Select Board - Regular Meeting

snowshoe pass. Yeah, we've been working hard at that. It's uh it's amazing how that is constructed because you have to have the perfect snow. So, they've been working on it for the last week or so. Kip Lewis and the crew out of Walpole bringing their snowmobiles around. It's been tough, but yeah, people are using it. Absolutely. Yeah,

it's fun. Snowshoes, crosscountry skiing. Yeah. All right, we'll get this meeting started. Um, I'm the backup quarterback tonight, so everyone be nice to the vice chair. Um, in accordance with chapter 2 of the acts of 2025, Tuesday for February 17, 2026, public meeting of the select board shall be conducted remotely via Zoom. The agenda posted on the town's website identifies how the public may join. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. As a preliminary matter, the select board vice chair Michelle Rouse 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. Select board member James Anderson.

Madame vice chair, I am here tonight. Select board bill member Bill Harrington. Harrington here. And select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth here. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Town manager Michael King. Mike must be late. We'll get him in a minute. Um I know Greg Enos cannot join us this evening. Executive Assistant Amanda Vasipolo present. Thank you. Let's um go to announcements first. Select board member Bill Harrington, our clerk. Do you mind go ahead and read those for us this evening?

Yes, Madam Chair. I'll take care of it. Uh announcements for this evening. The town, sorry, the annual town election will be held on Monday, April 6th, 2026. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Voting is held at the Delaney Elementary School, 120 Taton Street. The 2026 dog licenses are now available with the town clerk's office. The deadline to license your dog is February 28th, 2026. The application can be found on the town website. Contact the town clerk's office for more information. An overnight parking ban on public streets is in effect December 1st through April 1st. Vehicles found to interfere with snow operations may be towed to a storage area at the expense of the owner. A candidates forum will be held on Thursday, March 5th, 2026 at Fist Library at 7 p.m. This event is being sponsored by the town and moderated by Mike Mcnite. This is an opportunity for residents to hear directly from the candidates prior to voting. Have qu have questions you'd like to pose to a candidate? Submit them on the town website or email candidatesforum.gov. And finally, uh, there's a rabies vaccine clinic Saturday, February 28th from 9 to 12 at the public safety building, 89 South Street, rear. It's $20 in cash. Uh, you'll need to bring your previous rabies certificate. The info is necessary to determine the appropriate expiration dates. Dogs must be leashed. Cats and ferris ferrets must be crded. Uh, also the town clerk will also be there uh to get your dog licenses taken care of at the same time. That's it. Mount J.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Town manager Mike King, we started. So, thank you for joining. Sorry about that. I'm having a little bit of trouble with the Zoom this evening. Working on getting my camera. That's okay. Thank you. Um, now we'll go to tab two, approval of the minutes. Vice Chair Vice Chair entertains a motion to approve the minutes from February 3rd, 2026 open session meeting. Second. So moved. So moved by Harrington, Bill Harrington, and second by Royal Lamoth. No. Uh with no questions or further comments, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board Jim Anderson.

Anderson. Yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Vice Chair Rouse. Yes. Motion carries 40. Now we'll um for tab three. Uh Mike, it's my understanding that this public hearing has been cancelled and rescheduled.

That is correct. Uh the applicant did not get the required certified mailings out in advance of the public hearing. So it will be rescheduled to March. Great. Thank you. So, now let's move to tab four. We're pleased tonight to have Mary Dopek, the chair of the Commission on Disability, join us. This is all part of our process of getting further updates from different commissions and boards um on what they're they're working on and what they're doing in town. Um so, we're excited, Mary, to have you here here with us. I know that um your group is kind of re-energized and and refocused and has a lot of neat things that they've been working on. So, I'm going to turn this over to you now and you can provide the board an update of what's been going on with the commission of on disability and of course let us know any way that the select board can support you.

Okay. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Uh so, as you said, we are just getting started. Um we are just recruiting some new members. We have two new members uh right now. Um we're doing various things. We're set trying to get our flyer together so we can post uh that in the newspaper, the local town newspaper, even if it's just an article, letting people know that we're here. Um and let's see, we're going to be doing a site inspection of the town hall that's upcoming. Planning to do that in April. Um let's see, what else do we have? We're inviting some of the local um organizations like the Council on Aging. Uh they're going to come to our meeting and sit with us so we can kind of collaborate. Uh probably the rec department as well. And um that's about it. We're just uh kind of getting our word out there, getting us out there and so that people know that we're here, that we can support uh the people of Rentham. Thank you. And Mary, do you mind sharing a little bit? So, you provide resources, guidance, support for those in town with special abilities, disabilities, um accommodations, things of that nature.

Uh yes, um we will be again, it's all um kind of in the works of getting all of the um resources compiled and that sort of thing. We want do definitely want to meet with the Council on Aging because I think we can support them quite a bit. um over there. We've posted some flyers uh around the town. That's great

that we have. So, um it's a work in progress for sure. Um but we're hoping to do um more even if it's funding for um equipment for the recck department um you know, personal um things that pe you know, citizens might need. Um, so yeah, I mean that's pretty much where we're where we're at right now. Wonderful. Well, I'm going to I'm going to open it up to my fellow board members to see if they have any questions for you. I'll start with select board member Bill Harrington.

Uh, no, Mary, I appreciate the hard work that you do and um, you know, re revitalizing or re-energizing that committee and uh, if there's anything that the select board can do to assist you, please let us know. Okay. Thank you. Select board member Jim Anderson. Yeah. So, Mayor, I just want to thank you for your your service. Um, we always appreciate it when we have get good people on on different boards and committees and um I just ask that you keep up the good work. So, thank you. Thanks. And select board member Roy Lamoth.

