a car aisle, you know, if I want to head to the center, where would I first see that message board? You wouldn't, but it's it's on the detour route. So, we're going to talk to DOT about that if if there's a need to add additional message boards. I think they originally didn't have them because that's technically part of the detour route.

So, it is difficult to, you know, would need more message boards um to capture those folks. I think that's exactly right because I mean how would that work right and you would drive up and then eventually see it 495 and somehow correct and then it could be you know cumbersome to have to turn around and so um we have a meeting tomorrow with Mass DOT in the district um and the communication staff so that's something we can discuss with them okay and same thing if I'm coming from channels on 110 and I ultimately my destination was the center town center wouldn't I want to be notified Is there a signage to that effect? It's it's the same thing because that's on the detour. They don't have one. So I I I agree. You know, I think we could benefit from having more message boards, but that's So I just want to remind everyone this is a mass DOT project. You know, they're funding construction. They're running it. We're staying involved. And again, I I've communication almost on a daily basis with their field staff. So, even today, you know, later this afternoon, I I asked them this one of the at least on the 495 um southbound ramp, there's a tree limb that's in the way, and then the 104 village is kind of right behind a pole. So, I've asked them to kind of make sure that these message boards are more visible. Do you anticipate them pushing back on establishing two more or I I don't. It is a cost issue. Um, but if it if it's necessary and you know it's important for you know motorists to know that they're going to be approaching the you know the detour or they're gonna you know they're going to run into a barricade right. So um and if it could make it difficult at the ramps. Um so yeah I mean I guess if they push back do we have our own boards that we get to board? So we do have some boards I could talk to Kyle about that. Um the intention for the ones that are out there now to remain in place throughout the project. So, I know there's going to be other needs. Um, I don't know what the cost is, but we can talk to DOT and they've been very amendable so far about our requests and and making sure that,

you know, the public, you know, is being notified. Um, originally when they, uh, when they put the message boards up, they there was the original message said Boston Road closed May through November. So, we got a lot of lot of phone calls. It was actually my day off and I got on the phone and said, "Please shut those off for now." So, yeah, but we've we've worked with them to come up with different messaging. So, you'll see on the offramps individual messages like no right turn 3, you know, 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. Um, as well. So, right now it's just saying, you know, Boston Road construction, expect delays. Jeremy, is the the thought that EMS will still be able to access Boston Road during this time period? Absolutely. Throughout the the contract, we've already made it clear with the contractor they have to make it they have to, you know, have access. So the road won't be completely blocked but it just makes it easier without you know traffic come you know motorists coming up and down the road. Um but yeah they have to have they have to have access full access um and the police department fire department we're communicating communicating with them and Mass D will be communicating with them daily um as far as you know what they're doing and what the impacts may be but they need to get the emergency vehicles through. Great. Thanks Mike. If you think we're all set, if you could stop sharing, I'll be able to see the see the room a little bit better to call on people. Thanks. Any other questions from the board? No. Okay. Uh, any questions from the public? We're online. Don't see anyone online and I don't see anyone coming to the mic. Okay. I just have one more one more, Tom, if you don't mind. Sure. Yeah, please. So, this was a great update. Super appreciate it. Um, when do we anticipate getting another one? Do you think three months or do you have a thought on what a regular before the board? Yes. Whenever you'd like. When do you think there'd be substantial changes that we could present? The biggest the biggest change coming is the detour. Uh,

which is going to happen within the next couple weeks. Um, other than that, it's going to be the storm drain installation. It's going to be the same thing just moving up the hill. Maybe end of the season update. Yeah, that could be just to see how we did because this is going to go into another year, right? Yeah. So, this is a 2-year to 2 and 1/2 year project. So, this year it's focused on storm drain uh construction. Next year, uh it's going to be the water main as well as the roadway improvements. So, uh we are on schedule. It's Newport's Hope and their current schedule shows us finishing uh the fall of 26, but their contract allows them to go into the spring um and summer of 27. I hope it would be helpful to have one at the end of the season just to lessons learned. What can we do to improve just general feedback if you if you have time? Sure. Absolutely. If there's any major changes between now and then we're happy to come back as well. Super one thing. What's this going to look like over the winter? Hard to hard to say. Um when they put in the drainage, uh you know, we're going to have trenching and it's going to be temporary trenching. So, the road's going to be rather uneven and, you know, it's going to be buttoned up. Uh, there's not going to be any gravel or anything like that, but it's going to be it's going to be bumpy. Um, so we're going to have to work with, you know, Kyle and the contractor to make sure it's a level uh that we can plow safely and not going to damage our our vehicles. People will be able to go 25 miles. Oh, yeah. We got one huge speed bump there. Yeah, exactly. Right. Finally, a solution to the traffic speed on Boston. Okay, it looks like we're all set with questions. So, with that, I'll thank you uh Jeremy for uh as Chris said, an excellent update. Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you. Um we are moving to the 735 item, which was a review and act to sign the Colonel John Robinson Elementary School MSBA feasibility agreement. Um Kristen, were you thinking that you would sort of

describe kind of what this is and where we're at? Yes, I can take this. And also Valerie Young, the chair of the Robinson School Fusibility uh building committee is also on the line and I know Tom, you sit on that committee and John is the alternate as well for the select board. So, uh, as many are aware, the town meeting authorized the, uh, borrowing for the feasibility study for the Robinson school project. And the Robinson School Building Committee has been working for many months to understand how to go about the project, working with the Mass School Building Authority related to funding reimbursement, and we're finally at a phase where uh we are able to enter into a funding agreement schedule with the MSBA uh because town meeting approved for that and um the bonds have gone into the proper place. So, the forms before you this evening are proper forms that have been approved and reviewed by town council. They're standard MSBA forms for the feasibility. We will not um have a formal vote from MSBA until June 18th. Um so, they're they're asking for us to approve this agreement at this date and time in order to prepare their board for that approval on the June 18th date. Um in the packet there was a cover letter uh that explains the process and the documents that are required. There was exhibit A which is our cost estimate for what the feasibility study would entail related to the owner's project manager budget, the designer budget which is the architect and engineer and other ancillary consultants, the environmental testing and then other costs that come up. And then the scope is related to the study that would look at the Robinson School elementary, excuse me, Robinson Elementary School with 470 students, a combined Robinson Abbott school with 705 students, and a potential combined Robinson Abbott and Day School for with

165 students. Also within the packet, exhibit C is our reimbursement rate. uh when this project was presented to town meeting and it's still the case that MSBA will reimburse us 48.05% of reimburseable costs related to the feasibility study. Uh if we continue to move forward with the project into schematic design and bid and construction, there would be another reallocation and another town meeting to authorize that spending. Um and then finally, we are required to have legal counsel uh certification that town council would do upon your vote this evening. So, um, Valerie, I don't know if you wanted to add anything more, uh, to the conversation, but we feel that the documents are good in good order. The Robinson School Building Committee has reviewed the documents and has had conversations and, uh, we feel it's the appropriate time to have the select board uh, act and vote on this feasibility study submission. Question is, Valerie promoted to the Yeah, and she typed that she is all good. So, she is promoted, but if she has a question, um, we can certainly unmute her. Okay, great. Any So, this is a little bit of a of a process. Um, but any questions from the board for go to the public or just for your own questions? John, is that your hand? Yes. Um, you have two motions in front of us. Yes. And are you asking to have both motions approved? Yes, that is correct. So the first motion is to author for the select board to authorize myself in consultation with the Robinson School Building Committee uh the full legal authority to sign the feasibility study agreement. And then the second motion would be to authorize myself as town manager in consultation with the Robinson School Building Committee to uh make any final and binding decisions

related to the feasibility study and those were reviewed and prepared by town council. Yeah, the second one says uh with respect to the elementary school building project described in the physibility study agreement that seems to go beyond just the feasibility study. That seems to say it's uh for the entire project. It doesn't because the feasibility study agreement is only for the feasibility section. It does not go into schematic design or bidding or construction. That would be a separate review and vote if we move forward with the project. town meeting authorizes it, the election would also have to authorize it because it would be a a debt exclusion. Okay. Okay. Other questions from the board? Any questions from the public or online? I don't see anyone in the room or online. Okay. So for the public, as Kristen mentioned before, any additional money would be allocated that would come to you in town meeting. So we're uh staying on staying on track for exactly what we talked about in town meeting. Um and uh I guess Kristen, I know that there's and Valerie, I know there's some plan to to have a separate um sort of information web page for the Robinson School project. I think that's still coming, but the public can look at that soon. maybe in when it's up and running, we can add that to uh to an open forum item just to help the public stay informed as we move through this. Yes. So, all um information currently is linked through the Robinson School Building Committee web page off of the town site that brings you directly to a school page. Um but we are looking to dress that up and make it more user friendly in the next month or two. Okay. Excellent. So, we people can find it through the town website or through the website. Sean, did you have something? Yeah, real quick. Uh I I think this was said, but who who drafted

