Select Board - Regular Meeting

Who?

Roy, how's it going? Good. How's everybody? And you? How are you?

I'm doing fine. I don't know how everyone is, but I'm okay. Hope hope you're good, too. Uh, we'll get going right at 6:30, everybody. We got an action-packed meeting as usual. We're going to try to move through the agenda as quickly as possible. Um, I am going to have to take a few things out of order due to I think there's going to be some robust conversation uh potentially and questions relating to the uh uh school Rodri school building committee update which we we love. We know there's a lot of work been going into that uh project. Um so I just ask everyone to bear with us as we move through the agenda. Um, select manison, how you doing?

I don't know yet. You look good from this perspective. Can you see me? I mean, it's it's slightly dark and you're moving around like you're at a dance club, but other than that, okay, as long as you can see me. Handsome as always. I've got um having a hard time getting a split view on this. Okay. Well, you're Listen, Jim, you're my main tech soant. So, if you're having tech issues, I don't know. The rest of us are in deep trouble. Well, so, so I can either do one or the other. I can I can do Zoom or I can do uh the packet. Okay. So, when I do the packet, can you see me?

Yes. Yeah, I can I can still see you. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. All right. I guess so.

All right. Let's see. If you need us to pause, we can pause. All right. Time's now 6:30 uh and we're going to get going. In accordance with chapter 2, uh of the acts of 2025, the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, 6:30 p.m. public meeting of the RenaM Select Board shall be conducted remotely. The public is invited to join in via Zoom. The dialin and password uh information was on our town's website. Um, as a preliminary matter, this is select board chair Chris Gallow. Uh, please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. We'll start with selectman Jim Anderson. Anderson here.

Bill Harrington. Can um Michelle Rouse present. Roy Lamoth Lamoth here. Wonderful. Uh staff, when I call your name, please respond to the affirmative. Town manager Mike King. Uh assistant town manager Greg Enus. Affirmative. Uh executive assistant Amanda Vazipolo present.

Okay. Mike and Bill, two quick things. I think there's a two second delay when you guys talk. Just keep that in mind. Um and then the other thing is looks like we have a very full uh audience. I'll ask anyone that's not in direct conversation at the time, please remain on mute uh just so that we can minimize uh outward noise or certain background noise. Okay. So, um now that the meeting is called to order, we're going to jump right in. As I said, we have an action-packed agenda. We're going to go to uh tab one, which is our announcements. I'm going to ask our clerk uh Select Bill Harrington to read the announcements.

Yep, Mr. Chair. So, the uh announcements for this evening's meeting. During the winter, town plow trucks occasionally damage mailboxes while clearing the streets of snow and ice. While town crews do their best to avoid hitting mailboxes, sometimes a mailbox can be struck by accident. If a town or town contracted plow truck damages a mailbox through direct contact and evidence shows that the actual plow blade hit the mailbox, reimbursement may be made to the owner of the mailbox. To file a claim, navigate to the RenaM open gov online permitting portal by visiting our website and selecting permitting on the homepage. Candidates Forum moderator Mike Mcnite will be visiting the senior center on Tuesday, February 10th at 1:30 to hear directly from the seniors and gather questions for the town's upcoming candidates on the forum, I'm sorry, candidates forum, which is scheduled for Thursday, March 5th at 7 p.m. at the Fist Library. Questions for the candidates forum may be submitted by February 25th via the town's website or by emailing candidatesforum.gov. gov. Nomination papers for the April 7th, 2026 annual town election may be obtained through February 11th, 2026 with the town clerk's office. The town offers a variety of ways to stay connected and uptodate on happenings and rent them. See the town website for ways to subscribe and receive text messages or email notifications. Uh so, two more announcements. uh calling all strong, brave, and kind people to take the plunge or sponsor one of these courageous plunges. Saturday, March 21st from 9 to 11, Lake Pearl Rentham. The event sponsored by the Rethm, Norfor, and Planeville Lions to benefit I research from Mass Lions Eye Research Foundation. Registration or sponsor at www.norformaskions.org/polarplunge.

And I look forward to seeing all our select board members taking that plunge. Uh including Selectman Anderson. What's the date on that again? The so you can plan a trip away is March 21st. Yeah, I'm away that weekend.

Uh so finally, um the Rentham Lions Club announces its 2026 scholarship applications are now available. The RenaM Lions Club is pleased to announce that it will be offering four scholarships to area graduating seniors, including one scholarship that will also be available for qualified adult residents seeking to continue their education. Applications are available now and will be accepted until March 10th, 2026. Scholarship criteria, applications, and directions for submitt can be found on the Rentham Lions website at www.renthamlions.org. Thank you, Mr. channel.

Excellent job. And uh just a quick comment, selectman, not only are you not away that weekend, the chair would entertain a a not b a non-binding motion to make you the captain and official plunger for the Reanim Select Board. Second.

Okay, we have a And if you're wondering why I'm I'm fooling around, we have a minute before I can start the public hearing. So let's go to let's go to the approval of the minutes really quickly. Uh that's tab two. Uh at the at this time uh chain so in our packets we have the January 2026 open session meeting minutes as well as the January 20th 2026 executive session meeting minutes. So chain a motion to approve the January 20th 2026 open session and executive session meeting minutes. I'll move. Motion made by uh plunger selectman Anderson, second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse, yes. Anderson,

Anderson, yes. Harington, yes. Lamoth, Lamoth, yes.

Gallow, yes. Motion carries 50. Um, now we can go right to the o the the public hearing seeing as though it's 6:35. Uh, we have a public hearing. This is a vote to accept the gift for uh of Red Bird Farm Conservation Land. In our packet, just so the audience knows, in our packets, the select board has our our paperwork, certificate of vote, public hearing notice, letter from conservation commission regarding the donation uh evaluation of Redbird Farm, uh donation of 70 acres of open space from Daryl Loose, map of proposed donation area. Um so at this time ch entertain a motion to open the public hearing for the gift acceptance of redbird farm conservation land.

Motion made by selectwoman rose second by selectman Anderson. Any further discussion being none we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington say that. Yeah. You got to unmute. Can you get it? Yes. Okay. Um Lamoth Lamoth yes Gallo. Yes. Motion carries 50. Now the chair to obtain a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. So moved. Second. Second. Motion made by selectman Anderson. Second by select woman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none. We'll do a roll call vote. Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Harrington.

Harrington. Yes. Thank you. Uh Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Yellow. Yes. Motion carries. 50. Uh Mike, who do we have with us going to just give us a quick summary of that? Are you going to take the lead with that, Mike? We have us with us this morning. Um Attorney Meltzer and Jerry Laruso um who are the developers who are proposing to donate this to the town. I'll so I'll ask attorney Meltzer and or Jerry Laruso just give the board and the uh town's people viewing just a quick summary of what we're trying to accomplish here this evening and why would a developer ever want to give the town 70 acres? I think people, you know, just curious if they're not familiar with the situation. Attorney Meltzer,

good evening. Stephen Meltzer. Um so yes, out of the goodness of our hearts to answer that question. So, so as part of uh process of obtaining uh approvals for development of the adjacent land um and in the course of of doing our due diligence, there was a discovery of the marbled salamander habitat uh and then a subsequent mapping of the area as a priority habitat for the marbled salamander by the uh natural heritage division of mass wildlife. As a result of that, um we had to obtain a conservation management permit. And as a result of the discussion and negotiations so that we could move forward with our development um out of about 111 acres total uh we have um divided off 72.911 acres uh which would become part of a uh permanently conserved land. we had the opportunity to then figure out who would uh who would own that land or get a conservation restriction. Um and the choices basically were the state uh a third-party nonprofit or um the town through its conservation commission. Our preference always was um keeping it local and working with the conservation commission we have on this project and on many others had a great relationship with them um and um think that local control is is probably the best bet uh for many reasons some I I won't go into um and as a result uh we have uh divided off this land and wish to donate it to be permanently preserved. erved and under the

stewardship of the conservation commission u to the town of Rentham. Um this went before the conservation commission. They approved of it I believe um uh without um any reservations and Daryl can speak to that. Uh we've gone through the process of drafting deeds and going through review with town council and I think town council is here tonight in case there's questions with respect to that. Uh and and they'll make sure that whatever we transfer uh will uh provide good title to the town. And with that I I I don't want to belabor the point. Um, but if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to answer them or Jerry can.

Yeah, I I have a just a couple points of clarification. Um, do you mind just explaining to the uh residents um what kind of development you're you're uh you guys are doing here? Sure. How many units is there? Uh so I think there's some over 55. There's an over 55 component if I'm not mistaken as well.

Yep. So on the south side, so there's basically three distinct parcels. uh as in in my interpretation, south of uh Beach Street and west of um Totten Street will be uh a an over 55 development of 66 uh detached units. um each of them around 2,000 square ft. On the north side of Beach Street, also the west side of Taton Street is a a subdivision road which will contain 11 new or newly constructed houses, single family houses. And then on the east side of Taton Street, there's a 28 almost 29 acre parcel that has a house on it at 521 Taton Street. that entire parcel will be uh will be conservation land. Um the north portion um where the subdivision is about 7 and 12 acres is cut off to become conservation land and on the south side where the over 55 is there's about there's 36.677 acres that's um part of this conservation land.

Great. Thank you for that summary. Uh Mr. King, town manager king. I know in our packets we have a letter from uh conservation chair uh Mr. Iman as well as uh uh uh you know uh multi-page letter from uh Daryl Loose conservation agent. Um to what detail do we need to go into on those? Do you know does someone want to give a quick summary or do we just want to note that they're in the packet and the board has had an opportunity to review? Uh so you have the opportunity to to ask uh I see Daryl's on the call and I believe the conservation commission chair as well um if they want to provide any input at this time but there'll also be an opportunity during public comment. So

yeah why don't we just do that then we can provide all we can ask them to provide uh any input they'd like to give us highle input at public comment. I definitely want to hear from Daryl and I'd love to hear from Mr. Iman as well if he wants to share if he's on the call. So, um, that's fantastic. Uh, I'm going to before we get into the public comment portion of this, I I will go to my board and see if any of the board members um have any questions uh for attorney Meltzer uh and or Jerry Laruso um the developer. Um and then we'll open it up to uh public comment. So, um we'll start with selectoman Rouse.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. between this this information and prior uh presentations regarding the subject. I have no further questions. Great. We have and just so that people watching know we have uh you know pretty extensively gone over this topic. We've received input from our town council obviously our conservation chair uh and our uh agent as well. So this is um this is not the first time we're looking at this material but I want to give everyone an opportunity. Uh select man. Yeah. No further questions Mr. Chairman. Okay. Mh. Selectman Harrington.