Mary, thank you. Uh, just was wondering what your largest challenge is. Is it resources? Is it people, volunteers? all of the little bit of a little bit of all those things. It's not resources so much. It's um it's getting people interested in joining um being members of the commission. Um and it's challenging because you can only have so many people that don't have a disability. You can only have so many people that just have a family member that's a disability um that has a disability. So that perhaps is the most challenging at this point.

Is it the bylaws of the commission that are restrictive and maybe we should review it? Mike might be able to answer that one better. Um I think it's just the mass um disability the commission itself that only allows you know so many people. I know you can have 13. I believe it's 13 members. Um but again I'm I think we're restricted on who can join basically as a member but Mike may might have more information on that.

I I can provide additional context. Um so they the commission on disability is required to have a majority of its members be those with disabilities. Um so as of right now the committee has the full complement of those um who are allowed in terms of a number to to be those without disabilities. Um but you know moving forward um you know one of the one of the things the committee um I understand has been working on is to is to recruit people with disabilities to have that representation on the commission of disabilities. Um so right now there's five people um on the commission. There can be up to nine is the total, but five um would be those with disabilities per the town bylaw and state statutes.

Thank you, Mike. And and thank you, Mary. So, Mary, thank you for coming this evening and sharing your information and your update. Just to reiterate, um please let us know anything the select board can do to assist you as you continue to move forward with your mission. And you're welcome anytime to provide updates. um to the town through us and joining our meeting. So, thank you again for your time this evening. We appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Now, we'll move on to tab five. We now are moving into our um the recreation commission and we have Ray Palmer who's the chair of the rec commission and in attendance we also have Jeff Plimpmpton with us this evening from recreation. So, Ray, nice to see you. Thank you very much. Nice to see you as well. We look forward to hearing your update about Recreation Commission. So, I'll turn it over to you. Okay. Great. Uh, good evening everybody. Um, if it's okay with you, vice chair, I have uh a little statement prepared. Absolutely. Go right ahead.

You don't mind me just reading that so I don't miss anything? Um, the recreation commission is in a proactive phase of action. Rather than simply maintaining the status quo of programs and activities, we're actively pursuing expanding our activities and upgrading our facilities. Uh, one of the biggest events in town and getting bigger even bigger every year is the well attended and enjoyed RenaM day which includes the Rethm road race. The popular Sunday evening concerts on the common series in conjunction with the sweat fund is a recreation department organized activity. Other opportunities are present as always for the user groups including soccer, lacrosse, rugby, flag football, baseball, softball, pickle ball, uh, dance, aerobics, maon, and the wacker running series which includes the turkey whacker, the bushwhacker, and the moonhacker all night running event. Um, this doesn't include the passive activities available at your at our facilities which include the sweat beach and boat rental, the do playground, basketball, volleyball, botchi, uh the walking path, and we're trying to get cross country skiing going at Rice. Uh, you may have seen that in the last week or so. uh special cookouts with the senior center and another with the town employee appreciation day and an eversource cleanup day is organized by the recck department each year. Two items that we're currently in process with happen to be on the more significant size are a pavilion and an engineering design of the rice complex. Uh the pavilion is an approved CPC project and when complete will provide a 40 by 80 foot openair shade structure to be constructed at the rice complex. It will be constructed on an existing concrete slab that was paid for with a

state ADA grant recreation requested and received. The pavilion itself has also been awarded a state park grant and we expect to receive 58% which is approximately $120,000 uh reimbursement toward the project. This project is in the bid phase with an expected construction this summer. Uh as you all know the school department is proposing to replace the Rodri school with a completely new building and eventually demolish the existing. The location selected for the proposed school will occupy current lighted field space at the sweat field area. We use this space field space for several activities as well as generating revenue to run our program and maintain all of our facilities. In an effort to recover our lost field space and subsequent revenue, we're in the middle of an engineering design to relocate that field space from sweat fields to the rice complex. A contract has been awarded to CHA Consulting for this design with expected bidding uh this spring. I'm presentation at Springtown meeting for construction approval. The timeline for field construction is very critical so fields are ready at the Rice uh complex before the school construction begins at sweat which will displace us. Um, and that's the two-minute version of recreation uh activities right now.

Outstanding. If anybody has any questions, I'd love to entertain them. That was great. I um I'm always amazed at every new activity and event I see from the recreation. I'm like, what's what else can they possibly do? And again, seeing what I was saying to Jeff earlier, seeing the um crosscountry snowshoe path being done up at um Rice Complex is amazing. I think that just opens another avenue to use that space. Yeah. During this gray, cold time. Um, gets us outside, fresh air. So, kudos to the recreation commission for all the great work that they're doing. We got some great contributors. Yes.

I'm just curious, Riley, one question for me before I turn it over to the board. Um, in terms of the fields coming to Rice Complex, if if those are approved at um, moving forward, would we be losing as those are being constructed, would you lose any of the fields during that construction at the complex while that's being done or because those are in an area that is really untouched at this point that there would be no disruption to those current fields that

No, we will be losing uh the two fields up uh, one of the the proposals is to make the the where the two little league fields are to mirror the other two fields on that open space field that that is used for soccer and lacrosse and other activities. So that's one reason why we need to have the uh the open space mult multi-use fields uh constructed in the back. So that will happen right away. So there's going to be some juggling of space uh in the meantime. So yes, we will uh have to do some some uh scheduling. Okay. In phasing of that.

Okay. Thank you for that update. Before I turn it over to my fellow board members, um with Jeff Blimpton, Jeff, if do you have anything that you want to share with the board?