this? The MSBA or our attorneys? The MSBA drafted the feasibility study agreement document. Um that is their form. Our town council reviewed that document and it's a standard document. Got it. Okay. So this is this is what other towns who are going through the MSBA process are using. That is correct. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. It looks like there aren't any further questions. So I will move to the motion. So we have two motions here as John pointed out. The first is uh I'll entertain a motion that town manager Kristen Loss in consultation with the Robinson School Building Committee be vested with a full legal authority under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and all applicable charter provisions and bylaws of the founder to execute and deliver the feasibility study agreement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the Colonel John Robinson School Building Project and any amendments there on behalf of the town and to bind the town in its terms and conditions. Do I have that motion? I'll make that motion. Second. Excellent. All in favor? Sean? I. Noel. I. John. I. Chris. I. And I'm an I. So that's unanimous. And I also will entertain a motion that the town manager Kristen Law in consultation with the Robin School Building Committee be vested with a full legal authority under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and all applicable charter provisions and bylaws of the town of Westford to make final binding decisions on behalf of the town with respect to the Colonel John Robinson Elementary School Building Project described in the feasibility study agreement with the Massachusett School Building Authority and any amendments there too. Do I have that motion? So moved. Second. Uh, all those in favor? Noel. Yes. John. I.

Sean. I. Chris. I. And I'm also in it. Thank you. Great. We'll get those documents over to the MSBA this week. Thank you very much. Uh, excellent. We are now going to move on to the 740 item, which is an update at 12 North Main Street. uh review and discussion of market analysis and concept plans. Uh looks like we've got a whole crew of folks here to help present. Uh Jeff, are you going to lead this? Uh yeah, I'll kick it off. Tom, thank you very much. Uh Jeff Moriceet, assistant town manager of land use and economic development. With me tonight is town planner Joe Genowitz. And we have two members of our consultant team. We have Eric Halverson of RKG Associates and David Gamble of Gamble Associates. So, as some of you may recall, we were last before this board on April 8th to provide some history about the 12 North Main Street site as well as to provide an update about ongoing activities. We also sought some specific direction from the board at that time, slightly different board at that time about the approach for the existing building. We were looking at uh some direction as to whether to try to preserve the entirety of the building, demolish the entire building or some combination of preservation and demolition. And at that time the select board was uh through consensus in favor of a combination approach. So preserve some and demolish some other. Uh we offered to come back to this board now um with some additional information. Also noting that we have two new members. Uh and we have both um consultants here to provide an overview of a market analysis as well as some conceptual plans to maybe help you um focus in on what you may or may not be open to for an approach for this site. And just a reminder, we are here really for two reasons. We're seeking direction from this board. Now, uh the first reason is we have uh grant applications. Most of them are due by

June 4th. That's really just three weeks away. So, we really want to get as much uh input from you folks tonight. so we can best frame our applications um as possible on behalf of the town. And the second is we are currently benefiting from two ongoing studies, a market study and a wastewater study that most must wrap up by the end of June. So any input and direction you give tonight will directly inform those studies and allow them to finish on time and put out the best products they can for. And so with that, I'd like to turn it over to Eric Halverson first of RKG to provide an overview of the draft market study. Great, Eric. Thanks, Jeff. Hi, members of the board. Eric Halverson for the record, principal with RKG Associates. Uh we're the lead firm for the consultant team and joined by my colleague David Gamble of Gamble Associates. Um wanted to just provide you with a status update as Jeff said with sort of where we stand uh with the project to date. Um the dates in the presentation will reflect April. I know we're going to be here and then uh came back tonight. So forgive me for that. Um if you could go to the next slide. So as as Jeff mentioned, I think there's a couple things that David and I really would love to hear from you or get out of tonight's meeting uh with the time that we have. One is to share just an update on our timeline, where we are with the project. Um update you on sort of what remains as of today. Just briefly share the market findings. Um, I think you were all provided with a larger packet of information uh prior to today's meeting. And then I I think it would be great if we could spend some more time on David's aspects, which are really the conceptual site plans and building plans uh that we've been talking uh with town staff about, as well as the um uh committee that we've been working with um with folks in the area. And then really just to receive some of your thoughts and direction um on sort of how we should proceed. As Jeff mentioned, the our work in the grant wraps up at the end of June. So,

it would be great to be able to provide the town with a more concrete concept uh going forward so that as you're preparing uh plans for the building, preparing for grant applications, you have, you know, a really good set of information to move forward with. Next slide, please. So, here's just a a quick timeline. As I mentioned, move that black line a few weeks to the right. Uh sort of where we are. Um so, to date, we've done all the base mapping, the market analysis, and the concept plans and programs, which you'll hear about tonight. Um, RKG's begun work on the development proforma and feasibility analysis, just building the model. It'd be great to have, as I mentioned, your input tonight on further direction so we know what concepts to put into that model so that we can try to identify, well, if you were going to move forward with a particular concept, how might a developer look at that from a feasibility standpoint? Is the development program and the potential monetary value of that development program something that might entice someone to actually invest in the property? if that indeed is the direction that the town wants to go in. Um, depending on that program, we would also look at the current uh zoning uh that's in place today and see if that zoning would actually allow, what that development program would be calling for, if indeed there is development as part of the program, make some recommendations there. Then David and I would draft that final concept plan and all of the different components of it uh for the town's review by the end of uh of June. So, that's sort of where we stand. So, we're about halfway through. Um, I just put together this really quick sort of summary slide from the market analysis just so that I didn't bore you to death with tables and figures. You can do that on your own time. Um, but just as a really quick way to summarize, I know, but just to sort of put it in perspective, you know, I think the good news is coming out of the market analysis. Um, Westford is a really desirable community. um there's investment happening around the town and has been for a long time and it's a growing community which I have to be

honest with you David and I have worked in a lot of communities both separately and together where that's not always the case isn't growing employment and jobs aren't growing but that's not the case in Westford so I do think there's great opportunity for this site um albeit it is a small site so the opportunity may be a little bit less but nonetheless there is opportunity um probably not surprising to you at all um you know housing I think could be a great component here, one of many potential components here. Uh both rental or I think smaller sort of forale condo product could work really well, particularly with the demand for housing. Um smaller household sizes that are seeing Westford as a great option and sort of more I would say lowercase affordably priced. So maybe not deed restricted affordable, but just something that's a smaller product that might have a lower price point than say a large new single family home in Westford. So I think that could make a lot of sense. I think there's good support there. Um, just on the commercial side, uh, we think that there could be some market for sort of smaller professional office, smaller medical office, something in the 5 to 10,000 square foot range. Um, which I think would fit nicely with the building footprint or parcel footprint that we're looking at here. Also, this location, it's not directly say on Main Street or right off a major state route. So, you would need to know where it is in order to find it. So I don't know if say a larger company would see that as a headquarters site or something like that, but something that could be more town or neighborhood serving from an office perspective I think makes sense. Um and then of course on the sort of dining and retail uh you know drinking establishments, coffee shops, those kinds of things. I do think there's demand there as well um on the sort of retail frontage. So things like clothing and apparel, could be health care, personal care, um other types of small retail that could be more neighborhood or town serving, maybe demand in that 5 to 10,000 square foot range again fits