Yeah. I'd just like to uh thank Mr. Lur Russo for his generous donation. I'm sure that finding that salamander was not really in his plans for the development. I appreciate our attorneys going through it and the u conservation commission accepting this gift gracefully from Mr. Luso. Great. Very well said. Uh selectman Lamoth. No further questions. Thank you. Okay, great. Mr. Laruso, do you want to address the group at all before I open it up for public comment? Jerry, you're on mute.

Jimmy, can you help him? I would, but I'm having my own problem tonight. I don't know if it's an iPad, Jerry. If it's an iPad, at the bottom left, there'll be an audio button. Okay, here we are. Okay,

you know, in Renthon, we are lucky. We have a lot of um conservation land, open space. Um hopefully all you guys have used it. I mean, I certainly have. Um, and this property is adjacent to both uh I think state and uh local conservation and open space. So, it just uh I think it's a it's it's a great benefit. Um I guess the only suggestion would be as you're walking along um watch out for the salamanders.

Yeah, I think that's a great suggestion. Uh thanks Mr. Laruso. I I will ask um Daryl Loose. Daryl, do you want to address uh the the the the board and the and the town's people before I open it up to the rest of the uh public comment?

Sure. Yes. Um the um donation will also provide easy access to the state forest uh from both the existing residents and future residents of the uh subdivision. Um not only to the state forest, but also even into Trout Pond a little bit. It'll take some finagling, but they should get there. Um, also too, the both of the conservation parcels at the 70 acres will um help preserve a lot of the drinking water quality in that basin that basically goes over to Lake Pearl. So, it's a win on both counts.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Loose. Uh, Mr. Eminan from the Conservation Commission, do you want to address the board or the uh town's people? Okay. Um, oh, there he is. No, I I think it's a great opportunity for the town to go ahead and preserve conservation land, and I gave all my reasons in the letter. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Um, okay. At this time, let's open it up to public comment. Uh, if we have any residents that would like to give a public comment, we ask that you raise your hand. We'll call on you one at a time. and I believe a a clock counter will will pop up um and it will notify you when when your time's up. So, would anyone like to give public comment? I'll give a few seconds here just in case anyone's trying to figure out that mute button. Okay. Uh seeing as though there's no public comment, um shain a motion to close the public hearing for the gift acceptance of Redburn Farm Conservation Land. Move.

Second. Second. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson's a yes. Harington. Harington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Yellow. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Um, okay. So, my motion is Mike, where is the actual motion? It's the certificate of vote on the next page of your packet. Do I have to read all that? Either you or the clerk,

Bill. Uh, Mr. Clerk, you're earning your money tonight. Can I'll ask the I'll ask Selectman Harrington, our clerk, to read the motion into the record. Yes, Mr. Chair. So, a motion. Uh, I move to approve the donation of property to the town of Retham Conservation Commission from Hawthorne Brook LLC in Salvatore Circle LLC containing 72.911 acres shown as open space parcel 1, open space parcel 2, and open space parcels 3A, 3B, and 3 C as shown on those plans of land entitled approval. Approval not required. Plan of land 584 Tauntton Street. Rent the mass dated October 2nd, 2025. Approval not required, plan of land 516 Taton Street. Rent the mass dated October 2nd, 2025. And approval not required, plan of land 521 Taton Street, rent the mass dated October 2nd, 2025. prepared by Fedman Feldman Geo Factual. which land shall be dedicated to public for the sole purpose of conservation of natural resources and passive recreation pursuant to chapter 184 of the general laws of the Commonwealth, including the purpose of but not limited to the conservation of species listed pursuant to general law chapter 131A at sequence which shall be considered the most important conservation purpose for which the land is to be protected. in perpetuity held under the care and custody of the Rentham Conservation Commission pursuant to chapter general law chapter 408 40 section 8C and under article 97 of the amendments to the

constitution of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Any proposed use, including but not limited to the passive recreational development, trails, vegetation, or soil alteration must be approved by the Mass Division of Fisheries and Wildlife pursuant to their authorities under general law chapter 131A at seek. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I couldn't really hear you. Can you read that again? I'm sorry, I'm kidding. I'll second the motion. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sleman Rose. Yes. Anderson. Anderson G. Yes. Harington. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you, Attorney Meltzer. Thank you, Mr. Laruso. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you very much. Have a great night, everybody. Good luck with the project. Thanks.

Okay. As I said before, we're going to take things a little bit out of order uh due to some uh I think there's going to be a lot of conservation. Uh a lot of conservation. We have a lot of conservation. a lot of concert uh conversation. So, let's go to tab number uh five if that's okay. Uh so, a tab number five is a vote to we're going to do some appointments and some resignations at this time. So, tab number five is a vote to accept the resignation with regrets of Shawn Go from the uh zoning board of appeals. In our packet, we have a letter of resignation from Shawn Go of the ZBA. Uh selectman uh selectman Harrington, that's on page 35 of the packet. Do you mind just reading that into the record?

Yes, legit. Uh, Darian, I'm writing to let you know that I'm resigning effective immediately from the RenaM zoning board. I've been fortunate to have served on the board for nearly 20 years. It has been rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated people who share a common interest in preserving the character of our town of Rent. I truly appreciate the opportunity to have been part of this work and have served the community. If you have any questions to be sure, contact me. And please pass along my thanks to the other board members and town staff. Best regards, Sean Go and his phone number. Okay. So, I'd like to thank Mr. Go for his service to the town. Um, and at this time, chair would entertain a motion to accept with regrets the resignation of Shawn Go from the zoning board of appeals.

We'll move. Second. Motion made by select, second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select Rouse with regrets. Yes. Anderson with regrets. Yes. Harington regrets. Yes. Uh Lamoth with regrets. Yes.

Gallow with regret. Regrets. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Okay. Um now we're going to go to tab six where we have an appointment of James Lawrence from associate to full member to the zoning board of appeals. Um documentation in the packet we have Mr. Lawrence's application, I believe, as well as a recommendation letter. Um, and this appointment will fill the vacancy of Bill Burns. Um, and we'll assume assume will will assume the remainder of his term. Um, and in the in the um Mike, do do you want us to read this letter into the the record as well?

So, it it is not necessary for the recommendation letters to be read. You can note them. It's just the res. It's just resignation letters that are required to be read at the meeting. Okay. So, we'll note the the letter um of support in the packet. Um and at this time, you know, just so the board knows, I think everyone knows Mr. Lawrence, former member of the planning board, uh longtime Rethm resident. Um I will give an the opportunity to select board uh members to ask any questions, comments.

Sir, do you mind muting? Mana, can you mute that? Thank you. Uh I'll open it up to the board members to uh ask any questions or make any comments uh to Mr. Lawrence and we'll start with Select Rose. I have no questions after reviewing you know Jim's application and knowing him from his experience on planning board and um appreciating Bill's recommendation as the chair of the board. So no further questions. Great. Slackman Anderson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm very confident that Jim will do a fine job. So, uh, no further questions. Excellent. Selectman Harrington. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, welcome back to the board, Jim. Uh, look forward to h working with you again. Appreciate all you do. Thank you.

Great. Select them off. Jim, you're getting off easy. Uh, no questions and welcome back. Thank you. Jim, like we said, appreciate the service. Great to see you back in a serving role in the community. Thank you for all many years on the planning board. Uh, and it's great to have you back again. So at this time, chair would entertain a motion to appoint James Lawrence as full member of the zoning board of appeals for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 30th, 2028. So move. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rose. Yes. Um Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Selectman Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Congratulations. And with all the appointments, don't forget to see our town clerk, um, Ian Fisk, so you can get sworn in before your next meeting. All right. Okay. Thank you, Select Port.

Thank you, Mr. Lawrence. With that being said, let's now go to uh uh tab seven. Okay. So, tab seven is an interview and appointment of Rachel Hill to the zoning board of appeals. In our documentation, we have the ZBA volunteer application. We have a letter of recommendation for from the chairman, Bill Burns. Um, and this will this appointment will fill the vacancy of Jim Lawrence, and we'll assume the remainder of his term. Um, so we have, uh, as I said, the application in our packet. We have the recommendation letter. Um, I'm I I'm going to open it up to the the board members to see if there's any questions or comments that need to be asked or answered. Starting with Selectwoman Rouse.

No further questions. Great. Selectman Anderson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, no further questions. Okay, great. Thank you. Selectman Harrington. Uh, no, M. No questions, Mr. Chair. Uh, Selectman Lam, no questions. Thank you, Rachel. We just want to say uh thank you for your uh willingness uh to help out. Really appreciate that. And um at this time ch entertain a motion to appoint Rachel Hill to the zoning board of appeals as an associate member for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 3rd 30th sorry 2028. So moved. Second.

Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harington. Harington. Yes. Select Moth. Moth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Congratulations, Rachel. Please go see town clerk uh Ann Fisk and get sworn in before the next meeting. And thank you so much again for volunteering. We appreciate it. Thank you. Have a wonderful evening. You too. Okay. Next up on the agenda, we're going at a great clip here. We have um another Hold on. We have another interview and appointment. Oh, this person's a real problem. Yeah.

Uh interview and appointment of John Mallister uh to the zoning board of appeals. Some of you might recognize Mr. Mallister if you've ever been driving around town um and seen him in his usually very, you know, hancy, spiffy looking uniform that he usually wears. Uh with us we have John Mallister. And listen, board, feel free to beat this guy up a little bit. Um, and we have his his his application. We have a letter of recommendation from Chairman Bill Burns. Uh, and we're going to open it up for questions or comments uh from the board members. Starting with Selectwoman Ross. No questions at this time. And then just John, thank you for your service on the police force.

Uh, thank you, Selewoman Ross. Selectman Anderson. Yeah, I know. I think John will do a great job. um you know local guy so um I'm good. Excellent. Selectman Harrington. Uh I agree with Selectman Anderson. I think he'll do fine job. I look forward to working with him. Excellent. Thank you. Selectman Lamoth. John I was in a meeting not necessarily a meeting just a little circle of people that where you were talking about getting involved and I'm glad you have decided to do that. I look forward to your tenure here in in this new position. Good luck.

Uh, as for Chris Gallow, I'm too nervous that he's going to give me a speeding ticket to say anything bad about him. So, I'm going to No, I'm just kidding. I know I know John pretty well. He's a great guy, great member of the community, um, a solid professional and everything he does. Uh, lucky to have him on the police force and lucky to have him in this role as well. So, John, thank you for your service and thank you for this. So, at this time, uh, chair would enter detain a motion to appoint John Mallister to the zoning board of appeals as an associate member for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 30th, 2027. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rose.

