January 28, 2026 – Finance Committee – Video & Transcript

January 28, 2026 - Finance Committee

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meeting link that can be found on the town's website. Anyone wishing to provide public comments or attend the meeting may do so. Please limit public comments to two minutes per person. The agenda tonight is really all about the articles for our warrant for 2026 here. So we'll be going through them. We'll start with petitioners' articles first just for convenience, then we'll move to town-sponsored articles. And in that review, this is really a first opportunity for FinCon members and petitioners or others to ask questions. But there will be more opportunity as the FinCon member is identified, who's going to be leading that article of trafficking, as well as the select board member, which will then get submitted in March as they're going to the warrant. And that's really the focus of it. Subsequently, we'll spend a little bit of time amongst the Finance Committee. Everyone is welcome to say if they want to review key dates on the annual town meeting calendar, about to approve our minutes from our January 5th meeting, and then any other topics that are not reasonably anticipated by the chair prior to the meeting. Approximately will be done around hopefully around 840 or 9 o'clock. And we are joined here by select board members of the committee members or, or coming in. But with that, let me turn to petitioners. And we'll show any of the comments need to be made. Yes. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Public on before the petitioners. Yes, that's fine. Okay. You have an approach or I'm not sure it works. Does it work for you? Yeah. Is this the microphone here? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So just brief comment here. I'm here to comment on article DD, 25 holiday road. Oh, I'm Andrew Carpenter. Sorry. So my, that's all my second time doing it. So I'm Andrew Carpenter. I live on eight orchard lane in Wayland. And I'm here to comment on article DD, 25 holiday road submitted by the select board. So I'm just here with a few like process related questions about article DD before the finance committee recommends, uh, the 200 K spend for the, uh, studies planning analysis. I believe it's worded as so just first question is, uh, authority and sequencing questions around that article, like who currently has the legal authority to decide the future use of 25 holiday road, um, being that it is currently in the custody care of the school committee. Um, have they, has there already been discussions to formally authorize use and engineering analysis of the site. Um, if that permission hasn't been, uh, formally, how do we ensure the study doesn't get ahead of the entity that currently controls the property, which is the school committee. That's one, uh, authority and sequencing to scope and deliverables. Uh, when residents here, uh, studies planning and analysis, um, what does it exactly does that mean? I think is a question that the residents have, um, and what will not be produced and what will be produced as a result of that planning analysis. And if the scope isn't defined, going into the town meeting, who later decides what gets studied after that's approved. And then thirdly off ramps, if there's major constraints that are revealed by environmental, uh, other committees, septic access infrastructure, what is the decision point where the town can decide to stop on this article? Um, and what prevents it from becoming a sunk cost? Momentum is we're already spending 200 K on it. Um, that gets used to justify the next step regardless of the, the findings of that study. And then fourth is just completeness of this article, uh, related to how it's analyzed. So have, have conservation climate and drainage impacts, impacts already been identified. Are they going to be included in this? Um, and our conservation climate energy, uh, shaping how and what will be evaluated in it? Um, and if those constraints aren't included, when it goes into town meeting, um, how should finance weigh conclusions about possible uses in that? And then finally, uh, value. So will this work that the analysis include costs as well as potential revenue? So meaning schools, services, infrastructure. So at town meeting, we're not left with a one sided picture only of like potential revenue and also of the potential costs. And, and so we don't get into a situation where we're, we set a precedent by funding studies before town meeting has decided, uh, the ownership of any requisition of the property. So just a summary, then I'll be done and I'll let you go on your way. Um, so my goal is simple right now is, is to get clear answers on the authority, the deliverables, what decision gates are in this article, um, what other parallel reviews should happen during it. So that's included. And then, um, so finance can responsibly recommend it without pre committing the town, um, to an outcome after the spend. Thank you. So what will happen? Uh, there is a finance committee member that has been identified to be the point on this, on this, uh, article, and they will get with petitioners to understand and draft together the pros and cons. Um, okay. And through that discovery, some of those questions will be addressed. Okay. And then the lies of the finance committee liaison will be posted on the website. It is, uh, I think Rob, it is Rob. And he's not here. Not sure. Um, we were, I think we were expecting him. So yeah, I don't know if it gets posted, but it's certainly a secret. We'll make it. Okay. So it's Rob and should I just direct communication to Rob then about that article? Fine. Okay. And there will be a select board member, Carol. Do you know who will be the select board member from, uh, article? Sorry. Those, those two