really nice with a first floor of a mixeduse building, say as a footprint. Um another option sort of on the dining drinking side, we think there's potential support for maybe up to 10,000 square feet of space in that realm as well. That could be a really unique restaurant offering that sort of leverages the history of the building, some of the unique architectural characteristics. Um, the great location along the river if there was some sort of view shed or an outdoor element to that or even something like a brewery or a distillery like something unique for the neighborhood. Uh, you know, not something, you know, large and disturbing to the neighborhood, but something that could add some value. Um, we also, uh, just to sort of follow up on that idea too, the kind of coffee shop brewery, one thing that we heard both from the group that we've been meeting with as well as, um, looking back at the public comment from prior plans was this idea of like a gathering space. So, could there be a way to work in a business as well as sort of that gathering space element or David's going to share some perspective on outdoor gathering spaces as well that sort of leverage the backside of the property and the river? So I think from our perspective, great news. I think there is definitely demand here. I think the next part of our study when we get into the development proform of feasibility will be enlightening for us to see is there um kind of a financing gap, could somebody make money by investing in this? If there is a gap, what would it take to fill that and sort of what are potential funding sources to do so? Okay, good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. I'd like to start by mentioning two paradoxes that this project represents. One is that these things take a long time regardless of scale. Historic structures and adaptive adaptively reusing them and stabilizing them, bringing them into productive use

take a long time. Second, time is of the essence uh because this building continues to deteriorate quickly despite the fact that it's out of granite. The second thing, the second paradox is this is a fairly small building between two stories. It's 32 to 34,000 square feet. But in the context of Graniteville, in the context of even Westford, it has immense importance in the history of the town, in the neighborhood itself as an employment sector. These types of projects are really milestones in the evolution of a small town or a village or a city. Uh, in this little rendering, we're mentioning Jeff said a combination approach. What we'd like to leave you with tonight is that this is not an all or nothing thing. It's not save the whole thing or demolish the whole thing. There's actually a pretty wide spectrum that takes the market study that are tailored to this area with the viability of adaptively reusing portions of this building. That's the good news is that there's a v a spectrum and that's what we're going to show you uh in the coming slides. Uh next slide. So, uh, it's very important also to mention that we're coming at this as kind of outsiders and a lot of people have been thinking about this for a lot of time. Nancy Bissell gave me about 600 pages of binder material from their task force. Uh, and so if anything, I think what we're saying actually reinforces a lot of the community conversations that have occurred pre occurred previously. Uh, small businesses of mixed use preserve portions have it walkability. the river and the trail is really important. These are community aspirations that have been recognized and we think actually hold a lot of validity. Next, uh and so we are building off of a lot

of those conversations and while the terminology that we use tonight might be a little bit different. I may not say minimal stabil stabilization, but that's part of one of the one of the spectrums of opportunities here. So, just wanted to say that this is not coming out of the vacuum. There's been a lot of thought and a lot of hard work on the behalf of a lot of people uh including this study from my friends at BH plusa and a decade ago uh thinking about carving out portions stabilizing others uh there was another study that was done previously all of this is not lost it's actually helping to create some momentum and there is momentum I think right now you're at a bit of an inflection point where the decisions that are made about where to invest resources will direct those resources in productive ways. So, it's not lost material. It's actually critically important. Next, uh it's also just important to recognize that what we're talking about tonight is the red building, 12 North Main, as it wraps around Broadway. The yellow is the actual property. Uh it wraps around 10 North Main, which is owned by Urban Design and Development Corporation. So, I'm just referencing the image on the left. The image on the right is urban design and development corporations are the red color there versus the blue which is this property. So as many of the people in the task force recognize that ultimately you need both of them to sort of create a a critical mass to help revitalize this portion along the the river. Next uh and that's just a more detail. We know that there are environmental studies going on. We know that there's uh septic studies that are going to impact the overall demands on the property. That's part of the picture. Next, we're working with with that firm. And uh just as a way to sort of launch into it across the country, older industrial properties are actually more increasingly important.

People are are looking for ways to celebrate the past and to reinvent them in contemporary ways. So, a principle here actually has to be connect Main Street to the river. the river as this as the town's kind of origin point where the economy emerged get to the river next. Uh that's possible. Think about reusing portions of the industrial artifact without having to rehabilitate them in their entirety. Uh this is a very expensive proposition for a fairly small building. I was in Lawrence um you know this afternoon. It's okay if you've got a million square feet. If you've got 32,000 it's hard to subsidize. So maybe there's portions that actually remain fragments. Next, uh often times what can reposition older buildings like this are modest interventions that reorient the building in a different direction. And we think in this case to the south to the river. It might just mean a little arcade. It might mean a pergola. It might mean a terrace. But get people closer to the river. It's yes in a flood plane. So allow that area to flood if if happens. But these types of interventions can actually help people think differently about what is otherwise a ruin. Next, uh center the Stonybrook means that it's important not to look at this site as only having one side. Next slide. It actually is part of a neighborhood. And despite the fact that we're not talking about the Sergeants Mill across the river, uh, the brook, it actually is in between both of them. And a more robust neighborhood study would look at the connections of the neighborhood to this site and the larger trail network. Next, uh, I know a number of you are coming from the conservation commission. I don't have to show you images like this, but if you just make it past the ruin and you see what that brook looks like, it's pretty remarkable. Uh, next that's

people can't actually get there and see that. That's really important. Uh, and lo and behold, uh, you just have to span that small brook and you're, uh, looking at a much larger geography across the way. Fortunately, that building is still, uh, in productive use. Next, uh, and you know, again, I I feel like I'm preaching to the choir here. You have so many trails in your town, but the circle represents a gap between a couple of those trails. And wouldn't it be amazing if somehow this site's uh re repositioning filled the gap between two pretty impressive trails? This is a remarkable asset that I know you know you have, but if it could be broadened, if it could be extended, it would have even larger impact again beyond 12 North Main, which is just a small piece of the puzzle. Next, uh and again, the the uses that Eric mentioned, 15, 10, 20,000 square feet, are not that much. They're actually perfectly scaled to this to the options that I'm going to show you here in momentarily next. Uh so urban design connections. Uh again, uh what you're seeing here is Main Street to the north. The red line represents what should be some infrastructure improvements. We just talked about Boston Road. How about Main Street? Your Main Street needs some better sidewalks, maybe some street trees. Uh even Broadway could use some of that. Uh the view to the falls is remarkable. uh the amount of water flow through there is significant. It suggests that that space between 10 and 12 north are actually uh contained and there's a white noise with that next uh and so if portions of the building are falling down that might be a reason to open it up more. So, the few images that we're going to show you are recognizing that in this case, the South Mill, which is uh at the corner of Broadway and

Maine, is significantly deteriorated. Maybe that means we don't invest further in that. We open that up more next. So, strategic demolition, I think, should be part of the lens by which your committee and the board uh the board sort of determines where to invest resources. But in the aerial image, and this is already uh 7 years old, you can see the amount of deterioration now that roof is gone in its entirety. And the floor below is also compromised according to the uh CNM uh structural study. Next, so uh some little cartoons. Uh access to the river means maybe that portion of the south mill that fall is falling down. If that was opened up and we put a stair there at the intersection of Broadway and Maine, that would provide a lot of visibility to this courtyard that faces the river that would increase access, get people down to the river's edge. Next, uh or there's already a opening there in the central mill. The central mill has about 10,000 square feet per floor. Maybe that provides the reason to come down from Main Street to the river. Next, in the previous analysis, this is the north side. This is a long main street. Uh the building comes up to the edge. You're seeing a lack there's no sidewalk. There are utilities. There's no street trees, of course. Uh but if that north portion, what's shown in the darker profile line were to be demolished such that you could park along it uh perpendicular parking that would actually provide 25 ft of space for parking on along Main Street and reveal the central mill which is right behind it. So again, another portion of the building which if came down might actually provide reasons for access. Next