Rose, yes. Anderson, Anderson, G. Yes. Harington. Harington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. John, congratulations. Please go see our town clerk and get sworn in before your meeting. Have a great night. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

Okay. Next is tab number nine. Um, and we have interview and appointment of Shawn Barry to the zoning board of appeals. In our documentation, we have uh Shawn's ZBA volunteer application and as well as a letter of recommendation from Chairman Bill Burns. Um, I know that the the board's had uh enough time to uh go through uh the application and see the letter of recommendation, but I want to afford the uh the the privilege for all of us to ask any questions or comments um of Mr. Barry, starting with sele after reviewing the application and again the recommendation. No further questions at this time. Great. Uh selectman Anderson.

I concur, Mr. Chairman. Excellent. Selectman Harrington. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. chair. Yeah, I'm reading through his uh background. I think he'll do a wonderful job. Look forward to it. Excellent. Select them off. Jonah, I noticed that you said you're not stranger to to the town process. I was just wondering if you had any uh changes that you would want to influence just walking into this role.

Um that's a good question. And I I think uh I think maybe having the engineering background, maybe doing my best to um I guess teach others and be collaborative with others who don't come from that background, but may have more experience than me in in other realms. So I think maybe try and help teach people like a an engineering point of view. Um I could only hope to do that. So, well, it's great great to see a young face in the picture here. So, that this is good. Another generation involved. Thank you. Yeah. No, thank you. Appreciate it.

Excellent. And not that selectman was indicating that the the other people were old. He just was notifying myself that

just trying to PR protect you, Selectman Lamoth. Uh yeah, Sean, for myself, it's great to have you on. your resume is impressive. Um, yeah, I think you're going to be an asset. Uh, and again, we love when anyone volunteers in the community. Uh, so welcome aboard. We appreciate you putting yourself out there. Uh, and we wish you nothing but success. Let us know how the board can help you. Uh, and at this time, Chetain a motion u to appoint Shawn Barry to the zoning board of appeals as an associate member for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 30th, 2026. So moved. Motion second.

Is there okay? Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson G. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Yes. Selectman Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Hey, Mike King. Just something that just occurred to me. Are those dates right? June 30th, 2026. Yeah. Uh, all all three of the associate memberships need to be staggered. So, you have a 28, 27, and 26. Okay, so they are correct. Yes.

Awesome. I I'm sure they were, but I just want to make sure for the record. All right, so the motion stands as voted on. Congratulations, Sean. Please see Ann Fisk and get sworn in before your next meeting. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you. Okay, let's keep it moving. Let's go to tab number 10. Um we have a a wonderful resident friend of the select board here into for an interview and appointment of Barbara Gilmeister to the commission on disability. Um we have Barbara's in our packet we had uh Barbara's uh volunteer application as well as a letter of recommendation from chair Mary Doic. Um Barbara's application is right there. It speaks for itself. Uh seems very very um you know very specialized in this field. a lot of irrelevant experience. Um, so as as with everyone else, let's open it up to the board members for any quick comments or uh questions for Mrs. Gilmeister. Starting with Selectoman Rose,

just to echo your sentiments, wonderful experience and Mary's recommendation. No further questions at this time. Excellent. Selectman Anderson. I concur, Mr. Chair. Selectman Harrington. Absolutely. I concur. Great. Selectman Lamoth. Bobber, we appreciate everything you do and what I learned from that application about your teaching with the blind just blew me away. So, no questions.

Agreed. Very well. Good sentiments. Uh being a a fellow Lion as well as Selectman uh Harrington um plays an extra special role part in our hearts for the you know the the just the relationship to the blind. So, uh Barbara, we appreciate you. you do a lot of great work at Gilly's House. Um, and clearly you do a lot of great work in your nine-to-five job and now clearly you're going to do even more great work with this as well. So, appreciate having you in the community. At this time, Chiota a motion to appoint Barbara Gilmeister to the Commission on Disability for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 30th, 2027. So, move

motion made by Select Manis, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson G. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Selectman. The moth. The moth. Yes. Chris Gallo. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Barbara. Same goes for you. Please go see Ann Fisk and get sworn in before the next meeting. Have a wonderful evening. Okay. At this time, we're going to go to tab 11. I believe this is our last appointment of the evening. So great job everybody. Interview and appointment of Joseph Abley. I think I said that right and if I didn't you did. Thank you.

Thank you sir. Uh Mr. Abley to the commission on disability. Uh in our packet we have volunteer application for Mr. Abley. Letter of recommendation from the chair Marie Dobuk. Um, and as we have done with everyone else, we're going to give the board an opportunity to um, yeah, you're and this resume as well is very impressive. There's a lot of very relevant experience here. So, we're very lucky to have this many people uh, with this kind of experience for these positions. So, thank you so much uh, for putting yourselves out there. But at this time, I'm going to open it up to the rest of the board, starting with Selectwoman Rouse.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess you know at the I think this is our last appointment and just say how blessed we are to have all these individuals to come forth with such great experience. Um no further questions at this time. Amen to that. Uh selectman Anderson. Yeah very impressive uh application. So um no further questions. Great selectman Harrington. Yeah I you know mimic the uh previous two select board members. Excellent resume. Look forward to having you on the board. Excellent. Selectman Lamoth Joe the credentials are superior. Uh no questions.

Excellent. Um and I agree. So at this time chair would make a motion to enter uh sorry about that. Ch would entertain a motion to appoint Joseph Abley to the commission on disability for a term effective immediately and expiring on June 30th, 2027. Second. Motion made by selectman. Second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectwoman Rouse, yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson, yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Selectman. Lamoth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Have a wonderful evening.

You too. Thanks.

Okay, Mike. Um, real quick, I know we're moving out of order here. the the you know, if we if we take a quick peek at tab number 12, the strategic plan, this is another uh this is another piece of information that this board has really looked at at this point uh exhaustively. Is that a word? If it isn't, I just made it up. Uh but we've looked at this pretty carefully, spent a ton of time on this. Uh at the last meeting it was pres just so the people know we're not rushing through this because when you see strategic plan for the town of Rentham you think that's very important and it is uh but at the last meeting we summarized all the working group sessions that the select board has had to get to the point that we were we had um um what was the gentleman's name Mike?

Bill Keegan. Yeah Bill Keegan come on present to us uh did a fantastic job. We then had a another opportunity to take our questions and comments and send them back to myself and Mike King. Um, and we took those comments, reworked them as needed to come up with this final plan that we have tonight in front of us for adoption. Mike, do you have anything to add before I ask for a vote? And do you have any issues with me asking for a motion to adopt at this point?

I do not, Mr. Chair. Um, and I'll I'll just reiterate that the the select board does have before it this evening a strategic plan with goals and priorities to guide the town for the next several years. Um, it is the culmination of several months long strategic planning process which was facilitated by Bill Keegan of Capital Strategic Solutions which included meetings with department heads and multiple select board workshops.

Yes, very well said. Great summary. Um, and I want to thank Bill and his his team. Thank all the uh I want to thank Mike King for all the hard work that he did with this, all the department heads, uh the staff members and my fellow select board members. Um you know, we you know, we we went uh you know, I I just really I don't want to tout us and pat us on the back and say that, you know, we spent a lot of time on this, but we did you did a great job and I think uh the town's in a better position because of it. So, at this time, the chair would entertain a motion to adopt the strategic plan for the town of Retham as presented. Second. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select Rouse, yes. Anderson,

Anderson G, yes. Selectman Harrington, yes. Selectman Lamoth, yes.

Chris Gallow, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Great job, everybody. Okay, let's go back up to tab four. This is the the the um this is the uh agenda item that I thought might uh take a little bit more time and uh you know uh potentially some robust dialogue. Um so now we're going to talk about the Rodri School Committee uh building committee update with us. We have Phil Jordan. Um we also have um he's the Ro he's the school committee chair as well as the Rodri School building committee chair. We have Dr. Alan Cameron who's the superintendent of Rent the Public Schools. Uh from Vertex. Uh we have Jeff Demo or Damo. I'm sorry if I screwed that up. Emily Sarasin and Eric Rubin. And then we have TKSP. I don't know what that is, but you can tell me. Uh and we have Jess Sailor, I believe. So, welcome Jesse. Is it Jesse? Yes. Sorry about that, Jesse.

No problem. Apologize. No problem. Um, so I'd like to welcome uh first of all, Mr. Jordan, it's always good to see you. Our good friend Dr. Cameron, it's always good to see you, sir. Um, Phil, you wanted to come on this evening and give the board an update on uh the building committee project for the school. Uh, I'm going to turn it over to you and your team uh for a highlevel update and then we can um open it up for some conversation with the board members. Terrific. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me? Okay, we can hear you well. Thanks for being here to see you.

Thank you for having us. Um so we're going to uh give a a brief overview today and answer some questions because we're going to be back here in two weeks with um an update on the board's actions uh with a request for um an endorsement from you. So we want to make sure that we get your feedback now on some key questions. Um I'm gonna just give about a two-minute overview. I'm gonna ask Dr. Cameron to do a couple of minutes as well on uh some of the the needs as he sees them and then um our our designers and project managers will walk through a brief presentation and then we'll have some time for questions. Um so I really just wanted to cover two uh two aspects today um around sort of why we're here. Um the first is that there are several decisions that we'll have to make in terms of what gets included or does not get included in the project that the team will be walking through. Um, some of these are fairly easy for the committee to address. For example, we can save a couple hundred,000 by shrinking a wall by a foot or having some screening somewhere. We understand uh we understand the assignment there. Um, there are other things that are a bit more complicated. As you know, through through time we've come to talk to you about the athletic fields and other challenges that we're trying to navigate. Um, and we do have one particular topic that we'll be discussing in more detail, which is the potential to add a traffic signal um to South Street and um uh and Randall Road. And we want to really talk talk to you about the the priorities of the town about including or not including that in the project. Um, but I did want to give just a a brief overview about how we make our uh our decisions as a committee so that we're ensuring that we have sort of full transparency and that this board is comfortable with how we are um handling our business and and coming to our decisions. Um so whenever we are

presented with a um a question about something that that costs money um that we have to decide upon the first question that we ask is whether the spending is in fact required. Right? So, is there something that the state requires either through the school building authority or through the education department or local building codes, right? Are our hands tied on this or or you know, is this something that we actually have some discretion over? Um, assuming that the answer is that we have discretion over it that we then ask two questions. We ask how are other communities like ours handling these types of things and why? What are their justifications? Who's done it? Who hasn't? what has been the repercussion of either doing the thing or not doing the thing. Um and then finally we have the question that we ask ourselves which is whether that cost is justified. So generally speaking if it's something that adds to the durability will reduce future maintenance costs will last longer um increase our reimbursements um or provide some necessary service that we have to provide. we've generally sort of worked through those to come with those, you know, where we've where we prioritize those types of things that provide a solid return on investment. Um, if it's something that's sort of purely aesthetic in nature or a luxury item, we fairly quickly dispatch those. Um, so we have um already identified, I think it's fair to say, more than $10 million in cost reductions um without imperily without materially impacting the durability um of our building or the utility of the building. Um, and we're focused really on driving up the reimbursement rates from the state uh for both MSBA and the energy rebates. Um, and we're going to go through all these numbers, but um, we're already at a number now where we are, I think about 10% below the average cost per square foot of similar school buildings that are going up in the area currently. So, we've got a lot of information on this,

but we've been very intentional about being um stewards of the potential, you know, potential taxpayer dollars for the ask and being very, very careful about how we're going through our process to make sure that we're optimizing the value of anything that costs money. So, um with that, I will turn it over to um Dr. Cameron um for for a brief overview and then we'll turn it over to uh to Jesse at TSKP.