Well, thank you, Michelle. Um absolutely. Um to, um go over what Ray was saying about Renom Day. Uh we have big plans for this year in the fall and September. um for Rem Day. Not only will we be using the existing space that we currently use, the common and the roadway for our road race, we are expanding to the route 1A area in front of the businesses uh all the way up to the set of lights to the flag pole and down into Sweat Park, the new Sweat Park. So, we want to uh be able to show that off a little bit. Um, but we also uh would be adding on uh more and let's say bigger uh items um for this day as well. So, we're excited about that and um you know that's going to take a big effort on our side. Um but you know, as Ray mentioned, our our uh commission is and the people that work for recreation are ready for the challenge.

That sounds great. Love to hear about the expansion. Do you have a date um picked out yet? I believe it's September 12th. Um, a little later this year. Yeah, it is a little later. Yeah, September 12th is the date. Um, okay. Yep. So, it's a day, it's a week after Labor Day. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, select board member Jim Anderson, any questions for the recreation team?

Well, first of all, I just want to thank Ray and uh Jeff for for their presentation tonight. Um, I got to tell you, your committee has done so much for the community that um, you know, I've been in town for a long time and I can guarantee you that our recreation committee is is by far um, as as good as any in in the Commonwealth. So, thank you guys and uh, keep up the good work. Thanks very much. Select board member Bill Harrington.

Uh, thank you, Michelle. So, just a couple of questions for either uh Jeff or um Rey. How much is the design phase uh for the fields? How many new fields are being added? And what's the uh guesstimate? ETA, I guess, would be the timeline. Well, the the design um is in the ballpark of $250,000. Um that was approved at a town meeting uh in the fall. Uh we're working with CHA Consulting to handle all that. Um and they're going to be basically updating all the the plans that we have from 25 years ago of our rice complex. um adding the new things that have been added since that initial plan came out. Um and then proposing construction of two new baseball fields for the little league in the front. Uh a multi-purpose field in the back that will uh we hope to blend in with the existing fields on the I believe it's the northeast side um towards the exit side of uh the existing rice complex. And we're also proposing uh new entrance from 1A and some new parking along the back there to handle the um the extra people that will be at this facility. Um a lot of this is going to be basically a menu that we can we can pick from and work with uh town manager king to to see what looks the the most reasonable uh proposal to submit for town meeting in the spring for funding. Uh if if we get um you know

if the school is available to pass and then we're available to pass then uh it's it's really critical that we get a start on it uh this summer so that we can get the grass growing and have the fields available for use uh before uh they start demoing the ground for the new Rodri. So your plan is to have the design build ready for town meeting for this spring. Yes. Great. Great. They're working on it right now. Nice. Excellent. Busy town meeting. Yeah. Any other questions, Phil?

Um, no idea what you know, cost for the new fields. Any any or do you know want to throw that out yet? Uh, it would be really too early to to mention that right now. We've got some ideas in the back of our head what we've what we think it's going to be uh other ideas what we hope it's going to be um but uh but nothing really that you know we really are are available to share right now right okay thank you so board member Roy Lamoth any other questions

so Jeff and and Ray thank you very much um my question was kind of like bills the co the cost but you will have engineering estimated costs for each one of these potential items by the town by the time we go to the town meeting. Correct. Yes. Okay, perfect. I'm good. And thank you very much. It's I've lived here 40 some odd years and enjoyed a lot of the good things that you've offered through my children and my grandchildren. It's been great. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah,

thank you for this information. I, you know, it's just wonderful to hear the work that you're doing as well as other commissions and and boards in town. It really it really spreads the world word to people in town and um we really thank you for all of your efforts. I I'd love for you to stick around because our next agenda item is um tab six and we're interviewing an appointment of Chris McKenna to fill um the remainder of uh is it Chris Kathine's term um who resigned from the rec commission which we accepted back in December. So, um, before we get into the motion, Ray, do you have anything to say about Chris? Um, well, I I've known Chris for a few years because he was a coach for my son um in basketball, CYO basketball, several years ago and and it was encouraging to see his enthusiasm for the kids and and how the kids were really excited to to go to to even to his practices. Um, they were they really enjoyed it and um Chris has been coming to a few meetings and very much participating. He sits back. He doesn't do a lot of talking, but when he does, um, it's really a cogent thought and we we it everybody gets us. Oh, that's a really good point, you know, and um I'd be very uh excited to have uh Chris joining our uh our commission.

It's great. Thank you, Chris. Welcome this evening. We're glad that you could join us. Um I'm going to ask any of our select board members, does anyone have any qu specific questions for for Chris at this time? I have no questions. Yep. Go ahead. Yeah. No. So, I've known Chris for a long time. Hi, Chris. How you doing? And um listen, I he'll fit in seamlessly from going from associate to a full-time member. So, I've got no no further questions other than I support this move. Great.

Bill, did you have anything? I'm sorry. No. Uh, yeah, being associate member and being backed obviously by uh by Jeff and and uh Ray, I think it'd be seamless. Great. Any questions? Uh, select board uh Roy Lamoth. Well, I've known Chris for for many a year. Um, I'd love to come out with a criticism after yesterday's comment he made to me on the basketball court, but uh I'll I'll leave that aside. I was wondering if you guys battled on the basketball court. I'm wondering if Chris has a little bit of an advantage of uh with his I'm sure that you try to try to beat him out with your speed. Those days are gone. The speed is gone.