Uh, and it's a little always uh sad to look back at the patina photographs of the past, but you know, there once was a trolley on Main Street, and I do feel like given the school's location, and every time I'm there, I see lots of people trying to run across Broadway because that's fairly wide, and there aren't sufficient sidewalks. So, uh, both the private sector and the public sector have a role to play in the sites repositioning and cities do roads well. Next. Uh, and again, this poor family trying to run across this portion of Broadway because there's uh, you can't get there from here. Next. Uh, so this is also just a notion that these lot little additions can have a big difference. These indooroutdoor spaces actually might be an opportunity not to have to rehab the whole thing. Next. Uh so these are six maybe eight principles that as a developer were selected or um coming forward that we think from the community engagement from our observations from the market analysis these are pretty pretty good drivers for why this site could be redeveloped next. So I'm just going to rifle through a few options and I think you may have seen this in your packet. Uh, I'd like to direct you to the lower lefthand corner where you see that little icon that's coming from Eric's market study if it were housing and also the total maintained is 35,000 ft. So, it's we haven't gone in and measured because we're not allowed, but it's somewhere between 32 and 35,000 ft in its entirety across two floors. Uh, so if you keep it all, uh, you could probably get two floors. So the bottom floor might flood. So you have to be careful about that. But this would be a fairly expensive proposition given the state of deterioration of the project. Next, but it is an option. Uh that little cartoon I showed, if that south mill came down

because it's already crumbling and we put a one put a stair in there that came to the Stony Brook in this courtyard, you would still get over 20,000 square feet of development. You open up the corner of Broadway and Maine. The smoke stack is probably going to come down anyway. And we retain uh on the left hand side where it says maintained 80 1850. That's the forge. That building is tied to the falls, the hydraulics when this was an operating mill. The demolition of that would actually possibly cause some problems in the structural stability of of the falls. So we we're keeping that in almost every instance. But so 13,000 14,000 get demolished but 21 remains and you've still got the tower and the main central mill. Next option three is well what if it's the opposite actually the tower bell tower remains but one holds the corner. You want to kind of keep corners and there's a stair that comes down. You may notice that where the gray box is with the P, we are showing that in the location of the 10 North Main Street. Uh we could have shown it back in here, but there is actually quite a lot of periphery to the property that would still allow for parking, just not in this exact location. So, we haven't spoken to uh is it Blair uh uh Urban Design and Development, but it's our intention to connect to them uh following this meeting if if it goes well. Okay, option three. So, keep that portion. Next, I'll go through this more quickly. Uh, this is also not a bad option. The majority of the central mill remains, the bell tower remains. People have said that's important. The forge remains and there's a outdoor terrace courtyard that faces this uh garden uh public space over the overlooking the river. This demolishes almost 25,000

square feet and it only keeps 10, but you keep the most important 10. Next, uh, and then sadly, if you know it came to this and all one could save is the bell tower and the forge, you're you're left with less than 2,000 square feet. But at least there is some presence of the past. Next uh and then finally uh if if it all came down again minus the forge you're still you're I think you've erased not you but one has erased a significant portion of the town's past and I think that would be very unfortunate next. So I'm just going to rifle through those in plan view as a second time if we're okay. Jeeoff uh uh oh I forgot this. Occasionally, a developer will build new construction behind an existing facade. This is not actually out of the ordinary, and if it were at scale, it would probably provide new housing at a higher quality while still maintaining at least the main street facade. And one could even keep the tower. What we're showing here is four stories with parking below. That would get you about 24 to 30 units of housing, parking below for residents. Uh, and you're preserving the facade next or more likely knowing the developer will likely try to maximize her investment. Uh, at twice that size, you'd probably get 40 to 4550 units even. Uh, you could park at least residents down below. The building width is 54 feet. You can get diagonal parking below on the lower level uh while still maintaining the granite facade. This would be option 7B next. Okay. Next, not to confuse you. And so, just looking from above, if we rifle through these and you can go through it quickly. So, keep the whole thing. Carve out the corner. Uh maybe carve out the center. Uh keep the central portion, the

bell tower and the main mill. Maybe just the bell tower and the stairs. Uh next, uh if this would be unfortunate, just access points to the Stony Brook next. Uh and so I guess what we're suggesting to you all as a point of entry for a conversation is there's there are the extremes, preserve it all, demolish it all. And within that options 2, three, and four, you can see in terms of rehabilitation, you still have 20, 15, 10,000 square ft that could still be actively engaged, reused, connecting to the to the riverfront or there's some new construction that would occur as well. Next, so uh we rendered the last version because I just love hybrids of new and old together. Uh, and I do think a developer will likely try to max their um maximize their development interest here. But the good thing is, and I don't have to tell you this, like Eric said, Westford is a desirable place. And from our experience, access to open space, a sense of history, walkability, trail networks, recreation. These are the drivers across the country in towns repositioning themselves and growing. and you actually have the confluence of all of these in one fairly small site but a very visible site. Thank you. I think just for um the new select board members the last two slides are just a reminder just want to go forward one more um of what we had talked about at the April 8th meeting about the current state of the building. Um, green would be the recommendation to preserve, red demolish, and yellow to construct conduct additional investigation. And Jeeoff, I don't know if you have any additional comments related to that before we open it up. Um, no, that that was a good suggestion. That was um that

this was an exercise done by the land use management department just gathering some of the historical information, the condition of the buildings and the reports. it was not done with benefit of some of the possibilities that they were suggesting. We didn't want to bias ourselves. U so we we kept it separate. There were obviously some elements that we heard about that were like wow that sounds really good. We would have drawn that differently but we didn't want to we didn't want to bias ourselves yet at that time. So if I may so I will say we drew over this in the next slide. This is our recommendation. Uh so maybe if you just want to go back and forth. So, uh, if you go back the previous one. So, here the green was preserve the north edition. Preserve the bell tower. Preserve the corner of Broadway and the forge. We're suggesting next is actually the central mill, the bell tower. Maybe it's the north side, the red line that gets demolished and you open up that corner. Jeeoff, how would you Okay, it sounds receive comments. Yeah, I guess could I just ask one question first, Jeff. So, um I think it'd be helpful if if you could give us some idea of what sort of narrowing or guidance you're looking for tonight. You've given us a lot of exciting things to look at, but what's the most helpful kind of input? Would it be down selecting to specific options that we think are of greater interest or lesser interest like like on this slide? Is that kind of what you're looking for? I guess me I think it would make sense. There there are a number of options that were suggested and there might not be one option that you're like this is it but if you could identify high level like which are the ones you kind of like or elements that you like you know all that is good information um like how important is it to have visibility and connection to the water um I would think there's probably going to be some consensus about whether or

not to retain the bell tower and the building next to the dam like no matter how you feel about uh retention of structures, there could be real issues. If you think about doing anything to the building, you know, next to the dam, we would recommend please keep that cuz uh it's not just about the historical element, which apparently it's really intrinsic value, you know, in that building historically, but structurally we really don't know the impacts it could have to the dam. So we would recommend as they have please try to retain that and the bell tower is actually in very good u relatively speaking condition and it's certainly iconic. So we think as a starting point if we can agree on you know which components we should try really hard to keep and then maybe kind of fill in the middle um and see what you're open to from those concepts like are you um do you like residential? Do you want to have uh all one use? Do you want to have a mixture of uses? How do you feel about the community open space, the gathering space? And then I do know we also have um some folks from the neighborhood who were part of the focus group that provided some input to the consultants and maybe you want to hear their thoughts as well. But uh we don't expect a perfect answer tonight. It's not a final answer, but we do want to get as much uh info what you like, what you really would like to see happen if possible. there will always be constraints whether it's money or the the condition of the structure and I do want people to realize that even if something comes down that doesn't prevent you know construction new construction or portions of additions and you can impose since you currently own it requirements on how that might have to look you know so it isn't like you have to wash your hands of this and turn it over to a developer you control the property you have those rights now as a town and if you you can go through a process process and you can say if you

want to have certain design standards or certain principles uh that they highlight that you want incorporated into it or give higher favorability if the town wants to go out to a process again. So I don't know if that Okay. So I I think I understand Jeff that you're looking for kind of consensus of what might be off the table, what things are worthy of further investigation, what themes or principles we support, but we're not going to vote for one thing. You're looking for kind of a directional narrowing. Yes. Does that sound right? Okay. Chris, could you could you take over from here at least for this part of the discussion because I think we're going to want to leave these slides being shared and I can't I can't see anybody's hand like this. Sure. So Chris, if you don't mind, uh, thanks. Yeah, I'll start with you, Tom. Do you have any questions? Well, well, I I think first I'm I think it's really exciting. Uh, and I guess at a high level, I I would agree that demolishing everything or preserving everything doesn't make a lot of sense. I I'm sort of drawn to the mixeduse idea. I I don't know if I know enough to to narrow it beyond the idea that having um some sort of green space, some sort of residential potentially andor some sort of unique, you know, community restaurant or other offering I think is particularly interesting to me and I think that the boxed in things are the things I would be most interested in learning about. Thank you, Tom. I have three questions and first I want to say thank you for the tremendous amount of work that this reflects. I mean, you've given us a wealth of information and just different ways of thinking about this project, which has been very helpful. One thing you said in your presentation, and maybe I misunderstood you, but you said in one of your slides, you'd have to be careful about the lower section of the building because it might flood. Were you being sort of tongue and cheek or in reality, if there was a courtyard or parking or housing, could that legitimately flood? Uh, you always want to guard against the