Thank you. Uh thank you, Phil. Thank you uh Mr. Chair for allowing us the opportunity to be here today. Um first of all I should tell you that I uh at the start of the meeting I signed on for the polar plunge. So I will be there. Uh let's hope for a uh not too cold a day. Um so this project really addresses the infrastructure needs we have with two buildings. Uh the Vogle school built in 1935 and Rodick School built in 1968 and then added on in 1988. Um really starting around 2015 16 we started to realize we needed a plan for how to address uh both of these buildings. They're old. They have systems that are uh near the end of their life. They've been great buildings uh for the town for a long time. Uh but we needed to find some kind of a way to address some major issues with them. Uh broadly speaking, they can be separated into three categories. issues related to education uh operations and security. Uh educationally there are many problems. The classrooms are too small. Um we don't have extended learning spaces. We are utilizing non-educational spaces for some uh roles like small group meeting rooms or offices. Uh so we have lots of we can't use the caf the gym because it's also the cafeteria. Lots of issues related to uh education. Operationally, lots of the systems have problems. HVAC, electrical, fire suppression. They have no loading dock at the buildings, no storage for uh custodial supplies. And then security. Uh at Rodri in particular, we've got many direct access doors, wooden doors that are in the classrooms that lead directly outside and single pane glass windows. The town has been very generous and cooperative with us in in improving the

buildings, but we knew that this was going to be a significant cost. So, in 2022, we applied to the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and we were accepted into their program to collaborate with them on a long-term solution. Since then, we've been working with Vert.Ex, the project manager, and TKSP, the architect, to take a look at the existing conditions and develop a plan for how to make a generational change in rent them. And we've done a lot of work and it's exciting. And I will pass on the torch to them to give you some of those details.

Great. Thank you, Superintendent um Cameron. Jump right in here. Bear with me as I pull up the slide. Okay, hopefully you're all able to see the site plan. Um, the new Roderric building is located to the south of the existing building, which you can see in red dashed lines uh in the site plan. It's located on the current playground and uh the Gilpatrick ball field. This plan is a significant improvement in site safety. Uh the building acts as a buffer between the vehicular areas and the play areas further to the south. The playscapes are now protected from vehicular traffic and remain visible uh to the ball fields so parents can keep an eye on siblings who are on the playfields uh on the playground while they're watching a ball game. Also, this plan creates a safe pedestrian area between the Delaney and Roderric schools uh by limiting traffic in that space to just school buses and service vehicles and taking out uh the un unmanaged cars. Uh you see the building footprint is compact which is also costefficient. Uh it's only 18% larger than the existing footprint. Uh despite providing nearly twice the usable area and that's because it's it's got a second story. Uh you also see that there's 80 parking spaces provided to the north of the school uh which represents a net increase of 40 spaces in this area which makes sense because we're moving the third grade from the Delaney school to the Roderick school as part of this project. So, we need to have some more parking in this area. Uh, lastly, you see to the south of the building uh is a geothermal field, and that's because the building is served by all electric mechanical systems, which utilize ground source heat pumps fed from the the heat of the earth uh to lower the energy uh usage for the building. Looking at the first floor, you can see that the first floor is organized around

a central daylight uh commons or corridor which runs uh from the building entrance on the north side um to arrive at the south side at the playground space uh which we really like that it emphasizes the importance of active play in the program of an elementary school. The commons is a corridor that encourages social interaction between students, family, and faculty. We envision it as a forum for the Rentham community to see what is going on in the school through a combination of the display of student work through digital signage through glimpses into some of the more public programs such as the gym and cafeteria. Um the Roderric also has a vibrant instrumental music program which you see in the upper left of the floor plan with an 80 member band. So, the music rooms are located near the entrance plaza where the community may appreciate outdoor performances and view rehearsals. Uh, it's also smart to locate these spaces near the performance platform uh which you see just off the gym uh which which is large enough to to fit the 80 member band uh and can support a seating capacity of 595 which are all the students in the school for an assembly. Um, I'll also mention that we have been working with uh Rentham's first responders uh fire chief Marino and police chief McGrath have have been helping us in this project um ensuring that we have the ability to secure off academic areas after hours uh when the gym and cafeteria may be used by the rent community. Um, also looking at um, upgrading the um, generator and and the glazing so that the gym and cafeteria and common space may be used as a shelter space for the community in the event of a hurricane or power loss. And so that's all baked into this project at this point. Uh, moving up to the second floor, we have two more

learning communities. You saw two on the first floor, which I didn't mention. Um so that brings us to a total of four or one per grade where grades three through six here. Classrooms are organized in pairs uh to support a co-eing model with a shared small groupoup instruction room in between them. These small groupoup instruction rooms serve many purposes uh from quick teacher u student check-ins to providing specialist support but still in the classroom environment not having to pull students out for for support which is really important. Um the uh the similarity of the four learning communities offers flexibility of where the grades are located. In the event of a bubble year when you have an unusually large number of students in one grade which happens sometimes the health room can be used as a general classroom and the health program can be located in another learning community where space is available. The center of each learning community is an extended learning area which the superintendent referred to something that you don't have right now. Uh you see it's this wider corridor that's designed for a variety of uses including small group work enrichment and targeted support aligned to classroom instruction. Extended learning space enables flexible student groupings and resource sharing that is not possible in a single general classroom. Learning collaborative collaboratively reinforces personal responsibility and helps students develop discipline. Taking ownership of one's learning builds a sense of belonging. And you can see this rendering in the upper left is what something of what that corridor space could look like. Still a little preliminary, but gives you a sense. Um, this preliminary rendering uh is intended to show the a building character that incorporates traditional elements from Rentham's rural vernacular, such as the gable roof, and composes them with modern elements such as glazing where transparency is needed

to create a welcoming, familiar, and attractive experience for Rentham. Um we were we really impressed by the recent increase in adolescent rates of depression. Uh and so it's important in our mind that we encourage Roderric students to make time to play and put down their cell phones or tablets. Uh this this is part of the interior design with having extended learning. Uh when it comes to the layout of the playground spaces, we've we've placed them prominently in the building um right on access with the main corridor. Um as you can see here, the play offers opportunities for students to take on physical challenges or simply hang out or enjoy enjoy a shady space under a tree. So let's talk a little bit about cost. We're going to build up the cost for you starting with construction cost which you see here. Then we'll talk about the total project cost which comes a little later and then we'll talk about the actual cost to the town of Rentham. So let's start with the construction cost. Um this is a a recent update is in the SD column on this slide. And so that's where we are now. The PSR column is what we presented to you last time. I think it was back in maybe July, something like that. It was back in the summer. Um, and you can see as as the other presenters have mentioned, uh, we've come down about 10% 11% on total construction cost. Um, and so there's three components of line item four, total construction cost. There's your uh, proposed square footage, which we're going to look at, the uh, cost of the building itself, and then the cost of the site and the uh, demolition and uh, abatement of the Roderric and Vogal wings. So, we're going to dive into all three of those just very quickly. Um, first in terms of building area, um, we

we made an effort working with the district to reduce the building area uh, from where we were at the PSR phase and and we were successful. The building area came down 1,000 square feet, which is about 1%. Uh, and it doesn't sound like that much. Uh, we had actually reduced it further. Um, but we received a response from the MSBA uh about classroom square footage uh that initially pushed us up 2,400 square feet. Uh, and so we managed to reduce that out. Most of the reductions, frankly, came from corridor space. Uh, we did work with the district to look at streamlining the program. Uh, and that also happened. Uh, but we we didn't reduce any program as part of this effort. Uh and you also see that the toilets uh yielded a little bit of reduction. Um this slide gets into how the building cost came down and it was pretty much a 10% reduction across all the scope items in the building. Uh you see we had identified six of the most significant reduction items and then we we tallied up the balance of the building work as 4 million. Um, for example, in exterior walls, uh, we went with a masonry facade, uh, which is a good, durable facade that's going to last you a long time. Uh, but it's just it was less expensive than the placeholder materials that we had at the PSR phase. Uh, and and we think it's a a good decision. And that was kind of the general theme for this is that we were looking to make smart decisions. Uh choose materials that were um uh trusted and that uh have good longevity and low maintenance uh that would be appropriate for your school uh but would also save money. Uh so that that's generally what caused these cost reductions in this category. I will also say that u I think the

estimators were looking at the market a little bit more closely as we move to an SD level of documentation. They have a lot more information to pull from. We now have all the partitions laid out whereas before it was more of a sketch they were coming from. And so the combination of of a favorable market and the additional information uh also helped us in in dialing in this number to what it really needs to be. um site scope uh if you notice on the first slide really didn't come down that much. Uh and we could look at this and say well why didn't it come down that much everything else was coming down and in fact if you take these top five items out of the site work uh it would have come down the balance was 1.4 million would have come down about that 10% that we saw everywhere else. So what are these top five items? Why didn't it come down? The biggest one is item number five. It's the signal at South Randall. And this goes into that decision as to whether this project should include uh the signal at South and Randall. Um obviously this project does increase the traffic on that intersection a little bit by moving the third grade from Delaney uh which is currently accessed from Taton um to Roderric which will be accessed through Randall Road and we'll run through that intersection but it's an intersection that we know is already got a pretty significant uh delay to it. Uh and it's it serves a number of different town functions as well as a shopping center. Uh and so it just may make sense, but um that's something that we're interested in getting feedback from you. That's a million dollars in this category. Um the other items are smaller. Uh we we took a a harder look at what was required for temporary parking, temporary playgrounds. Uh we had a grading plan. We could we could understand the earthwork. Um, some of these costs are are just necessary and as part of developing a project, we can

we can continue to um work on the temporary conditions and see if we can save some of that money back as we move forward into the project. Um, Jeff, were you going to jump in here?