Well, Chris, again, thank you for joining us this evening. I the vice chair entertains a motion to approve Chris McKenna to the recreation commission for a term effective immediately expiring June 30th, 2026. So moved. So moved. Second. So moved by Bill and second by Jim Anderson. Any questions or comments? Being none, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board member Jim Anderson. Anderson's a yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Vice Chair Michelle Rose. Yes. Motion carries 40. Chris, welcome and thank you very much for coming this evening. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Rec Commission's lucky to have you. I'm still learning a lot, but I appreciate it. Thank you. Keep beating up Roy on the basketball court.

All right, now we'll move on to um tab seven. So, let's see. We have um with us this evening, this is the um vote on the Rodick School Building Project recommendation. This evening we have um the chair of the committee, Phil Jordan is on with us as well as Dr. Alan Cameron. Um, from Vertex, I think, let's see, we have Jeff Demo. And then from TSKP, we have Jesse Sailor. Thank you all for joining this evening. Um, I know that you were with us two weeks ago and a lot of work being a part of the the committee, a lot of work has been done. So, at this point, I'm just going to turn it over to the chair of that committee, Phil Jordan, to give us the latest update.

Uh, thank you, uh, Madame Vice Chair. Um, it's a pleasure to be here. I hope that my um internet connection is stable. Um, I'm I'm traveling again and and um I can hear all of you, so hopefully my connection's stable, but I'm going to keep my camera off just so that I don't uh break up too much. We can hear you perfectly.

Great. Terrific. Well, just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Um, we are um going to just give you a few slides. We've had a lot of conversations with you. We really took uh your comments from two weeks ago to heart and we spent a lot of time going through each aspect of the project to make sure that we were maximizing the value to the taxpayer um and um building um you know an appropriate size uh and scoped uh project. Um so uh in that period we u reviewed uh financial information and um looked at any opportunities we had to streamline costs and designs. Um the committee met um at length uh to discuss these um uh to discuss these changes uh potential changes and then um also had a joint meeting with the RenaM school committee to ensure that that aligned with the um priorities of uh of that committee. So, um, we're very pleased with, um, the the work that we've done and we're proud of the proposal that we will put in front of you, which is the recommendation that passed unanimously by the Roderick School Building Committee and was also endorsed unanimously by the uh, Rethm School Committee. Um, I just am going to talk a little bit about some guiding principles and then get into some of the additional changes since the last time we met with you. So these are the principles of our committee as we discussed how we would go about our work. The first is to ensure that we have purposeful spaces to meet all the educational requirements. These are requirements that are both statemandated requirements as well as the objectives of the local education community. Um we wanted to make sure that we focused on durability, serviceability and longevity of materials. So, as an example, we looked at the potential savings of moving from a metal roof to an asphalt

roof. What we found was that this would have h half the life expectancy and therefore cost significantly more over a 30-year period than going with that seamless metal roof. That's just as an example. We also wanted to make sure that we were good partners with the full community to understand how we could support the town's objectives, the needs for a shelter, how we could use uh the gym and the cafeteria and other spaces to support the entirety of the community. uh how we could work with the recck department on making sure that we were thoughtful about any impacts to athletic fields so that we could help the town achieve its objectives there and also about this traffic signal that we can get into in a little bit. We wanted to avoid anything that was temporary. So anything that looked was an expense that only had a temporary purpose. We really focused hard on how we could mitigate any of those potential costs. So temporary parking areas, temporary playgrounds, things like that. We really wanted to minimize that as much as possible because we saw that as money that we just didn't have a long-term return on investment. So, we really focused hard on those. Um, we did look um we did look at square footage reductions. The the challenge that we found there is that for the areas that were eligible for the state participation, it was a very very small net savings to the town when we reduced uh square footage. And that's because the state is reimbursing us at $640 per square foot and we're now just under $740 per square foot. So the savings and reductions for those areas um were very very small. Um we did try to limit any aesthetic uh decisions, right? So costs that were really limited to aesthetic purposes. We really wanted to minimize any of those. We certainly don't want an ugly building. We certainly don't want a

building that doesn't have a good, you know, warm light for students to learn in and and a place that is conducive to learning, but we also did not want to build something or spend money on things that were purely focused on just um making things look good. So, if we go to the next slide, we can show some of those key value engineering um items that we have identified since our last meeting. Um so as I go through each of these you can see what it is and then what the the the savings on the on the right hand side column. Some of these were quite easy for us. Uh some took a lot of discussion. Um so um we were able to reduce the staff lunchroom because there are some additional shared spaces that can be used for teachers uh for for uh for lunch saving us $100,000. Reducing the height of exterior walls by a foot. Saved us almost $200,000. Reducing roof screening to the north and west sides. We talked about this a little bit. So that you'll be able to see the HVAC on the roof from the ball fields. Um there were some screens that were initially put there to protect that. We eliminated those. $200,000 of savings using some steel and medical metal acoustical deck instead of timber. um fiber cement siding and reducing the amount of plank siding um in certain areas of the building. Eliminating some canopies that were redundant. Reducing the main canopy to a smaller footprint that's still useful for students but isn't quite as expansive. Eliminating the roof terrace that we discussed in our last meeting. Um eliminating some windows that were additive. We thought were there was a lot of window space. We wanted to reduce some of the windows. reducing the height of ceramic tile. Ceramic tile is very expensive. We didn't want to eliminate it because it's much more durable. So, in spaces where students are going to be moving around, if they bump into it with something, it's much less likely to break. But our