possibility. And the lowest level actually works pretty well for parking. So you don't have to have so you have covered parking regardless of use. So I actually think the lowest level as long as you can access it works pretty well for covered parking and it gets you additional floors above that for different uses. Okay. But this is this is generally that this building is within the flood plane and could be at risk in general of floods. I'm if I may I'm not sure the building proper is actually in the flood plane. We do know that as you get towards the water there is obviously flood plane and in some other areas I think further down gradient the flood plane where it isn't as defined and channeled next to the dam the I think the flood plane goes wider. I have not reviewed the new flood maps for this area that go into effect uh in July or whatever, but um I don't know if you recall differently, Joe. Uh no, that's about right. It stays more narrow towards the brook and then as you get further towards River Street, it starts to around the building. Okay. My second question is you you provide wonderful concepts but they seem to all ignore a small but yet important fact that uh there's a building that's there and in use today. So how are you planning to reconcile that? What was your thoughts with how that would work out? Honestly, we left it out just for clarity sake. You could put if you put a building where right on the slide that's shown right now where it says parking that's the footprint of 10 North Main. Yeah, it would mean that the parking on this drawing wraps around it which actually lands on this site itself. Uh we removed it because we think actually this site would work better in its absence. It can't be connected to it very easily. In fact, we

don't think they can connect very easily and we haven't been inside it yet. So, I'm just not sure what its viability is. That's my answer. Agreed. And my last question is of these options whether it's pure residential or mixed use which has the highest prop highest potential for increased tax revenue for the town. Were we gross or net of cost or gross property tax revenue? Gross. Let's keep it whatever's easier. probably gross property tax revenue not net of costs like school or town cost probably condos across the whole thing probably employees you know that you showed option 7 or whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In terms of gross that would probably be your your highest. Yeah. Okay. Questions from the board. Just some comments. You know when we first started this uh and shut down the task force we were looking to contract for this entire site. somebody wanted to develop it and then they wanted the water rights and then there had some other issues and they wanted us to clean up the whole thing before they even entertained buying it. Now, we're on our way to cleaning it up and now we're going to be faced with a small site. And when you start thinking about this, we want to preserve it and that's the center part of it. But expanding the envelope in terms of whether we do it by zoning or however we do it that says we reach out and include those other buildings, overlay it and say, "Okay, this is now could be multif family housing. this could be and then look even further upstream and downstream saying that this is part of a continuum of the entire stream and then you're looking at a much bigger thing that might be affordable or that could be a concept and I get concerned when we start trying to decide what concept

we're going to use. I think that's I think we look at ones that look good or they could be viable, but then in the in the endgame it's whoever develops the site and if we retain ownership and try to develop it the government's not that good at it and and so do you want to take that? Yeah, Jeff is anyway. But the the thing I was thinking I was just wrestling with this saying how do we get this thing into a size that's doable, attractive, you know, clean it up and then give some concepts and then take care of those through the zoning uh and then entice somebody to come in and take 10 and even conclude the stuff across the river and say because I don't know how viable those industries are or how you know whether uh you know condos kind of like we did over at Abbott. Yep. Yeah. Some kind of a development that included all of that, right? Would speak enough to say there's money there. They come in get the entire site including this which we preserve the way we want to and and create something like that. And then think even larger you know years and years downstream downstream upstream some kind of continuum there trails the whole thing. So it it just um I want you to kind of expand our envelope there and think about that. U that's just been my concern doing that. And then one of the things is considered like water rights. Who controls that? That was that was a big thing for that developer. He wanted to have water rights and then do his own little development and a new access point I seem to recall near the memorial and there was a number of other of ambitions. But I I think your logic is is perfectly correct that this site is a

piece of a much larger puzzle. It is an historic overlay district that's kind of already imagining a larger geography. And thinking about the river in between a couple different development sites that are bounded by your major streets. I think that's the exact right idea. It's a 10 to 15 year vision for redeveloping a former industrial area in ways that's productive and beneficial and maybe even phased. The uh it's funny that you had mentioned that because when we came in for sort of our initial site visiting kickoff with Joe and Jeff, we had sort of talked about that because David and I have been looking and thinking, "Oh, this is actually kind of a bigger neighborhood." And it would also help you potentially solve um you know larger parking accommodations if you had multiple sites and also what to do with the effluent if you needed to do it through some kind of a either a treatment plant, the sewer extension or a septic. It might open up some other options for treatment on the site. Um so I I agree with Dave. I think you know it makes a lot of sense. Then the question is how do you make that happen? Yeah. Yeah. and and I think a government-driven project. Uh no, I think if we establish get the come up with the right rules of the road for this and requirements and then have some enterprising developer come in and is able to do that for us. Mhm. Okay. I use the phrase of we're we're trying to set the table, right? We're trying to do the cleanup to the maximum extent practical. We're trying to get the community buying and feedback. Uh we're trying to hopefully set the zoning and that links into what Jeff and his team will be asking for next related to more grants for more study or for for other language. Um I don't want to speak to what you're No. Um on the one hand we were sort of limited uh because of the grant. It's for our property. However, we fully hope and expect one of your

outcomes and suggestions uh is to look at it. It does make much more sense from a practical standpoint to not just look at our crazy odd-shaped small acreage site, but look at between the streets to the river and even further. That makes total sense. This this location though, you know, it could be sort of a catalyst. Um, if we get through and have a good successful um, you know, market studies and we we're continuing the cleanup, we're definitely in much better spot than we were before and we'll continue to be better even next year. Uh we have zero desire for the town to be the developer here like uh at all. We want to get to the point where we set the guidelines the town has um goals or principles that they want to go out with that's consistent with what the community feels that they need. And if that if there's a way before we do that process to include more we'll have you know benefit of the study we'll engage with the you know surrounding property owners and see what interest there is. Some of them have already expressed that they have interest and we don't know what kind of partnership but there is interest but we are limited by by the grant um for the short term but by the end of June that will all be all be done. we'll have more progress with cleanup and you know we look forward to the day that we can turn this over to u someone else. Sorry Jeff what's the what does the grant actually provide us an ability to do? So what we would like to do um so first of all we think it was very important to have benefit the market study because we don't want to just look at any all options. We want to look at the ones that will likely make sense to, you know, potential developer because if it doesn't work monetarily, it's not really an option necessarily, right? So, we want to get enough out of this so we have a decent idea about what we might try to save for the building and what we might be open to demolishing because we will have to apply for

different grants and different buckets for those different, you know, types, preservation versus demolition. Um and then we want to um follow through with that and try to get to the to the next step. We'll have some specific uh recommendations um from their work as early as the end of June. And but we will be applying for a number of grants um some of which will be related to cleanup. Some may be related to stabilization or preservation and some may be relative to demolition. We just we can't in good conscience apply right now until we have some direction. We just feel it should be for the board with some community input to provide that direction, not just not just staff saying we think this is the way to go. And we intend to come back at your next meeting to with some more concrete asks for those grants through it's through the community onetop program which is the state grant program for infrastructure, brownfield cleanup, market studies, other other things to catalyze development. Any other questions from the board? I love the idea of a combination of demolition and um reconstruction or restoration and also a mixed use for this property. I think that this section of town is really hungry for somewhere to get coffee or somewhere to eat. Um little convenience store perhaps. Uh so options two, three are what I would go for. Yeah, I think you can go. Well, I just uh at some point in time we need to stabilize that site. Yeah. We need to stop the deterioration of it and how do we get to that point because you know this is not going to happen overnight. And uh we need to get to that point somehow, you know, get the site cleaned up but be able to stabilize and protect the parts that we think we can preserve. and and so I'm concerned about just when