Got a couple of quick slides at the end. So, this is a table off the MSBA's website. It tracks all school projects throughout the state since uh 2009 forward. Uh you see the trend data, you know, the median line there in orange is kind of where the data has been in terms of the bid results. Um most recently we've seen that as high as $1,000 a square foot, which is, you know, an astronomical number to a lot of people. At the time of the PSR when we last met in front of this group, we were at $930 a square foot in terms of a placeholder. As Jesse has alluded to, uh we've come down over 10%. We're now at $8.40. Uh the roadway makes up about $10 or $11 of that square foot as well. So, you know, the building itself is even lower. Uh, and so we're trending below the majority of the market right now. Uh, and so that's a good place to be overall. Next slide.

So, what does this mean to the town and and what are the dollars? So, Jesse's walked you through the reductions in the building, which is the, you know, over 1,000 square ft. Um, we've knocked down the site and changes there. Ultimately, the hard cost of the building, which is the construction dollars, has come down about 11 uh $10,100, $100,000. And then on top of that, we have total soft costs. And so that's come down 13.3 million since we last had the project in front of you back in July of this past year. The MSBA's reimbursement uh has gone up significantly. A couple of uh great things happened there in order to make that happen. First and foremost, with all the reductions that the committee has done to date, that pushes the pro cost of the project down. And essentially, the town pays everything over the caps. So, for all the dollars you've rung out, that's all money that goes directly back to the town and not money you need to borrow, not a loss in reimbursement from the MSBA. The other critical thing that happened is in August of last year, the MSBA voted to increase their reimbursement rate, which is great news that u this is one of the very first projects that can take advantage of that. it was only projects that submitted from January on. So, we're going to be one of the first projects into the gate with the new metrics um which adds a couple of more percent back to the town uh and improves that overall. Right now, we're trending uh between 38 to 41% uh in terms of reimbursement from the state, which is essentially leaving the town share at 64 to 67 million. That's a conservative number. Right now, until we submit the final totality to the MSBA, we have to assume they may deem certain areas of the building ineligible. That includes special education spaces, some general ed classroom spaces based on the comments that they gave us back at the last submission. I believe those spaces will be eligible, especially the special education spaces, which makes up a large percentage of that, which would mean that the reimbursement from the state will go up a couple million dollars. But until we have that feedback back from

the state, I need to show you a kind of conservative range because we can't control what the final number is that the town decides, nor the final number at the MSBA decides. So we're in that kind of range of 38 to 41. It could go as high as 42.4 ultimately depending on what happens with the roadway and some of the other elements there. the overall project cost. The important two asterisks to note is that town contribution does not take into account um the reimbursement from the mass save program. So Massachusetts through the utility companies has a robust program where they pay you for an all-electric building and with geothermal and that is approaching $925,000 that's going to be brought back to the project as a rebate once you open the building. In addition to that, the federal inflation reduction act program exists. Uh under the previous administration, uh that was for solar and geothermal. The current federal administration updated it in fe in March of this past year and they removed the solar, but the geothermal stayed. So, as of today, those rebates still exist and the project could potentially get another $4 million back from federal grants through that IRA rebate uh once the project is open as well. So that's significant because there's an additional $5 million in addition to the MSBA's contribution that would bring back the total act that would bring down the total tax impact to residents in the town of Rentham.

Lastly, I'll just hit schedule and we'll open up for questions. Um schedule overall we're headed towards a submission with this final project dollars in this month. That'll go in front of the MSBA's board in April. They will tell you the final amount that they will reimburse. That'll come back in front of the the voters in the town of Rentham for both a ballot and a town meeting in the month of June. From there, we'll then uh with an appropriate approval, we'll get the design up and running. It'll take us about 13 months with permitting and design and break ground in fall of 27 with about a 2-year construction duration opening the building in the fall of 2029 and then demoing the existing Roderric and wrapping up the site work by the end of the calendar year of 2029. So, I know that's a lot of information. Happy to do a deeper dive. I'll turn it back to the chair uh to manage the questions.

Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, if I could just add one last thing, which is that the committee did decide um to um go with a design bid uh build uh um approach as opposed to construction manager risk. Um the reason that we did that is for new construction. It is a better and more competitive pricing. The numbers that um go in front of you are also quite conservative in terms of where those bids will come out. Um and so the cons the consulting team is not able to tell us that it is going to be less than what the estimators are coming in at but recent experience suggests that we are in a very competitive bid market and that the bids are coming in significantly below these numbers. So and most of those savings would acrue back to the town. So, I think what you're seeing in terms of these numbers today are what we can, you know, what we can reasonably put in front of you. There's additional areas that we are looking at for trimming still over the next two weeks. Um, and um, as Jeff mentioned, we are hopeful that the reimbursement rates will go up. We have not included in these costs to the town the rebates uh for energy. Nor have we included some potential and potentially quite significant savings during the bid process if the market continues to be as favorable as it has been over the last few months.

Yeah, excellent point. Thanks for bringing that up, Phil. I really appreciate that. Yeah, the the to the tune of millions of dollars. So recent bids is is this fall and this summer were you know tens of millions of dollars on similar size projects in the neighboring towns and so there's a lot of ability for that to come down but you can't control the market you know tariffs are up and down and so the numbers that are be brought to town meeting will be a not to exceed budget and so you have to build in contingencies we have contingencies within the number for change orders for unforeseen conditions and things like that and that's another conversation we're having with the building committee about what is the right amount of conting contingency uh to bring safely to the project.

Okay. Um can you sh can can you stop sharing your screen too so we can see everybody? Thank you. Um so I think we should do is um Mr. Chair uh Mr. Jordan, is it is it my understanding that obviously you wanted to give us an update on the project as you very well you and your team very eloquently did and then you're looking for some feedback I guess from us just based on this presentation. Um you're looking for feedback if I'm not mistaken both on kind of the design, the budget as well as this conversation about Randall Road. Mhm.

Uh is that a fair assessment of what the goals are for this evening? Yes. So, in terms of specific feedback on the Rand Road signal, I think that's a pretty important one to understand how important of a of a thing this is for the town to make sure we are clear as a committee on what we should be doing going forward. And then any reactions or concerns or anything that you want to raise so that we have a few weeks before we make our vote and come back to you.

All right. I think we should maybe take them as two separate topics. Uh if that's okay with the board. Um just cuz there's a lot there. Um and if you want to start with the uh Randall Road conversation, you know, we could definitely start with some feedback. I can ask the board members their opinion. Um so it's a little difficult for me, right? uh about this topic because I really didn't before this afternoon or this evening I wasn't really expecting um you to be asking us about the rand road piece and to be quite honest with you I personally don't feel like I'm educated enough on all the factors that you know kind of got you to this point um you know like I know there's and and when I get to my feedback about the actual building um cost you know uh finishes is, you know, all that stuff. Um, I'm hearing kind of mixed results, uh, from the from the the resident taxpayers that I talked to. Um, you know, some people are saying, "Looks great. Um, our kids, you know, need this. Our teachers need this. Uh, and then other people are saying, you know, this thing looks like it belongs in Welssley or Newton, and it's like nothing like we've ever built. Doesn't look like any of our other buildings that we have here in Runham." So similarly the roads, this is the first time I'm really being asked to opine about the roads. Here's what I can tell you, right? My suggestion would be and again open to to the board. I'm only one vote here and only one opinion, but I need you guys as a school committee to make a compelling argument why we need to look at this Randall Road situation. Because you know, I could tell you some of the feedback I heard was Randall Road's already a mess. People are already used to Taton Street the way it flows. Adding more volume on Randall Road, whether we put a light there or not, unless we get into widening the

streets over there, which is a a much larger project with, I'm sure, a much bigger cost, they don't know. You know, some people have said, you know, I don't know how much it's actually going to help out. So, my advice to you, like when I'm I don't know if you know this, but I'm on the uh DPW building committee. I'm sure you well, you know, may be aware of that. And, you know, we we faced a lot of similar situations that we had to as a committee come together, make some tough decisions on, and then bring our recommendations to the town's people and say, "Here's why we think we're doing this. Here's why we need you to support this." For me personally, I would like to see you guys take a little bit more of that approach with the Randall Road uh question because I just feel like me giving you my opinion off the cusp right now, I don't think I'm doing you or the taxpayers any justice without seeing like I haven't seen any traffic data. I haven't seen any, you know, uh uh I haven't been involved in the planning process. I haven't been involved in the building placement process. I haven't been involved in the process where the school committee, you know, uh, decided to move a grade from one building to the next, right? So, there's a lot of stuff that happened to get us to this point that I wasn't involved in and no one on this board was. So, for me, I think it would be very helpful and I want to I want to give you my input. I just don't want to speak like an a, you know, uneducated person, Mr. Chair, if that makes sense.

It does. Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. That's my initial feedback. I'm gonna open it up to the board members, but go ahead and respond if you want to respond to my initial feedback.

Yeah, I I actually um well, I was going to actually ask Mike King to talk about sort of some of the town priorities and um this was sort of raised as an issue because it is something that we knew we could include in the project. um but has been identified I think for more than 20 years as something that was needed in at this intersection according to prior traffic studies done by the town. Um so we would be actually making it slightly worse. Um, but this this is really something the reason why we're talking with the this board about this is that this is something that we feel as though we could do more cost competitively now as part of this project and include it as part of this project, but only if this is a priority for the town. because for the two times a day that we need it for the school that's probably I mean it will make the situation worse and people will probably complain but it's this is this is an issue that was sort of brought to us separately. So I don't know Mike if if you want to sort of jump in on that or Mr. Chair if you if you would rather um have the rest of your committee weigh in first. No, I I could we could definitely have Mike King jump in on but before he does, Mike King, I would ask you in the realm of this project, if this project wasn't happening right now, would this be a priority for the town's people? Because it's my understanding that um you know, obviously there's going to be an additional cost here, right? That's going to loop in to this project cost that the voters are going to have to uh approve. And we're not proposing doing this as a separate project. We're proposing doing this as part of the school building project. So, Mike, I have no issue if you want to uh comment before I open it up to the rest of the board members on kind of like where this project falls and if we would even be talking about this if we weren't talking about building a new school.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, to your point, I I don't believe we would be talking about this outside of this conversation. you know, this came up due to the the proposed building, the impacts it will have on a situation that has been identified as a problem since the 2000s. Um, back in uh 2008, the Northfor County uh engineer identified that that intersection in particular warranted a traffic signal. Uh, you know, in terms of cost, um, you can see that's a million dollars. It's it's not specifically on our on our capital plan um just due to the the size of the investment that would take um to move that project along. U you know, we've we've had conversations in the past with the state um just hasn't been able to get it to be prioritized. Um although we continue to to look towards grants to possibly help bridge that gap u and even if you know funding was to be secured for this as part of the project because it can be bundled um for this Roger school building project. So if town meeting votes for the project and the traffic light is part of that project it will be it will be a singular vote. U the town would continue to pursue grants um to help help offset that. Um, you know, we did look at traffic studies. Uh, you know, that that intersection in particular was graded an F. Um, so, you know, was it identified as being a concern? Um, and department heads have, you know, reviewed it in Opine that um, you know, if if there was a willingness in terms of financial funding um, that they would like to see it addressed, particularly around public safety, our DPW and town plan.