you'll be hearing from. Okay. Rob and Bill. Thanks. Yeah. Appreciate it. Another comment. Yeah. Briefly. I sent an email. Um, and your name, please. And that was the fire on Sherman's good road. Great. Thanks. And, um, I just wanted to, um, suggest that that Elizabeth, if you could come up here, I'm sorry, the microphone so that it could be heard. Just, um, I, uh, I want the town to consider how to curb the cause rather than assume, we'll just vote for a prop two and a half override to pay more taxes because we do have the protection from the state of our taxes going up too high. So I think there are many ways the town could curb costs and I spelled out some of them and then that's just appreciate it. Thank you. Other public comments hearing none, let's move to our, and starting with petition articles, I'm going to go to petitioner articles. First one, I think on the list here is SS. Is that right? No, um, TT. This is Sherman's bridge. Second pedestrian walkway. Don't recall. Who was the. Someone cuts. Sorry, you guys. Okay. I'm sorry. Your name again. And Doug, could you please join us up front here? Uh, basically an article to, uh, append a, uh, this is the second pedestrian walkway. Yes. As part of the forthcoming renovations of, uh, Sherman's bridge to add a second walkway as an amenity for recreational users. Um, and also resolves a safety issue where whether there's a second walkway or not. Lots of people like looking over that side of the bridge. Um, the current design would have them basically, uh, almost caged in second walkway. Of course, they'd be high and dry and out of the way and safe. Um, anticipated that, uh, funding sources may not necessarily be the, uh, town's taxpayers. Uh, the Riverside Stewardship Council, which Tom Siaka is the local rep has indicated that they may have some funds. I would also seem like this would be a potential use of a community preservation act. That's got it. I think April, you're the point personal. There's preservation. What was the other fund? Uh, there is a federal river stewardship council, which was actually established by an act of Congress around 1989 or so. Um, which Tom Siaka is the local rep, uh, the representation of the National Park Service and the, uh, Fish and Wildlife Service. And according to Tom, they have some funds available. Um, they're also the, uh, the only abutter to the bridge and therefore would be instrumental in getting the required easements. Um, they see it as a wonderful add on to the, uh, the, uh, National Wildlife Revenue to which is the other very Carol from select board will be, um, I'm sorry, definitely Doug being great. And who is the April? I have one. Thank you. Okay. I'll follow up. I've got three more. We'll go to you. You was that, uh, the Sherman bridge, uh, yes. Uh, historically, there was a two and a half ton weight limit on Sherman's bridge. Um, I believe from the deposition, not deposition, excuse me, I'm not a lawyer, uh, from the affidavit filed by Mr. Maury Stouffer, who was a resident of Sherman's bridge back then. Uh, the weight limit was in place when he moved in in 1972 and it was understood to not be for structural reasons, but instead to respect Sherman's bridge heritage as a scenic road and keep big trucks off of it. Um, that two and a half ton weight limit was made a part of the 1971 neighborhood agreement. Um, when the bridge was rebuilt in 1992, we have an immediate butter of the states that moved in in 1995, two states that when they moved in, the weight limit sign was there. It disappeared a couple of years later. Uh, that disappearance was, uh, pretty close in time to when, uh, the 117 bridge in Concord, between Concord and Lincoln collapsed and the, uh, the prevailing hypothesis, if you will, is that the sign was taken down at that point to allow Lincoln Sudbury high school buses, uh, to get there without rerouting via route two. Um, that bridge of course took something like nine years to finish and restore to its original weight bearing capacity. And I think in 2008, no one thought to restore the sign. Um, this, uh, would simply ask the residents of Wayland to, you know, respect this historical precedent, but also recognize that, uh, pickup trucks have gotten bigger and electric battery, electric vehicle battery packs weigh a lot and therefore a five ton weight limit may be, uh, more in keeping with current times than two and a half. At the same time, keeping with school buses and, uh, the Cuviccio landscaping, uh, 18 wheelers off the bridge and out of the two neighborhoods. Any questions from people on this, this one? Nope. Well, obviously the expenses there are a couple hundred bucks for a couple of signs. Interesting. And, uh, next one is, uh, also- That's Dan Levine. Yes, that's Doug's as well. Yep. And, uh, next one is also yours, which is, uh, presumably, uh, the, the, the, the, the Sherman's Fridge neighborhood agreement. Yes. I spoke earlier, uh, the 1971 neighborhood agreement. Uh, this agreement was struck in an earlier, simpler time, uh, before the 1975 strengthening the open meeting law, uh, we've got an affidavit from Mr. Stouffer talking about how it was, uh, you know, a, a smoke-filled room, if you will, also before indoor smoking regulation, uh, at, uh, what was an EPW garage at the time behind the Weyland Golf Club, where members of the board of selectmen, members of the, uh, uh, road commissioners, those titles have changed over time. And interestingly, town council, Peter Gossels, were all there and met with the subset of residents and came up with this agreement, which has been pretty thoroughly documented. Of course, because it was an earlier time, um, you know, you'll find nothing in, uh, select board minutes, road commissioner minutes, town bylaws about it. But, uh, the, the prima facie evidence that agreement was