do we reach that point because we go beyond that it continues to deteriorate things change. Uh so be concerned about that. Agreed. So part of this is we would get we'd be uh trying to secure funds to do that next detailed study that says hey if we're going to keep this this is what you need to do. This is what it would cost. Um and we want to be mindful. um we don't just want to well we don't really quite know yet. Let's try to save everything because that's crazy expensive and it might not be a permanent solution. So um well demolition is not cheap. It's far cheaper than you know preserving um so we we just want to go about it and come up with this is what it would take to put it out to bid to actually follow through and you know preserve take those steps either stabilize or preserve or even demolish. zone which opens up the site easier assessment easier cleanup. Um so it's just the first it's the first step. Yeah, um I like the idea I I think I'm in the well all of us are in agreement. I like the keeping the tower obviously um the obviously there's there's substantial parts that do need to come down. I I I can't imagine us rehabbing this whole building. Um, and maybe I'm a little early in this, but I I like the idea of keeping an eye on um housing. And the reason why I say that is because it's very much in a neighborhood, right? Um, there is a neighborhood feel to this area and I'd hate for that to be lost um for I don't know some sort of corporate feel to it. Um, despite that, I do think that there's there's there would be a

cool concept for um having commercial space there, but unique commercial space, right? And I think what has been floated uh throughout this presentation was what a brewery something like that. Um versus traditional office space um I can't imagine that would be highly desirable where this is. It's not very close to the highway or like that. But if it was something that uh a corporate entity that could uh contribute to the uh community and bring um a gathering space, I I think that uh that would be unique and successful. Um and I also love the idea of uniting the trails too, right? I I think that was brought up a few times. Um because it is it's a tough area and it's it's really difficult to walk around. I I feel for the families who were pushing strollers around over there. It's um it's not ideal. Why don't we Why don't we see if there's any questions or comments from the public either online or in the room? Does anybody here have anything they want to provide input to the board? I am Nancy Cook, 25 North Main. The that's our vision of the house windows and it's beautiful. We would love to save as much as possible feasible. We've been doing this I think about 15 years now. Even before the first task force we were Bill Turner had a bunch of us trying to come up with a way to save what we could of the mill and make it work. I love what uh Dave and Eric have put together and given us some we feel like there might actually be some movement. Thank you Jeff Joe. it. Um, we'd love your support to save some, demolish some, and move forward cleaning it up to see what we can sell

it for to get something in there and and not lose the rest of it. Think how many years it's been standing there and it's still standing. It deserves to be saved as much as possible. We'd appreciate your support. Would love a brewery, right? Anybody online? I don't see anyone online. Go ahead. Y please. I'm Nancy Bissell and I live at 11 North Main Street looking down at the mill. So I'm up on the hill and you consider that basically the beginning of the 90s. This is when you talk about tax getting taxes for the town. there really hasn't been taxes for the town there at all because it's been empty and caving in. Uh but but in the meantime, originally when we were asking people in the community what they wanted, they wanted open space basically. That's that's what they had said. But I do like the combination and the mixed use and I definitely the extreme the condos which is the income does not excite me. Thank you. Okay, with that in mind, um my thought was we could go through some of the components and see if we can align on what we want to keep and give that direction to Jeff and the consultants. So, I think we'll start with the building next to the dam, which we have been told we should keep. So, just want to make sure everybody's in alignment on that. Yes. Yes. I think the next most iconic portion of this is the bell tower. Are people aligned with keeping the bell tower? Yes. Yes. Tom, thumbs up on that. So now it gets a little bit more tricky because I think when you look at the schematic of the existing building with the, you know, the red, yellow, green areas, you have

this rectangular section and depending on what use we want to see, maybe that dictates which if not all of that we want to keep. So does anybody have a feeling of that rectangle? Do we keep it all? Do we get rid of all of it? Do we keep the right half? Do we keep the left half? Any thoughts? And I'll give you an example. So, if we could pull out 7A, for example, that was the condo uh on the right half, and I think we could put the bell tower in there, even though it's not shown in this diagram. So, that would be preserving the right half of that rectangle, for example. Um, still trying to pull that up. Why not what they recommended as far as that green area that you recommended? You had a the central mill. That's that's the area that we're talking about. Okay. We're talking about do we keep that entire rectangle that's the center or do we take or we split it in half. So you can see here John, right? So the left part is pretty much we'd only keep the outer portion next to Broadway looks like. But do we keep the entirety of the right half and try to preserve all that or something less than that? And are we getting too detailed or are we be a good starting point? If anything is structural, if we get a structural grant, we have to determine how much of that we can keep. So I I think part of it that might instruct us too is like what's the delta and what this would cost, right? I mean, because we may all be for keeping something depending on what the price tag is. We won't know until we get in there. Yeah. So I I did say there was a lot of chicken and egg situation at that April meeting. So on the one hand, we don't necessarily want detailed structural work to be done or studies to be done on things that are likely to be

torn down because that's not a good use of monies. Um and we could have the very best idea and say you know we really want to keep that very large green rectangle but it may be financially you know prohibitive you know based on on the condition. So um I don't know if we are going too deep. Um no I think this is an important conversation. Yeah. So let me let me rephrase it. So do people like the idea of the central stairway? Because if you do, that will dictate how much of that area that we might keep. Do do people feel strongly about the walkway, central walkway, central courtyard area? I love that idea. And I like the idea of having the parking along um North Main taking down the smoke stack. Yeah, the smoke stack. I think is everybody in agreement with the smoke stack going down? Okay. And that other building in red going down. So, we're we're really focusing on that green rectangle. How much of that do we feel we want to try to retain? All of it. A portion of it. None of it. We start with that and then start with that big the entire thing. Your voting is for all of it. Noel, what do you think? All of it. But really, we have to get in there and see the inside of it where the yellow originally was, where Jeff had the yellow on the inside. Don't we get in there? Because this isn't complicated enough. Uh something else to point out exactly is um if there is to be on-site septic, it likely would have to be in proximity to North Main Street. So, and there are setback requirements from structures to the leeching area. So, there may be um some benefit to perhaps not retaining the entirety of the large rectangle if you need real estate to put a septic.

Just throwing that out there. Hey, Chris. Yes. Go ahead. Tom, so thank thanks for kind of driving us towards some pretty useful narrowing. I think that's that's helpful. I guess to to to Jeff, it feels a little bit to me like uh you've got some narrowing and we want to do some cost estimating to see what's viable, but we're not really going to be in a position tonight to to lean heavily one way or the other because we don't have any sense of what the cost is or what the development appeal is. I guess I'm wondering how we how we bring this to a useful this part of the agenda to a useful end because I think we at this point don't have information to help give significant guidance aside from what what Chris has already summarized for us. Well, I I think we've gotten a lot more good guidance tonight so far. I think it's definitely retain tower and building located near the dam. It sounds like um you're fine with the smoke stack going away. It sounds I thought I heard it is a good thing to open up to create some uh connection to the water down below. So that means some or at least some of the facade or even that front building is on the table for potential demolition for parking. I don't know if septic could go there or not. Um, but it sounds like we've already gotten that you don't want complete continuity from the building by the dam all the way to the bell tower because you want to see something opened up. I think that's a very important consideration. This site is inaccessible and you can't even see it. So, the rationale of opening up at the diagonal at the corner is there's three reasons. One, that's the 1860. That's the oldest portion of the building. two, it's entirely falling down. And three, the

highest visibility to the guard, I'm going to call it the garden along the river where your trail is is most visible there. So the traffic going through North Main or on Broadway will see something interesting down below if there's a aperture, if there's a void that allows you to see the landscape and an access point, a ramp and some stairs. So for a variety of reasons, although we would like to keep as much of the complex as we can, you need a critical mass, there is a lot of rationes for this corner stair uh visibility. I think that's a really good point. Right. If there's not a stairwell stairwell there, people are much less likely to access the water. Yeah. Right. So, so if you, so it seems to me like if you picked option two, which though I think you called out earlier, that kind of incorporates everything that we talked about. It has the bell tower, it has the building next to the dam, it has the stairwell that opens up the waterway, and it still maintains the bulk of that green rectangle. That's right. Yeah, that's not the option. the uh the other option to option. No, it's option two, but the the frontal from the view of the water, I think it was keep going up. It's way up the slide. Probably slide that's seven. So, and I think also for consensus, I think we heard mixed use. Yeah, that one there. Gathering space. Is that um outdoor, indoor, both? Yeah. This one could Jeff that sounds like a really useful uh sets of inputs. Is there any anything else you want to direct us to tonight of being particularly helpful for your next steps? Do you feel like you've got what you need? Do you need further direction or for your half the No, I was going to say Jeff, I don't I don't foresee Dave and I landing on one specific option for this