Okay. Thank you for that. We'll move along to the other board members. Uh, and we'll we're going to go backwards this time. Select them off. And again, just to just to, you know, reiterate, we're talking about the Randall Road parking uh, sorry, street light first. We'll go through the board and then we'll get back into the conversation about uh, you know, everyone's feelings about the cost, the design, and the look of the uh, the building. So, go ahead, SL. Sorry. Yeah, I was just looking at the traffic pattern where you know people will drive down that road and drop kids off. I I was just wondering if there was some way because I was in Delaney again today. I hate the way they go in and out of Delaney. Is there some way you could loop down on the other side of Delaney and get back out onto Taton and that just a cheap road as opposed to the lights on South Street? has anybody ever

that alternative wouldn't wouldn't not net a less expensive solution in my opinion because you'd be crossing wetlands, you'd have bridges and you'd have lot line issues at the other end of Delaney. You know, you're really pinched at that end of the building. Yeah, you are. So, I I fully believe that would be a more expensive option,

but it would relieve all the traffic on South Street. It would be an alternative method that would allow, you know, the cars to siphon off. You know, you could exit the cars back out the existing driveway as it exists today by Vogle, you know, without going around the other end. So, you know, there is a connection to Ton. Right now, we're proposing the buses use that ex that exit. You can merge the parent traffic back up with that. Good practice design for schools is to separate the parent pickup and drop off because you can't pass buses. Uh parents can't pass buses when the buses are loading, right? So you had that that staging issue. So we tend to separate the buses from the parents.

Yeah, that's why I was just trying to be creative, you know. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Uh you are you all set at this time? Select them in the moth. I I am. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate the thoughts. You know, no, again, this is a working brainstorming session. No bad ideas. Uh so don't be afraid to give your opinion. Select Manison. Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, so I might be able to, you know, give a little bit of context to this. I mean, I've been in town a long time and um I got to tell you, like we're in the road, there are times where it's just a disaster. Um I mean, you know, when there have been times I've been in traffic trying to get out probably for 12, 15, 20 minutes. Um so I do think something needs to be done with with Rental Road. Um, back when when they built the public safety building, I know at the time they were trying to get a light at Randall Road and for whatever reason, uh, the state do um would not approve it. So my question is, is anybody even approach the state on this?

Good question. Select Manison. Does someone from TS KP or Vertex want to take that?

I'd be happy to start. Maybe you want to finish Jeff if you feel the need. Um, we have not approached the state, but we have worked with our traffic consultant. Uh, and our understanding of what happened previously. Um, and you can correct me if I if I have an incorrect understanding of the ha of the h of the history. Uh, was that the town was looking for DOT to uh participate in the funding through a grant. Um, and while that um is a um a a possible option here, um we we don't think that this intersection meets the required warrant for that particular DOT grant. Uh and so we've not recommended that that that be considered um this time around. Uh and that's why the cost of the construction is is falling on the town as part of this project. Um, so I um I think we feel pretty confident that the DOT would support the signal uh if it was a project that was funded by the town for the town uh and would would work with us on permitting the signal.

Okay, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. If I can maybe just ask Jesse another question. So, so Jesse, did you have any idea at all um if the town was going to absorb this into uh the building cost? Is this something we could do just with the approval from Mass DOT or do we still have to wait for Mass DOT to do the engineering sign off on it? Um and the only reason I ask is that you know all my experience working with Mass DOT they they do not move quickly. They don't. No. Yeah. And I'm I'm just curious whether or not the the their timeline would fit with your timeline, right, as far as getting the the building up.

Well, you're you're right on on it. Um in the case that we do the design and we fund the signal, uh the time frame is better than if it was a mass DOT funded signal. Um, so those kind of the two scenarios I was describing before and we're looking at the one where we're doing the design and the construction and they're just permitting still. We're looking at a two-year period to get that permit. Um, but we do think that fits within the timeline of this project because we have um oh, it's three years and from now until um I believe that's correct. Three or more uh until we're actually opening the school. So we we do have the time there. Yeah.

Yeah. So, we can we can break the roadway project out as a separate bid package. You know, naturally, there's road contractors and there's building contractors. So, we would recommend that most likely either way. And so, we would bid the project, the building project first and then as the permitting follows its own path with mass DOT once those permits are secured, then bid that as a separate project and manage the construction of them in parallel so that they would both open at the same time. Okay. So, so, so if we if we wrap it into the the school costs, is that reimburseable through the state?

The state would not reimburse it. What they've said so far is that they won't object to it. You know, they were there they they object to things that are bundling, but this actually serves the need of the school. It's the driveway that's dedicated to the school. So, from all intents and purposes, we understand they will allow it as an allowable cost, but not a reimbursement cost. Okay. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. No, no more questions, Mr. Chair.

Good, good questions. And I have a followup just to jump on to Select Manison's question. has anyone also uh you know either through the state or through just us um investigated you know I was told and I forget who told me this that in order to really fix that intersection putting a light there isn't you know it probably would help but the real way to fix that intersection would be to make like turn lanes on each side and then you're you're potentially talking into taking land you know there's mobile there's Another gray house right there. There's two houses across the street. Has anyone looked into, you know, if just a light is enough or if you're going to do this project is the correct way to do this project to, you know, get the land and then do turning lanes as well.

I'd like to start or you can Jeff if you want to.

So, we've looked at two schemes uh chair Mr. Chair. So, one scheme has a left turn in, you know, heading southbound on 1A. Uh, because there's no opposite street on Randall, so you don't need two sets of turning lanes. So, one of the schemes, which is the one that's priced, has the left turn uh lane in. We've presented that to the town. Uh, department heads, they've been comments in favor of both options, right? So, we haven't come to a conclusion about what is the preferred option, but right now, we've carried the more expensive of the two, which is to have a left turn lane. Uh right now we believe that there's enough room within the right ofway uh to make that pocket lane for a left turn, but we still need to do survey out there if the project was to move forward as a sub project. Okay. So you actually have captured that potential cost into your

the left turn lane. Right now we're not widening. There's not a turn lane in Randall Road. That would have been a benefit, but we're not we don't believe there's enough capacity to have uh right of way on Randall Road to have a left turn right turn exiting Randall Road. But right now there's a left turn entering Randall Road from 1A. And has there been any studies done to to determine if that would be warranted? Like for example, I see what you're saying. You could turn into the you can you have you're budgeting for a left turn lane into Randall Road. But if I'm on Randall Road going towards South Street downtown or towards West Retham, there's no two lanes exiting Randall Road.

Okay. And the And I don't mind who answers this. has anyone, you know, does does what does a traffic study show? Would that be warranted or is it not needed?

That's I guess that's where I get to jump in. Yeah. So, um we we will be studying that intersection further as part of our scope of this project. Uh at this point, we we see the need uh we see the delay at the intersection. Uh but we do not we haven't uh surveyed the intersection to understand whether there's space in Renle Road for that turn lane. If there was, it would it would be logical to us that that would be a great benefit and maybe that's where the cost of this turn lane work actually goes. Uh but we've carried some cost for an additional turn lane in our estimate at this point. Uh and then as the study develops, we'll understand how to best use that money to improve the intersection. If that makes sense. It does. Thank you. Go ahead. Sorry. I

I think it's important to note also um that uh we have not paid for a traffic study to be done there fully because we have not gotten that far yet. So the first sort of order of operations is to figure out do we want to try to solve this problem as part of this project? Do we or is this going to be a separate kind of thing we think about later or not at all? And if it is something we want to try to solve for this project, we can carry we can carry costs in our in our proposed budget that we are not obligated to spend.

Right? So so this is about the amount of the ask it not the amount of the actual expenditure. So that's you know we would certainly do that that study if if we decided to move forward with with the sol. Gotcha. Okay. Uh thank you for that selectman Harrington.

Yeah. So, so you really don't even know what the true impact of having that extra grade brought into the new school is going to affect on traffic. Uh, for example, like I don't know any of you have ever been to a baseball game down at the end of Randall Road and then have two games get out at the same time. You can't get out of Randall Road. You can't. Uh so that with that that being said, how many parents are going to be dropping kids off? Going through that loop and trying to get out. I mean, even right now the old the on Taton Street is a nightmare in the morning trying to make a left up Taton Street to get back to the center of town and you're you're going to be moving only one grade. So now you you're going to have two major roads that are going to be nightmares

that pick up and drop off a school. I mean first person personally, Phil, I think you better come up with a better solution uh for traffic management than spending a million dollars on a red light that's going to screw up the center of town royally. Don't forget now you're going to be talking about doing an additional uh development down behind South Street in the back and adding in I mean the traffic management program needs to be looked at thoroughly rather than just putting up a red light and saying this is going to relate alleviate the problems. I mean, to me, it's you're you're adding a nightmare to the center of town without any really thought asking for a million dollars to put a red light up. That's just my opinion.

Can you um can you help me? So in the is the concern that having the light there is going to cause traffic delays on South Street making the problem worse or that because I can answer the first part about the traffic flow. So um there will be an impact and Jesse can talk more about sort of some of the estimates around the impact. Um it is fairly it is I I don't want to say minimal. I minimal is a judgment term but and we have some more precise numbers on it but um while it's true that we're moving you know the grade level over um families that have uh students in both buildings drop off both students at Delaney. So generally speaking a lot of our pickup and drop off occurs more than 50% of that drop pickup and drop off occurs at the Delaney school. Um so there will be some additional um pickup and drop off and the your point about the ball fields is is exactly sort of where where we are in this question which is that the traffic studies that have been done previously suggested that that area needed a signal. And so the idea here was if this traffic pattern is an issue already, we're making it a little bit worse probably at those two times a day. But the it's still going to be a nightmare getting out for two ball games getting out at the same time. And there still were traffic studies done 15 to 20 years ago that showed that a signal was required. Um I I can't tell you that I know why that was, you know, that I understand the engineering of why a traffic signal was was deemed to be required. Um we certainly don't want to make the situation worse. I don't think that moving the third grade over is going to is going to make it substantially worse. I mean, it will certainly those two times a day there will be more cars. Um those are cars that would be at Taton now. So hopefully we'll be alleviating some of that

traffic mess um at Taton where there is um I think a much bigger problem actually than having gone to both.