students aren't 6 feet tall. So, um even if they jump, uh we thought that we could, you know, create some savings by reducing full story or or full 8 foot walls down to six feet. um eliminating some of the acoustic baffling and using some less expensive tiling in some of the spaces. We determined that we did not need lightning protection for our insurance. And as Mike King was able to determine, it doesn't even give us a discount on our insurance. So there was really no um savings for that. Um we eliminated a number of shade structures. Um we we did a lot of uh site work eliminations. This is for some of that temporary work that we were talking about. Um, we were able to eliminate the temporary parking lot and reduce the temporary play area by relocating it, saving almost a half a over a half a million dollars in those two areas, plus another 90,000 by um reducing the amount of soil export and letting the old Roderric site be a bit more natural in its slope uh with a bit of a hill. Um and then changing the two sight gates at the entrances to emergency access to manual which is consistent with other towns. So, all of these uh savings yielded an additional almost $2.3 million in additional savings. And um I think I am correct and I we have our team here, but we we really did try to emphasize this that none of the none of this 2.3 million was eligible for reimbursement from the MSBA. So, this is net net savings to the town. Um so, this was a you know, substantial cost savings. Um we did look at a number of other areas and we can you know sort of talk about all those. Um but we identified some some more significant challenges either that they would significantly reduce our reimbursement rate or there were long-term expenses that would be

attached due to durability or other concerns. So those are the sort of the key changes. We do have a few additional slides um that Jess and uh Jeff and Jesse can walk us through. Um um but what we're hoping for tonight is that we can present to you in this in this design um the final recommendation of our committee with um the endorsement that we've received from the school committee um and we're seeking um your your endorsement of this plan uh so that we can move towards um submission to the MSBA and ultimately um to put it to the town's people for their approval. Thanks, Phil. Uh, so as you can see in front of you, this is a slide we presented last week, but it's been updated. Um, many decisions have been made uh up until last night, including the ones we presented last week to reduce the overall size, cost, and complexity of the building. As you see in the the top row, the overall square footage of the building has decreased uh since this past summer of 1,350 ft. Um, most notably, the dollars per square foot for the project has come down dramatically. We're down at below $812 a square foot, which I'll talk a little bit about on the next slide. But this brings a total reduction of the overall total project cost down to $15.8 million back from we were this past summer. The good news is that these changes, as Phil alluded to, were all ineligible items. They were over the MSBA caps. They weren't eligible in the sense that they weren't things that the MSBA doesn't believe in, but they're caps in their program that cap out on dollars per square footage. the MSBA stops participating at $678 a square foot. Uh there are no projects that are being bid for that dollar value at the moment, but um the $812 is very close to that as it relates to the other projects in the pipeline. The good news is that the MSBA's share stays up and the town share goes down. So the town will have a better reimbursement rate ultimately when you do the effective uh proposal. A

couple of footnotes in the bottom asterisk uh talk about the uh rebates that are also available. I just want to remind the committee that there is $925,000 available in mass save rebates that we expect to be able to receive by going with geothermal. In addition to that, the inflation reduction act, which was renewed uh this past year by the federal government, uh has up to $4 million in potential rebates. So, there's another $5 million that could come back and lower the overall 60 to $64 million that the town would have to borrow uh for the duration of the project. Next slide, Jesse. Thanks, Jesse. So, this just a trajectory that we showed you at the last meeting, which is the average MSBA projects are at this point are around $900 a square foot and climbing. Uh there are a couple outliers at over $1,000 a square foot. Um with the reductions made to the Roderric Elementary School, that puts you at the lowest tier of the current projects that are going forward for approval with the MSBA. uh in good company. So there's a nice aggressive dollars per square foot that the project uh will deliver on. Next slide, Jesse.

Great. Thanks, Jeff. Um so we just have a few slides. It's actually the same slides that we presented to you on February 3rd just to show you what the project is. Um and many of them are are substantially the same and I'll move quickly. Uh you'll have to rely on what we presented on February 3rd for the more detailed description. But we are talking about a new Roderric school of just over 100,000 square feet constructed to the south of the existing school which you can see on the site here. As Phil mentioned in the site category, we save cost by reducing temporary parking and by uh where we locate the temporary play area. We still have a temporary play area, but it's just less expensive to construct in a new location. So these were creative solutions that did not impact the site program uh but reduce the project cost. So this was smart to do. Moving to the first floor plan, uh we work with the team to reduce the cost but retain the square footage as we mentioned. Uh so all your room sizes and important parts of your educational vision are intact here and we're we're glad that we're able to say that. There were just wasn't value in reducing square footage. Uh so the building's still a compact footprint organized around a strong central corridor which runs from north to south and connects the more public areas of the building, cafeteria, gym and band and music, the administrative suite uh to the academic areas at the southern end which are organized around the school playground which is very prominently located on the first floor. We did reduce actually the staff lunchroom by 200 square ft because that square footage was ineligible according to the state. It was over the MSBA guideline size and so that savings of $100,000 if that square footage reduction comes back to the town. So that one made sense. Um moving up to the second floor um we see again that it's a

two academic communities on the second floor. Classrooms in the academic communities are organized in pairs around small groupoup instruction rooms. This is the same as I presented last time. The primary reduction on the second floor is the roof terrace which went away as part of this move. Um if these classrooms need access to an outdoor environment, they can go to the lower level where we have a patio. It'll work. Um moving through, we presented an image of the entry plaza last time. Uh we want the entry to the building to be welcoming and comfortable for the Rentham community. Uh we've we've brought the building height down to the front door so that has a smaller scale for elementary school students and to let sunlight into this plaza which is north facing. Uh to save cost here, we reduced the canopy which had been much larger and it's hard to see in this rendering frankly but it's a 200 square foot projection above the entry doors. Um and it's similar in scale u to what you are currently operating at Roderick and Delaney. So the um the district felt comfortable with this move and and frankly we like the way the building looks um with this. It it definitely didn't hurt the entrance appearance. Um and lastly the playground um view. Uh the playground's an integral part of the school as we've envisioned it. It's right along that central corridor that comes through the school. Um here we reduce the extent of the shade structures just having shade structures right at the playground equipment where they can be uh where the foundations are in with the drainage for the playground. So we wanted to keep those if we need other uh outdoor shade structures. They could be added later if it becomes necessary. It wouldn't be hard to do in other locations. Uh, also the you see here the opaque wall areas are predominantly masonry on our building

which is already very economical but where we had some of the accent um cladding. It was a siding uh we were able to save some money there going with a fiber cement siding uh which is equally durable and serviceable uh but it's lower in cost uh it's very much the price point of masonry. So uh with that we have a slide on schedule. Jeff, do you want to take this?