report. I think that would do it a disservice um because we don't have all the information. So I think at least if we could narrow it and even I was going to say with this one we could go with something that preserves the building if the costs are you know sort of in reasonable to the town or this option would also allow just keeping the front facade and building behind it which could add value from a development perspective. So just right there we could have sort of two different options. Um and there may be others. Again, it doesn't take off the table like maybe it makes sense financially some of that large building if you want something to happen there comes down and you construct something, right? So, we won't know that until we get into the structural which we can't have that info now any so I think we're pretty good for now. We appreciate Okay, great. Well, thank you. Thank you all for the for the really great work. Really interesting stuff and really exciting. Thank you. Thanks for the input. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Chris, for helping out with that. We're going to move to our 810 agenda item, which is old new business. First up is to request to accept the grant from the Executive Office of Energy Environmental Affairs in the amount $50,000 is requested by land use. Uh I guess either Kristen or Jeff, could you just explain what that is and then we can take a vote? Um sure. And we'd like to take one and two um together if we can. Obviously, two separate votes, but um several months ago, the land use department applied for a grant for $50,000 to update our open space and recreation plan. Um we were waiting a long time for that to come through from the state um and subsequently had signed an agreement with NIMCOG to uh do our open space and recreation plan and the town would augment that with funds. So, I'll turn it over to Jeff to explain the turn of events and what we're asking for this evening. So, we applied sometime last year, as Kristen mentioned, for a a

state grant. We we did not hear back until about a month ago. Um, since we had not heard back, we worked with NIMCOG. We applied for we used our plan B approach. We did find a solution and that now after we reached that agreement, uh, we found out that we in fact did receive this grant. So the short version is if you if you support the motion suggested in the packet, we get a greater scope. We still get our open space and recreation plan updated with more information and we don't have to contribute $15,000 of our local money towards it. So we still get it done. We get more done. It lasts longer the plan and we don't have to spend $15,000 of our money. That sounds like a pretty more more for less. Uh, any questions from the board about that? Okay. I will entertain a motion for the first item to accept the grant from the executive office of energy environmental affairs in the amount of $50,000 is requested by the land use management department. Sorry, are you taking you said separate votes? He is taking separate votes. So move. Yeah. Second. Great. All those in favor? Sean I Noel I John Hi. Chris I. And I'm also an I. And I will now uh accept a motion to approve the amended scope of work for Northern Middle Northern Middle Sex Council of Governments to assist with updating the town's open space and recreation plan and authorize the town manager to execute related documents on behalf of the town. So moved. Second. All those in favor Chris I. John I. Noel I. Sean I. And I'm also an I. Uh. Next

item up is select board board and committee appointments and liaison. And uh Mike if you could just share that list. Uh what we're hoping to do tonight is just let people know what all the options are and uh which ones are definitely um were filled by by select board members that have not left this. Um we aren't going to try to fill them all tonight. So what I'd like everyone on the select board to think about between now and the next meeting is um which you feel particularly drawn to. Uh potentially if you've been on one for a while and feel like someone else might be able to add more value. Um that's certainly something we can discuss as well. So uh my hope is that we can sort of u think through those and people can develop a little bit of a feeling of where they're drawn to and have passion where they feel like they've got something to where they feel like and I want to open up the possibility that people are on them and feel like it's a good time to switch who could see if there's someone else that wants to take one of those as well. Um, so this is in your packet and everyone has had a chance I think to to absorb this. Um, any questions from the board? Uh, I got a question. Uh, I think we need to add a couple. Uh, for example, the, uh, Robinson School Building Committee. U, that's going to be a long time committee. That's going to be what could be eight, nine years or is that too long? I mean I would seven years sounds adequate. Yeah. Seven years and then the clean energy committee we have yeah Tom is primary on both of those and I'm the alternate on both of them. We'll add those. That would be great. Yeah. Thanks John. Excellent point. So uh also between now and next meeting if we can make sure we've been uh complete that would be great. Does anyone else off hand spot any that we're missing?

Thanks for that, John. Yeah, you're welcome. Okay, great. So, we will uh we'll put this on the agenda for next time and we'll come back and maybe have a proposed Yep. Sorry to interrupt you, but uh we do have an ask, I think, from the Northern Middle Sex. That's a that's a different agenda item. Well, I mean, we can take it that way. I'm just pointing out before we sh this. So, I'm currently that representative and I I can no longer do that. I do not do a good job representing the town there. I don't have the time to go to that. So, um that's just an area that I think I'm willing to give up uh until I give up some of my other obligations. So, we can take that now or I can take it in two more agenda items. I just want to make sure you're aware of that. Um Christian, is there a need to to renominate for that tonight or can we include that in this broader discussion that we'll have over the next two weeks? Um, NIMCOG is looking for a vote as soon as possible. They do have their annual board meeting coming up, I think May 20th or 21st. So that's next week. Uh, so they have asked to the extent practical if we could have a select board uh, design on board. I don't know if there we want to discuss that now. Well, why don't we close out this um Chris will go to that immediately next, but why don't we close out any other comments or um, leison on responsibilities we may have missed here? Hey, hey, Tom. I I think what might be helpful, at least for Noel and I who were newbies to all of this, um is if someone could let us know what the commitment was, right? What what nights they regularly meet and um how often and also if it's a day meeting, right? So, some of us have obligations during the day that would be prohibitive to um meetings during the workday. So Kristen, is that something that we maybe could add to this table? Add another column that says typical meeting

requirements. Yeah. And we can also have phone conversations if you want to discuss them further as well. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I think there'll be a couple conversations um either with me or with Kristen around these hopefully with the idea of moving to a slate for next time. Um so Okay. So good. Thank you for that. Um uh and I will mention when people are thinking about this there there's different approaches to the liaison role. Uh in some cases um like for Westford cat which I don't think is on here. Um but Westford Cat by statute you're actually a voting member if you're the liazison. In some cases the responsibility can be you don't have necessarily have to attend every meeting. It can be something that you're periodically checking in with and making sure that lines of communication are open. So u when we have those discussions we can try to share with you the kind of range of what engagement might look like. Um okay Mike if you could stop sharing that would be great. So we will come back to the and let's u let's talk about the the nimcog. Um I don't feel like we I mean I would like to accommodate their schedule but if people don't feel like they have enough information to make that commitment tonight uh I don't want to force anyone into that spot. Um, I guess if anyone felt like they understood the requirements well and felt like it was a good match and they wanted to take it on, we could make them. Yep. Chris, I'm happy at your pleasure to, you know, educate folks about the requirements if you like me to. Sure. Okay. So, they usually meet once a month. It's usually a hybrid format. Um, there is a member of our planning board that's supposed to be there. I don't know if Jeff you rec that current representative is. I think recently it may have been Joanie, but the planning board is taking that up at their next meeting next week. So, so you know there is some opportunity to, hey, I'm not going to be able to make it this

month. Can you go? And there's also an alternate that I appoint as well. And you know, sometimes there are items that are on the agenda that are very specific. A lot of times not. So, you know, it's not critical that you go to all of them, I would imagine, but obviously the more you can go the better. Um, you know, it is a good group of people and it is fairly ind interesting because you do learn about the perspectives of what other communities are going through. Case in point was when we were going through the gun bylaw, other communities have been doing that or have wanted to learn from us on our experience with that. So, we're able to share in that in that venue. So, um, yeah, if you have the time, it is it is fairly interesting. And it's generally a Wednesday evening, I believe. Yes, it is. I think it's 7 or 7:30. Nimco is a partner to the town in a bunch of ways. So they've done great work with the economic development committee in the past. So I guess uh what's that? When's their next meeting? Next Wednesday. May 21st. I guess if anyone wanted to attend just that next meeting while we're discussing and investigating that could be an option as well. I think if I was in in one of the new members positions, I'd want to learn a little bit more about it before I made a commitment. So, um I guess uh is is Kristen is there so there's someone potentially from planning board, but they're going to be having the same conversation we're having. Is there any other delegate from the town that typically would be at that? Yes. To maintain some continuity for this meeting? There is. I need I need to appoint them for their next term, but they are interested in participating. Okay. So, we'll have some connection at the next meeting if we postpone. Um, unless someone has a burning desire to