Um but um again Jesse do you have any hard data on the traffic? So we we do have traffic studies looking at the existing condition and the delay at the South Randall intersection as one departs from the Roderick School and turns onto South Street. Uh which as we mentioned that's an F condition already. Uh F is the lowest possible grade. So it remains an F in the um proposed condition. But we can measure the delay that's experienced in the afternoon uh at the school departure time at like 3:00. Um so before your current delay in our uh simulation is 223 seconds at the intersection as you're departing from the Roderick School and trying to turn on Randall Road onto South Street. uh and that increases to 358 seconds um with the addition of the the third grade and the uh proposed school population. It's also worth noting that um the existing school population and the sort of design enrollment for the school are um are different. So, it's it's more than just the third grade that's increasing rhetoric because the the new rhetoric is designed for a larger population than the existing uh school happens to have added um right now. Uh but that's where we're saying it's a minimal change because it's a letter grade F in either condition and the delay is increasing from 223 to 358 seconds.

Yeah. Okay. Um, sounds to me like we need a lot of traffic study.

Yeah, that's I I uh I completely understand your concern, Selectman Harrington. Um, and I don't disagree with you. Again, I don't think this is an easy conversation that we can give you our feedback and and support on one quick I mean, I'm going to let the board, you know, obviously chime in. I'm I'm one member, but for me it's it's difficult. There's and I Phil, I'm sure you've been at both, but I don't know. I'm not going to argue with you. I have a hard time believing that Taton Street is worse than Randall Road. uh from a current traffic perspective as I've been at both. You have the library, the ball fields, you have dance, you have the you have the the the the whole King Phillip Plaza there uh where people are, you know, and not to mention, has anyone talked to public safety about the concern that people are going to use the public safety access road uh as a cutthrough behind town hall and try to go out that way? um if we dump this, you know, if we if we add to the level of existing traffic there already. Now, I know it's illegal and you're not supposed to do that, but um you know, it I I wonder if if there's a concern that that could affect our emergency response guys if you know, me and all my soccer dads are parked along that road uh with our kids there. Just again, maybe a stupid question, but one that should be asked, you know. No, I I think I think so. We have engaged with public safety quite extensively on the on the topic and um we've gotten their feedback. They didn't raise that specific question, but we can certainly raise it with them. I think you raised an important point though, Chris, and why this is hard and why we feel as though this is while while we understand that we will ultimately make the decision on including it to bring to you for an endorsement in two weeks. um why we're having this discussion now is the dance, the ball fields, the library, none of those things are under my purview or the purview of my committee. And the whole

reason we're having this conversation is that at pickup and drop off, Taton is is a nightmare. Roderick's not that bad. It's it's not great, but it's not that bad. I mean, Jesse gives it an F, but I don't know what you give Taton Street. All those other things that Randall Road is being used for, the plaza, the post office, the ball fields, the library has created a situation that we we can decide this is a good way for us to move forward on or we can like this is not a huge priority of the building committee. That's my understanding, right? like we are trying to make sure that if this is something that the town wants to try to solve a problem and would like to be able to include this in the project since we are impacting that roadway and we can get it approved as part of this project that if we want to solve problems for the dance studio and the ball fields and um everyone else as well then this could be a good time to do it because we're going to have construction trucks and ash asphalt. We have a funding mechanism. We have all kinds of ways of doing it and we can explore all of it and we could get to the end of a traffic study and say, you know what, we don't want to do it. It doesn't make sense. We shouldn't spend the money. But the impact of moving the third grade and a slightly larger school is quite minimal in terms of that intersection's overall problem. So, we're not like coming to you hoping that you're going to, you know, either get us off the hook on a decision or like tell us yes, we we really want you to do something or no, we really don't want you to do something. We're just trying to figure out like is this something that is of the a priority for the town where we should carry some funding in here, do some additional traffic studies and see if we want to try to solve this as part of this or do we want to say, you know what, the real problems that exist here are from non-school uses and so we shouldn't include it in this project at all. And and we know that you don't have a direct answer on that. We're not asking you to give us one today either. We're just this is exactly what we were hoping for.

are getting good feedback and good questions from everybody and wondering if you know we can lop this off and it makes my job a lot easier to sell it to the town. I think they're going to be people are going to be screaming at us in three years when the school opens and they're backed up in traffic. But, you know, that's and then you could and then you could say it's select gallow's fault. No, no, no. I would never do that to you, Mr. Chairman. I would never do that to you.

I'm I'm joking with you. I'm joking with you. So, Phil, like like you said, difficult conversation. However, right, we face many difficult conversations, right? We have many infrastructure issues in the town. We have a pavement production plan that we're like $10 million behind on and we have minimal chapter 9090 funding uh that's given to us each year in order to do that. So, I think Mike, what Mike King said earlier in the meeting still resonates very loudly with me. Although this is an issue and no one's debating that fact, if you weren't coming to us talking about a school, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So, just that's my position as of right now. Uh, and I I do want to ask one of your fellow uh building committee members and my vice chair, Select Monrose, her opinion on this matter as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so I guess this would be Phil for you, Phil or Allan. the current officer that you have managing uh departures on Taton Street. Is that going to continue with the new school? And is that something that you would think of at the end of Randall Road?

Uh sure. I'm happy. Is that okay if I answer this, Phil? Yeah. So, um yeah. Uh so, we have SRO Todd Schwabby who uh is does an outstanding outstanding job uh for us. He manages uh traffic at uh Taton um outside of um the annex and Delaney entrance because that's where the traffic is really problematic. Um he was actually instrumental in recommending the reverse design of the parking lot because of the traffic back up uh into the the town uh center at arrival dismissal. Um, and what Phil was saying before is accurate that right now the bulk of our students who uh leave are picked up at at Delaney. So, he's stationed there for that. Randle is a much quicker uh rather much quicker pickup because there's fewer students there right now. If we move third grade over, um, we anticipate even if there's no regardless of the traffic light, we we we think that it will be a net benefit to the town for traffic flow because it'll be more evenly distributed. We won't have everybody at Delaney. Um, you know, the majority of children who are picked up are in the younger grades, K12. Uh, fewer students are picked up when they get into the upper grades. So, we already have fewer students at Rodick being picked up. Moving third grade over, we're hoping will reduce some of the flow uh at Delaney and allow um a more even distribution um and a quicker traffic dispersal. We're not adding any cars to downtown, so we don't anticipate there being any kind of additional traffic flow out uh in the town center. However, every I mean, every school where they have every school's got traffic backups at arrival and dismissal. Um, so that's going we're going to continue

to have that, but what we're hoping through this is that we'll be able to um make it safer uh and more efficient just by distributing the students differently. Uh to get to your question about officer Schwabby, he'll still be there. Um and I imagine we will deploy him wherever the need is the most significant. Um, and we're anticipating that based on what we our current beliefs are, we think we'll he'll continue to be at Delaney and Rodic will still be able to manage on their own. But if that's not the case, then we'll redeploy him to Rodri.

Here's my uh I have a couple follow-up questions. So, are Rodick students going to be able to walk over to Delaney and get picked up with their younger siblings and depart that way, or do they have to each get picked up at their own school?

That's a great question. Um, and that gets to that's really an unknown at this point. We're hoping that they'll be able to well I guess if they've got younger siblings will probably continue to maintain those students coming over to to Delaney and being picked up together. Um, it depends on how the flow works. It it might be advantageous to have them at Rodri and leave there. We we don't know. We'll have to wait and see how it how it happens with the single students who are pickups in third grade and moving them to Roderick to kind of see how things go. I anticipate we'll continue our current practice if the new building happens. We'll continue our current practice and then adjust based on what we see

here. Here's my concern or I guess my struggle with this. If I'm sitting at that light, I'm going to want and I've paid for this, right? that's been added into this because obviously it's our responsibility certainly on the building committee and also as a select board member for you know taxpayers dollars. I want that light to be efficient. I don't want a light there that's not that's going to keep things status quo but we just have a light to say that we have a light. Secondly, I'm also thinking about the recreck fields. They're going to be asking for additional funds, too. And, you know, residents are going to see the the school money if if we're going to probably put this in. I'm going to say in the next two weeks, let's sharpen our pencils even more. Um, and get rid of some other soap fluff that could be at the school that that could absorb this if we're going to put in an efficient light. It's kind of just my thoughts on this. Um, so that's it for me, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I think I think those are very fair comments and that might be a good segue if the board's open to it as well as uh this the building committee chair and and and your team. Uh should we move to just some general feedback on the design and cost and whatnot? Um and I'll I'll take the I have no issue starting off and then open it up to the board. So, you know, this is a topic that I've been hearing a lot of feedback from uh from a lot of constituents. Um, I have some constituents that are in full support of the project. They think it looks incredible. The kids deserve it. The teachers deserve it. The town deserves it. And it's going to, you know, uh, be an incredible opportunity for our our kids. But then, conversely, I have other people that share very different concerns. Um, as I've mentioned before, you know, I had at least a couple of people say to me, "This doesn't look like a school. It looks like a hotel. This looks like it belongs in some museum." uh you know in Welssley or Newton uh it doesn't fit with the the the you know the other buildings that we have nor the other projects that we have

um and some of the people were kind of questioning needs versus wants right so I understand that learning's changing uh needs change um you know there's an increase in special ed um I get all that but I also get that enrollment's down I don't care what anyone says I get the reports myself Uh, I see class sizes going down. I see student enrollment of public schools going down. And this isn't me. This is what I'm hearing from other constituents in the community. But I can tell you that I I do see similar reports of um maybe not in rent them, but other communities, class sizes and student enrollment going down. There's uh, you know, a lot more people homeschooling their kids, going to private schools. You know, Christian-based learning centers are popping up all over the state. Um, so people are concerned that, you know, they look at this building, they see terraces and shared space for every class, they see high-end finishes, you know, um, they're concerned that this is like a a trophy and not a functional school. Um, meaning, you know, as as down and dirty as as as we can get it, right? So, and there's needs versus wants. There's a balance of we got to give these kids an awesome education. We got to give the staff a great place to work, but we also have to watch the taxpayers budget as well, right? Because there's a lot of other needs in town. I just told you we're $10 million behind in our pavement production plan. Um there's infrastructure needs that are needed, wells, you know, ball fields now that are being displaced because of this project that is not covered uh in these funds. Um so I just challenge the the and I mean this as a healthy challenge. I challenge the amazing job that you guys have already done in your committee. I challenge you to make sure that you can look the 11,000 voters in

the eye when you bring this to town commit town meeting and tell them that you've looked at every single square foot of this building and there's no thrills. You know, this is what we need versus what we want. And that's the feedback that I've been getting from my constituents. And I'll kind of leave it there and let the other board members chime in to what they've been hearing. But I do want to say, I know this team's been busting their butts. We've been busting our butt on the DPW building committee. I know this isn't easy. Um, and I think you're doing a great job. Um, but we faced all the same questions, too, before we got our project approved. And we had a lot I mean, listen, you know, we we we had to say no a lot to Brian and his DPW staff, and sometimes it was contentious. Um, but we got them a building that's going to be functional and I want to get you guys a building that is going to work for you and the teachers and the staff. So, I'm sorry for the long-winded response. I'll open it up backwards again. Starting with selectman.