Yeah, there's no change the overall project schedule, but essentially it's a 20-month build for the new building starting in the fall of 2027, opening in summer of 2029, and then 6 months worth of the demolition of Roderick and Vogle, followed by site work wrapping up at the end of the year. There may be some follow on landscaping in the spring of 20 2030, but essentially wrapping up the project by the end of 2029. And that concludes our presentation slides for this evening. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Phil, Jesse, and Jeff for that update. Before I turn it over to my fellow board members with any questions, Dr. Cameron, do you have anything you would like to add?

Uh, thank you. Yes, great to see you all. Thank you for giving this opportunity today. I was reflecting on the four years of work that's gotten us to this point. Um, and it's exciting. It's been um a process to watch this develop. It's been wonderful to hear the uh positive feedback from the community and it's also been great to hear the the critical questions and uh you know the the guidance on how we needed to make some improvements. I think the final result could be a really great opportunity for the town to make a generational impact uh in a really positive way and um I'm just excited to be a part of it and happy to be here. So, thank you.

It's great. It's great to see you all again. We're becoming fast friends all the amount of times that we we've been meeting. Um just before I turn it over to everyone for questions and comments. Um being a part of this committee I can say that we worked really hard. Uh last week when we sat down together it was spirited discussion to really understand what was important what was happening now with students with teachers, what was going to work for this new school and more importantly what was going to work for our town and our residents. We took every dollar and we we analyzed what was going to be absolutely necessary and what was not going to be. And I think to see that we have essentially approximately cut 16 million from this shows the diligence that we took and we just didn't accept things at face value. We really talked about it and really analyzed every decision. So um with that I will turn it over to select board member Jim Anderson for any questions or comments.

Yeah, thank you Madam Chair. Um first of all I just want to thank you know Dr. Cameron, um, Phil, and the building committee for doing their due diligence, um, and and bringing a a building project to us that I think certainly reflects uh the needs of of the town. Um, I think it's it's a good building. I think it's it's long overdue and I look forward to uh supporting this not only in tonight's meeting, but going forward at at town meeting as well. Thank you. Select board member Bill Harrington.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, uh, Dr. Cameron and Phil, the the entire team, the build, uh, the contractors, the site work people that are, you know, that that you've been dealing with. Uh, I greatly appreciate all your hard work. Uh, coming back from two weeks ago, coming back with almost 2.3 million. uh and it it shows that you you know you're really really doing a yman's job for the town and putting a beautiful project for the school. Uh I'm sorry, for the kids. Uh I I greatly appreciate your hard work and um I look forward to supporting this project and hopefully it gets passed in the spring.

Thank you. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Hope you're muted. I want to echo uh Jim, Bill, and Madame Chair's comments. Thank you all and all the yman's work you've done. Uh no questions. Uh we've heard all about this the last couple of weeks. Been watching it and just looking forward to it in the in the future.

Thank you. We were remiss in not mentioning the decision that was made with the light at Randall Road. Uh Phil, do you want to uh tag on to that a little bit? Yes. Uh thank you uh madame vice chair. So um we had a long discussion about how to handle the light on Randall Road. Um and this is because we certainly understand that there are varying perspectives and a lot of work that needs to be done to understand what the right thing to do is um and and really how to do it in the best way. Um, we did receive letters from both the chief of police and the chief uh of the fire department um supporting a light um for safety concerns. Um but we also had a lot of discussion about changes that will be happening to that intersection with potential development of Crosby valve and certainly um being very careful about not wanting to make a situation worse um uh per uh select board member Harrington's uh comments about making sure it's really studied correctly to make sure we don't make it worse um or that we spend taxpayers money on something that may not ultimately be the most urgent priority. um which I think was um something referenced by both um select board chair Gallow and select board member Lamoth. So what we've decided to do was that we would carry the cost in the project as something that's called an ad alternate which essentially leaves the option open for further review and study. Um we're not committing to do it and we're but we are leaving the option open for um continued study of the intersection and should significant bid savings or other opportunities arise to fund the project our hands won't be tied meaning that if it turns out that it is something that

we do want to move forward we are able to vote on it. So ultimately the number will be included in the total is and is included in the total number that we have presented to you today but we are not required to do it. Um we're not required to spend the money and if we don't it is just money you know we've we've received the maximum borrowing authority but and it can only be used this amount of money could only be used for the traffic light and crosswalk situation. Um, so we can't shift things around and spend on something else and pull a fast one on anybody, but it just gives us a little bit more flexibility on what to do. So that was how we sort of handled that one. It might feel like we're kicking the can down the road, but really it is that I think we just need to understand a little bit more about how things could develop with the town uh intersection with other developments and to be able to do some more study of that to make sure that we're really handling that intersection the right way. um and the most thoughtful way. So that's sort of where we landed on and that was um uh that was a very long discussion. It was a very it was not a unanimous decision but it was close to one. Um and so even within the committee we had some discussion about what to do but we we have included that $97,000 in the number that's in front of you but we are not required to spend it.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um with uh town manager Mike King on the committee, I would like to see if he has anything that he'd like to add.