speak up tonight. It's so John is checking his calendar. John, if you want to just pitch it one one night, next Wednesday, if you can make it, that would be great. And we can come back and have discussion next. Okay. Thanks, John. When why when don't we when don't we do that for now? Um and understanding that next Wednesday at 7 o'clock I can get you seven o'clock and it's remote right? Remote or in person in the whatever your choice. Yeah. People do want to reach out to Darren Darren whis from the planning board. He's been on that for a while. So he could share additional info with Darren Wuest from the planning board. He's been on that for a while. So it give you a very accurate. Okay. Uh thank you so much. Thanks John for for uh substituting next time and we'll come back and address that at our next meeting. The uh next item up is to discuss union leaison responsibilities for the IAFF and WPWA. Uh Kristen, I think is that yours? Yes, thank you. So, um, traditionally with the town of Westford, um, the when there are union negotiations, a member of the select board sits on the negotiating team. Um, we did have Andrea Piru on the IAFF, that's our fire union, and, uh, Scott Hazelton on WPWA, that's our public works union. Um, currently we're in negotiations with both groups. I can't speak to where we stand in the status of each of those negotiations. Um but and and the board does not need to decide tonight if they don't want to, but um those are openings. I think Chris is serving on C.WA. John is serving on police and police superiors. Tom is serving on um OPEIU, which is our middle management

union. So those are the current slate. Um if you want to switch it up, there's still time to do that. that we're in the early stages of all union negotiations at this point in time with the exception of fire. And Kristen, just maybe you could sh kind of share what the typical time requirement is for for this. Well, it depends how we're doing, but uh generally there are twohour sessions uh during the day um with the unions uh sporadically. You know, it could be every other week, it could be once a month. uh really depending on the unions. We're setting the timelines at the at the beginning part of the negotiations. So uh right now it's looking like a June meeting and a July meeting for most of the union negotiations at this point in time. But in the past I've heard that some go three sessions, some go 22 sessions. So I can't These are normally during the day too. They are during work hours. Correct. Yeah, that's a good point. So we can have further conversations too offline if people would like. Sean, I know you. Yeah, typically I'm happy to take either of those that Andrea or Scott was previously on. Um whichever one the the board would think I would be best suited for. I'm happy to take fire or public works. I'm happy to take public works. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So fire Sean. Okay, that works. Great. That's a great outcome and thanks for doing that. This is one of those that's typically distributed pretty. Um the uh next one is to review and act uh to set a date for the October 2, 2025 special town meeting. Yes. So um traditionally the town of Westford has your special town meeting and and madam moderator is in the room. Tom, if you can't see her, just would like you to know that she's here. Um so traditionally the town of Westford has their special town meeting in the fall.

generally the third Monday of the month. Uh we uh are aware that there is a religious holiday uh and the schools are actually closed that day and the Monday before that is indigenous people's day. So we are recommending um some alternative dates for the board's consideration. Um the one that likely makes the most sense is uh to keep it on a Monday in October is Monday, October 27th. Uh the other dates that we explored was Tuesday, October 14th and Tuesday, October 21st. Um just looking at your select board meeting calendar, you'd be meeting the 14th and the 28th that month. Um the school is clear all of those dates. Uh the moderator has cleared those dates as well with her schedule. We did look for the first week in October, but the finance team is not comfortable with those dates based upon when we certify free cash and to have that budget information in place. So, um I think Monday, October 27th looks like it would be the most amendable date, but the select board does need to set the date and then we would run the schedule back through the clerk's office with all of the necessary publication dates, planning board, public hearings, notices, and the like. Any objections or concerns with October 27th from the board? Sounds good. I think 27th looks good. Just a question. I don't know if this for the moderator or whatever. Uh if there was a need for us to carry over to another night, does the 27th present any problems? Like I don't see that as an issue with this particular one, but just raising the question. Um we need to we would need to check with the school student. Is a Tuesday available or I don't know if I checked the 28th with them. I can certainly do that tomorrow. That would be my only, you know, reason for picking the 21st is then you have the 27th as a backup. But yeah, the 21st is not doable, right? Isn't that the one

that's a holiday? No, the 20th is the holiday. The 21st is doable. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think we would need to check with the schools to make sure that, but you could. We checked on the Monday, but we did not check on the Tuesday. Right now, the warrant is looking fairly reasonable for one night, but um depends on how many zoning articles Jeff brings to us and how many citizens petitions we might get. Probably we could I mean you could I was just go ahead and Yeah, go ahead. I think we were going to say the same thing. I think you could go ahead and vote on it and and if it turns out that it's and just check tomorrow to make sure there's a a day that's within reasonable proximity to that that's okay with the schools and then we would be comfortable doing it. Right. So we can take a vote subject to uh availability of the subsequent day. And I guess Kristen, do you want to vote tonight? Yes, please. Okay. So, I'll entertain a motion to set the October 2025 special town meeting for October 27th subject to availability of the 28th should a second day be necessary. So, move second. All right. All in favor? Sean I. Noel I. John I. Chris I. And I'm also an I. Thank you. And thank you mid moderator for all you Can I make a request, Tom, before I leave? Sure. Um, I would just request that at this point in time, once we have decided definitively, that the regular letter that you send out goes out to all the um teams and sports organizations and uh town organizations saying this is the day of town meeting. Please don't schedule anything. And because there were so many there was so much concern about that last time, I think I would also

request that it go out again when the scheduling actually takes place, especially the sports scheduling. So Chris, you might be the best person. It would that be like July or September? Which when do they start making those schedules for the Oh, I think July is probably better. Yeah. So, I I would request that it go out now and then again in July just so that the teams and sports organizations particularly know what the date is well in advance and can do what they can to not schedule things that night. It's a great idea. Okay. Thank you and moderator. Thank you. Uh next agenda item is board reports and updates. Are there any board reports or updates tonight? I do have one. And Angela, if you could just stay one minute as well. Uh, and for the for for the purposes of the board, both old and new members, I've made this update in our last meetings, but just to keep everybody on the same page and aware, at the last park and reccomission meeting, uh, we had a discussion about the Nutting Roads Field Project. Our DPW director did present a detailed cost analysis of looking at replacing the fields with natural grass versus turf. We have about 120 people in either physical attendance or hybrid. Uh so it was really well attended. We had a lot of youth there making really great statements and support and asking some tough questions. Uh the commission did vote unanimously to move it forward uh move forward to the capital planning committee a request to uh fund the project and bring it forward to town meeting. So that was just an update for you madam moderator. It does go that far. So you're you don't miss. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Yeah. No, thank you, Chris. Uh, any other board reports or updates tonight? Okay. I don't see any. Uh, Kristen, to you for time management report. Sure. So, just one item. Uh, this is to have the board accept a $1,000 donation to

the animal control department from Donna Hamilton for assisting residents with pet care. And for new board members, we generally see types of donations throughout the year. We the board accepts these donations and then they go in the proper account for the proper purpose. Any questions from the board about this? Any questions? No. Okay. I will uh accept a recommendation uh to accept $1,000 donation to the animal control department from Don Hamilton for assisting resident vetare. So move. Second. All in favor? John. I. Noel. I. Sean I Chris I and I'm an I. Do I have a motion to wave the reading of correspondence? Move. Second. Any discussion or questions about correspondence from the the group before we vote? Okay. Uh we have a motion in a second. Uh all those in favor? Sean I. Noel I. Chris I John Hi and I'm an I and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So just one quick thing. So one of the items on correspondence is Noel's resignation from conservation commission. So we will be advertising for a seat on the conservation commission that is your appointment. So we'll be advertising for a period of 10 days and this will likely come back to you at your second meeting in May uh to fill that position if we get an adequate number of candidates. and Kristen, if they're interested, would they fill out the form on the TAP website? Yes, the volunteer activity form. And Pam McNF is putting out some additional correspondence and press to advertise for that as well as other open positions. Great. Thank you. Will we be following the process that Jeff? Okay. Thank you. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Christian, for that.

Okay. There are any other comments? Uh, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So move. Second. All those in favor? Chris I. John. I. Noel. I. And Sean. I. I'm also an I. Thank you. Westford. Have a great night and uh be safe. Have fun in Korea over here.