Uh, I I have no questions. I've seen this a couple times now. I'm in favor of it. I think these guys have done some yman's work and um to your point I if they can stand in front of our constituents and uh appease them that they've done that good work and this is what we need uh I'm sure Dr. Cameron will be able to do that. No pressure. Uh thank you selectman Lamoff. Uh Selectman Harrington.

Yeah. Thank you Mr. Ch. So yeah I mean I agree with a lot of what you said with regards to the building. Um cuz you know there's obviously a need for it. I just don't know if like you said it's the actual building for our community. It looks like there's a lot of frill. It looks like that to me there's a lot of wasted space, open space uh up to the wide open ceilings. Uh I'm not a big fan of a flat roof being in New England. We're facing problems now with the King Phillip Regional High School with their flat roof that's failing after uh you know 23 or 24 years and now they're talking how many millions of dollars to replace it. So, you know, I I I I'm not, you know, I know they've done a lot of great work to it, but I'm not sure the design really is u with a flat roof and the lot of the frill in there with the open space is is really necessary. I I just think it's going to be a tough cell, especially adding in, you know, million dollars for traffic red light, which may or may not even alleviate the problem. I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be a tough cell.

Thank you, Selectman Harrington. Uh, Selectman Anderson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I obviously I said my piece earlier, but um I do think the school project is something that that needs to be done. Um, you know, we're not going to solve all the solutions tonight, but I do think that, um, you know, the project is going to have to go forward at some point. Okay. Anything else, Jim? That's it. Thank you. No, thank you. Appreciate that. and select. We'll end with select woman Rouse.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I appreciate hearing my fellow select board's comments, suggestions, questions. Um, as the on the building committee in the summer when this was presented, we knew that we had to make cuts. We made those cuts um, diligently. However, I think that it is still our responsibility in the next couple weeks to continue to take a a strong look at this balance the burden that you know uh the DPW building is going to be this new school building on our taxpayers and balancing that with the quality education that our students get now with a building that will provide that. So, I think in the next two weeks as a committee, we really still need to sharpen our pencils and see where else we can trim back some of the quote unquote fat that may be there.

Mr. Chairman, could I um make a comment? Of course you can. Well, as long as Selectoman Rouse is done. Go ahead. Go ahead, Roy. Thank you. Go ahead, Roy. Um, I I had the good fortune of picking up my grandchildren this past week and got in line uh behind Rodrik right by the library to pick her up up and go up Randall Road there thereafter. I I had no problem whatsoever both times. I was a bit amazed by it. Um, but it flowed quite well and so I I don't know that this light is necessary at this time.

Okay. Thank you for your input and feedback. Um, Mr. King, do you want to address the board or make any, you know, comments that you might have and then we'll give an opportunity for uh Phil Allen or the design team to rebuff and then we'll get we'll we'll move on. Um, Mike King, I'll I'll just add that as a as a fellow member of the school building committee, I look forward to working with Vice Chair Rouse and Phil Jordan as chair of the school building committee in in the weeks moving forward um to take those hard looks that were just mentioned and to see what areas there could be some more efficiencies and trimming down the cost. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Appreciate that. Tom manager Mike King. Um, uh, Phil, Allan, you guys want to, uh, address the board, give us any of your feedback on our feedback or you got, we've, you know, have we given you enough to think about?

Uh, this has been incredibly helpful. I want to thank the board for their time. Very helpful feedback. Um, we have, uh, as, as Vice Chair Rouse mentioned, we have been, um, taking a hard look at at everywhere that we can, um, reduce costs. Um I think part of this is going to be frankly focused on demonstrating um where we have removed uh frills um because we spent a lot of time really on that. Um the vice chair of of your committee and and our school building committee and Mr. Goddard have both been um uh quite um aggressively sharpening pencils, right? As you probably not be not not surprised to hear. um but also really focused on durability and maintenance as well. So, as part of our work, we looked at other schools where, you know, you can put up just put up drywall in a school and it's a lot cheaper than putting up a more durable finish, but in a year you're going to have to replace the drywall. So, um we are looking at long-term costs as well. We I think have some good justifications for that. Um I'm not sure what the mechanism will be to provide that to you in advance of that meeting in two weeks, but we'll work with Mr. King to make sure that you can get that information and we'll um echo Vice Chair Rouse's comments that we will take uh your feedback to heart and we will um look for additional areas to trim costs and make sure that we don't have any frills in reality or in the design uh as it's being demonstrated. Um I don't know Allan or Jeff if you have anything you'd like to add.

Just thank you very much. This is very helpful. really appreciate uh this is the time to get the the tough questions and I I really really appreciate them. It'll help us to make sure that we zero in on a design that I think will benefit the town for generations. So, thank you very much for that.

No, well said, Dr. Cameron. And again, it's our job, right? We're we're happy to do it because it's our job. We answer to the voters just like you guys do. Uh and we have a fiscal responsibility to the to the to the taxpayers as well as a responsibility to our kids and our staff uh to make sure that we we're giving them a great product so that everyone can thrive and be successful. Our job is to help you find the medium, right? The the the you know the kind of that perfect middle and um happy to do it, but like I said before, this board understands how hard your board's working. We appreciate all the hard work that you all have done. Um, so on this and other projects, I know it's been a busy year. So, thank you guys very much and uh uh if that nothing else, we're going to move on uh to the next part of our meeting. Uh talk to you soon and uh thanks again for coming on and giving us this great update. Okay, with that being said, um let's go to public comment. Uh now is the time in the meeting for public comment. Residents who wish to participate in public comment will be allotted two minutes to speak uh and must state their name and address for the record. If you can come on if anyone wants to, you know, we'd love to see your face. At the start of the comment, a timer will be sent via message from uh Amanda Vazipol. It should be visible at the top of the screen screen and an alarm will chime when time is up. So, at this time, anyone that would like to make a public comment, please go ahead and do that. I'll I'll give uh few seconds here for that just in case. 5 4 3 2 1. Great. Now we're going to move into the town manager report, which is tab 14. Town manager Mike King.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'd like to start with an FY27 budget update. Uh, departmental budget submitts were due yesterday, February 2nd, and are currently being reviewed. Budget meetings with department heads have been scheduled to take place throughout the month of February. Additionally, I met with the Norfolk and Planeville town administrators as well as King Phillips Superintendent Rich Drole this afternoon to have a preliminary discussion on the FY27 KP budget. Um, while the numbers have yet to be finalized, it appears that Rempton will have the lowest increase of the three towns um being driven primarily by changes in student enrollment. Uh, I have an update additionally on the new public works facility. Uh a DPW site walkthrough was held earlier this morning with the general contractor uh Castana Construction, the owner's project manager and town staff uh to review the limits of work and discuss site conditions. Uh the meeting went well and site clearing for the DPW facility is expected to begin later this month. Uh January was a you know the end of January is a very busy month for the the Department of Public Works. Um, and I have, you know, two updates that I wanted to share in regards to some of their efforts, um, particularly this winter season. Um, I'll start with, uh, on Friday, January 23rd, the Department of Public Works responded to an early morning waterman break on West Street at the intersection of Riverside Drive. Uh, the repair required a two-day response due to the extremely cold temperatures and challenging weather conditions. Uh crews worked through Friday into Saturday to complete the initial repair and restore water service. Uh during follow-up inspections, an additional potential leak was identified nearby and also had to be addressed. Um the roadway was temporarily reduced to one lane following the repair with permanent repaving scheduled to occur after winter storm Fern uh which impacted Rem from

the following day. Um so you know the DPW was dealing over a period of 48 hours the water main break which then led immediately into winter storm burn on Sunday um which brought approximately 18 inches of snow to Rentham um between Sunday January 25th and Monday. Um DPW staff and snowplow contractors work extended hours to clear the roadways with cleanup continuing as sidewalk plows remain active throughout the community even as even today. Um during the uh the impacted event and due to the significant snowfall um DPW also conducted an overnight snow removal operation in the downtown area on Wednesday, January 28th, which was an effort that had not been undertaken in several years. Um and I just want to take this opportunity to thank the DPW staff and our contractors for their continued hard work in keeping the roads and sidewalks of the rental community safe. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Uh yeah, well said, Mr. King, I want to just jump on that for a quick second. Um, I too, and I know the board uh shares the sentiments and any anyone can speak up uh uh and do just that. But yeah, it was a massive undertaking between the water main break and that historic storm. Um, the DPW crew uh you know, has just been pushed to the limits. Um, I was able to swing down, uh, Mike King, uh, bought them all breakfast one morning, uh, breakfast and coffee, and I was able to swing down before work, uh, just to say thank you on behalf of my select board members. Um, and I I'll tell you, it was it was really appreciated, uh, really very much appreciated by the staff. Um, you know, and I made it a point to let them know that we we you know, we drive the roads we see uh and I actually made a comment uh that, you know, we were getting reports that our roads were actually much better than the surrounding community roads. Um, so they were just so happy to hear that. You could see the look of exhaustion on uh many of their faces. Um, I just wanted you to know that that took place uh and it was very it was very wellreceived. Um, and that's just one of the ways Mike King, uh, I believe has been doing an incredible job as town manager, uh, in increasing morale. Um, you know, Mike's took it upon himself to do breakfast like this. Um, you know, he's now doing two at least two staff events a year. Uh, one where, uh, Roy and I went to when we gave out all the awards. It was a breakfast at the American Legion. We gave out all the awards for years of service. than he does the other one at Rice Complex. Then there's another one that they do, I believe, at uh uh at the beach. Um so, Mike, I just want to commend you uh for really engaging the morale level, the personal level um of the people. I think it's just very important in an organization and um I I just want to say you've been doing a great job at that and and and it's be

it's it's very well received by the uh the people that I speak to that work for us. So, sorry about that. Uh, open it up to the other board members if anyone wants to make any comments or say anything about Tom Manager King's report. Go ahead. Anybody or nobody? I think you eloquently said it for all of us. Great as usual. Yes. Uh, with that being said, um, anything else before I hand the meeting over to Jim Anderson? No. Selectman Anderson, floor is yours. Yeah, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. As usual, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

I'd like to second it. Uh motion made by Selectman Anderson. Second by me. Any further discussion? Being none, do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you everybody. I know we had a busy meeting, but uh appreciate everyone's input. Have a great night. Good night. Take care. Good night.