Thank you, Vice Chair Rouse. Um actually, I would just like to um you discuss with the with the select board that I did have the opportunity to to talk uh to Chairman Gallow about this agenda item and he had asked that I convey his comments in support of the Rodri School building project. Um while the chairman remains concerned about the overall cost and potential tax impact of a project of this magnitude, um he appreciates the work of the Rodri School Building Committee and identifying reductions and value adjustments. He also recognizes both the clear need for a new elementary school and the significant funding assistance opportunity presented through the MSBA. Um, importantly, if the town chooses not to move forward with the MSBA project, the underlying facility need does not disappear. Um, moreover, pursuing only a codebased renovation and upgrade of the exist existing building um would likely result in costs comparable to constructing a new facility with MSBA participation without the benefit of MSBA funding support. Um, so for these reasons, the the chairman did indicate um that he does support the project. Thank you.

Great. Thank you so much. appreciate everyone's time and information. At this point, the vice chair entertains a motion to endorse the recommendation from the school building committee to submit to the MSBA a request for approval of a new Rodri Elementary School building with a not to exceed total project budget of 106,550,000. So moved. So moved by Jim Anderson and second by Bill Harrington. Any further questions or comments? Being none, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board member Jim Anderson. Anderson's a deputy. Yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Select board me vice chair Michelle Rouse. Yes. Motion carries 40. We'll see you in June. Thank you. Thank you very much. Not before that. Thank you for all your support and guidance and commentary and questions throughout the process. We really appreciate it. Thank you for your time coming this evening. Appreciate it. Have a good night. Good night.

Okay. Now we move to tab let's see tab eight where we vote to accept the deed for to 2095 West Street. Um, at this point I'm going to turn it over to our town manager, Mike King, to give us a little update on where we are and at this point with this motion. Thank you, Vice Chair Rouse. Um, so just to recap, um, town meeting previously approved funding to acquire the approximately 65 acre parcel at 2095 West Street through the right of first refusal process. Um the closing um for 2095 West Street is anticipated to take place within the next week. Um before the select board this evening is a vote to accept the deed that was reviewed and approved by town council in advance um allowing the closing to take place. Um I will note this is one of the few instances where signatures um wet signatures specifically are required and the document will be available in the town manager's office for the select board to execute.

Okay. So, we'll have to make it down there in the next few days if approved. Okay. Um, any questions from the board? I know we've talked about this quite a bit. We're all set. Yeah. Okay. Um, select board. Um, Harrington, do you mind reading the um reading the motion?

Not at all. Uh, so motion for the property on 2095 West Street. I move to purchase the property located at 2095 West Street, Rentham, shown on the town of Rethm, assessor's map C 03 1 3 containing approximately 65 acres more or less for 2,500,000 pursuant to article one of the May 12th, 2025 town of RenaM special town meeting and to authorize the select board to enter into any agreements and execute any documents in order to effectuate said purchase, including conveying a conservation restriction and further authorized the chair Christopher Gallow or vice chair Michelle Rouse to execute any and all documents necessary to effectuate said purchase.

Thank you. Vice Chair entertains to move the motion as read by our clerk, select board member Bill Harrington. So moved. So moved. So moved by uh first by select board member Anderson, second by Bill Harrington, and any further questions or comments? Being none, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board member Jim Anderson. Anderson, yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington, yes. Select board member Lamoth. Lamoth, yes. And vice chair Michelle Rouse, yes. Motion carries 40. One question u Mike when when do we need to sign that by

preferably in the ne um in the next two days. We we only need a majority. So one we need three members to sign. Okay. Maybe Amanda can keep us updated on how many signatures she needs. We can do that. Okay. That'd be awesome. I'll be I'll be there in the morning. Yes. Yeah. I can be there in the morning as well.

Awesome. You know, it is a long drive from West Run to town hall. I don't want to get there and they'd be like, "Quette, we're all done." All right. So, we move to um tab nine. It is uh vote to accept the resignation of um Judy Simmons from the Council on on Aging. Uh I'm sorry. I believe a lock name is Simons. I'm sorry, Simons. Um, select board member Bill Harrington. Would it be difficult for you to read that resignation letter? I know it's handwritten, but I'm wondering if you could read that into the record. I'll do my best.

Okay.

Dated 12426 select board rental mass. It is with great regret and disappointment that I need to inform you that I will no longer be able to serve on the COA board due to the increase of my responsibilities caring for my husband home and myself and need to take a step back from volunteering. It's been such a pleasure and honor to be part of bringing joy and activity to our rent neighbor neighbors and working with the members of the board. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this offering to the citizens of our wonderful town of Retham Senior Young and New. Janet and Kendra have been great resources of leadership and knowledge, directing the board to move forward with the growth of our senior center and all who join and take part in the many events offered. I hope there will be times in the future and I could still be active helping in different ways with events planned for 2026. Sincerely, Julie Simons.

Thank you. We appreciate that. Any questions or comments from the board? Select board member Jimmy Anderson. Uh, no comments. Uh, select board member Bill Harrington. No comments. And select board member Royoff. The same. I just like to extend our deepest appreciation for Judy's time and efforts while being on the Council of Aging. Um, we greatly appreciate that and wish you all the best as as you continue to move forward in in assisting your family at this time. So, with that, the vice chair entertains a motion to accept with regrets the resignation of Judy Simons from the Council on Aging. So, move. Second.

Second. A motion made by Jim Anderson, second by uh Roy Lamoth. Any questions or comments? Being none, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board member Jim Anderson. Anderson with regrets. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington with regrets. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth with regrets.

And vice chair Michelle Rose with regrets. Yes. Okay. Now we move on to um tab 10. This is to vote and open vote to open and close the warrant for the annual Springtown meeting being held on June 1st. You can see the outline of the um uh the dates included in your select board packet or in the select board packet. So, uh open warrant would be February 18th. The closed warrant would be April 2nd, 2026. Um any discussion or questions? Okay. Uh vice chair entertains a motion to open the warrant for the June 1st, 2026 annual Springtown meeting on February 18th, 2026 and close the warrant on April 2nd, 2026.

So now moved. So moved by Bill H. Motion made by Bill Harrington, second by Jim Anderson. Any further questions or comments? Being none, we'll go into a roll call vote. Select board member Jim Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select board member Roy Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

And vice chair Michelle Rouse. Yes. Motion carries. 40. Okay. Now we move into public comment. Our public comment. Um tab 11. Residents who wish to participate in a public comment will be allowed two minutes to speak and must state their name and address for the record. At the start of the comment, a timer will be sent via the message from Amanda Vasipolo. It should be visible in the top screen. Um, and the alarm will chime when time is up. Do we have any members of the public that would like to speak this evening? Mike Mcnite. Okay, the floor is yours, Mike.

Thank you, Vice Chair. uh Rouse and members of the board. I won't take too long because Bill Harrington did a great job of summarizing our town sponsored uh candidate forum. Uh but I do have a few things just to let the board know and what the and whoever is watching this uh or attending this meeting. Um, we are really trying to foster civic engagement in an open nonpartisan forum where candidates can of the public sorry candidates for public office can share their views, answer community questions and explain their positions in a respectful and transparent setting. We aim to empower residents with clear, reliable information so they can make thoughtful, informed decisions in local elections and fostering that civil dialogue and having equal opportunity and access so that candidates can explain what their positions are and residents can hear so that when they go to the voting booth they can make an informed decision. Uh the committee has been working very hard on this. We think we've got a fantastic event planned and we hope that the members of the board as well as anybody watching this and listening and there'll be more public uh announcements throughout the next coming weeks uh will come and join us. Uh and I think uh we have a great event planned. So I just wanted to give that and uh let you know that the committee is very excited about uh moving this on to the March 5th uh RenaM town of Rentham sponsored uh uh candidate forum.

Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate you sharing and presenting that information to the board and the residents of the town. Thank you, vice chair and uh board members. Now, um we'll move on to tab 12 and we'll turn it over to our town manager Mike King for his town manager report.

Thank you, Vice Chair Rouse. Few updates for the board this evening. Um I'll begin with the the Harvard Lane water main break. Um the DPW provided notification this afternoon of a water main break on Harvard Lane affecting properties numbered approximately 126 to 170. Um the water service was temporarily shut off while the DPW worked on repairs and during the course of this meeting this evening I've been notified that they are now complete and the road is open. Uh update on nomination papers for the town election. Uh nomin nomination papers for the April 6 town election were due to be returned this past Friday, February 13th. Uh I will note that there is only one contest on the ballot with three candidates returning papers for the two seats on the Refam Elementary School Committee. Additionally, there is one seat that will be filled by a writing candidate which is for the board of assessors. The the town administration currently has um two projects that are that are out to bid that I would like to note. Um, bids for the town hall generator replacement project are due on February 26 at 2 p.m. Um, the existing standby generator predates the renovation of town hall and has been experiencing ongoing operational issues. Uh, its replacement was previously identified by the facilities department as a capital priority. Uh, in addition, proposals to prepare the town's housing production plan that was funded at the fall town meeting are due on March 5th. Um, in the near future, the select board will be asked to appoint a committee to oversee development of the housing production plan. Uh, please note that communities often designate a select board member to serve as a representative on this committee. Uh, in my last update, um, involves the the sweat fund. Um, so the sweat advisory committee has reported that it has received approximately $80,000 in funding requests for this

cycle. um with only $70,000 available for distribution. Um the committee will meet in March to review the applications with the respective applicants before finalizing its recommendations to the select board. Uh additionally, it has been communicated that two long-erving members of the sweat fund advisory committee intend to step down at the conclusion of this fiscal year. And that concludes my town manager report this evening. Great. Thank you. Um, when just one question uh I that came to mind, when do you think you would need if if we were going to have a representative on the housing plan from the select board? What would be the timing of that?

We would most likely be looking for an appointment in March. Okay. Any other questions from the select board for our town manager? Mike, any update on the light sweat park? Yes, that bid is being finalized uh with the electrical engineer and it should be going out later this month. Thank you. Select board member Roy Lamoth, anything? I'm I'm good. All Thank you. Okay, Jim. No, no, no questions. No questions. Okay.

I think I did this in record time. I'm now gonna turn it over to you, Jim. Well, madam vice chair, um first of all, I'd like to say first of all that that title suits you very well. Thank you. And also um you did a tremendous job tonight. Thank you. I do think it was record time. We we blew through this thing. So with uh with your permission, I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Excellent. So um being no questions or comments, we'll go into a roll call vote. Uh, select board Anderson member Jim Anderson. Yes. Yes. Select board member Bill Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select board member Roy Lamoth.

Lamoth. Yes. And vice chair Michelle Ros. Yes. Thank you all for helping me be the backup quarterback. I appreciate it. Great job. Thank you. Have a good night everybody. Bye. Thank you.