struck, of course, was, uh, 14 months later, the town took land from 14 landowners on Sherman's Bridge Road to, um, and the agreement, of course, was with all the residents of the road. Um, but, uh, 14 months later, the land was taken to straighten, uh, Sherman's Bridge Road from a subset of the residents. Uh, that measure passed unanimously without any debate at the town meeting. Um, and there are also several, uh, Wayland town crier articles as well, which have been documented. Another point is that the town standard for right-of-ways across town is to take 40 feet wide. Uh, one of the conditions the neighbor was asked for is that, uh, the right-of-way taken only be 33 feet wide. And if you look on the town GIS, uh, on Sherman's Bridge Road from Alpine Road to the bridge, the right-of-way is in fact 33 feet wide. So this merely asks that the, uh, select board be directed to negotiate in good faith, a successor agreement, which would work better for all the parties involved. Uh, one of the points of the 1971 neighborhood agreement is that the town is forbidden to take state money for work on the road of the bridge. I'm a Wayland taxpayer. I'd like to see state money be used. Um, and the, uh, the reason for that, uh, uh, condition in 1971 is an interesting one. Um, and that is that there was fear at the time that, uh, the state had plans to extend I-290 from Hudson to Waltham, right down, uh, basically Sherman's Bridge and Lincoln Roads. And the fear was that, uh, if state money was taken, that that might give them a foot in the door to do so. So again, uh, no monetary impact, um, and basically a common sense request to, uh, you know, uh, and amend a previous agreement that the town made, um, to work better for all the parties concerned going forward and then, and that's also Doug. Yeah. All four of these are Doug. Yeah. And, uh, your last one is a second, uh, new agreement. Uh, well, yes, basically that the, uh, historic, uh, character and appearance of Sherman's Bridge be, uh, be preserved forever. Uh, that too was a condition of the 1971 neighborhood agreement. Uh, there've been periodic proposals over time to replace it with steel and concrete at, uh, at, uh, several million dollars of expenditure to the town. And this merely asks that it's the, uh, the sense of the town residents that this is a pretty important heritage artifact, um, that wood is nature's composite and is a wonderful thing to work with and that we keep the bridge wood for, uh, for as ever as the, uh, town feels like that we should have a bylaw to do so. Got it. That completes any questions. I'm only appropriate. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yes, please. Ian Bransley is in the attendees, if possible, to bring a room for the analysts. It would be appreciated. I was not yet. Sorry. Mm-hmm. All right. Well, this bird is in when he comes back. How's that sound? Michael's. Michael McCall. Is it possible for you to ask me to turn to give someone. Thanks. Appreciate it. Peter. Sorry. I'll be able to do it again. Yeah. I'm on this computer trying to move, attendant to, I'm sure. So we have two more from bridge, uh, uh, well, actually the next one in line is X, X, which is long-term facilities. I believe there was someone here, a petitioner to represent that she, the iPhone. Oh, her last name will be everyone. Do you see it? No. Oh, well, I'm not attendees, not panelists. I'm under attendees. Who's that? You know, rather than bringing over a stranger, I'll text her and see, Carol Plum is the petitioner. I don't. He's the petitioner. I don't see. I can't reach down his toes. I can't reach down his toes. I can't reach down his toes. I can't reach down his toes. I can't reach down his toes. My disability. See? So she's in 20s. Or tracking that down. I wonder if the petitioner for, um, articles YY and ZZ is here. This is also to you. Yeah. Yes. Please. Could you join yourself, Plunk? So the first one is increasing safety, reducing fear, danger for the residents and users of Sherman Bridge Road. Yes. Please. Um. I'm trying to remember your name, but. Um, Elizabeth Carter, Sherman Bridge Road. Right. I go by Elisa. Um, yeah. Um, yeah. So basically, I talked to, um, a lot of the residents, particularly, um, between the, um, preservation land and, uh, Concord Road. Um, and as well as other people concerned with the bridge and I found elderly people afraid to walk on the road or afraid every time they have to cross the street because their mailbox is on the other side. Um, and, um, and there, there are no other than the occasional, um, posted speed sign. Um, there aren't any kind of warnings. There's no school bus stop sign. There's a school bus that stops right across the street from me for two kids every day, picks them up, drops them off. No school bus sign. No warning that it's coming up. Um, there's a couple of, um, people who have driveways that are, um, around the curve and sort of concealed by brick and there's no warning that they're there. And these are, um, you know, close to the, uh, Route 126 traffic, which is heavy. And, um, and it is a narrow, um, road designated, um, uh, what is it, scenic route. And, um, it has hills that come right down to the roadside with trees. It's got drops off the side of the road, a couple of feet in that have some shrubs or little trees. So you can't put a sidewalk on either side that will go the whole length of the street. Um, and there's only a few places that you can have sidewalk, like you could have sidewalk in my front lawn, but it's not going to help anybody, you know, before or after it. Um, so there's no place for, um, cyclists to pull over if a car is coming, um, and they're not giving them enough room. They'll go into a tree, you know, there's no, or they'll drop off and there's just no place in many, um, locations on the road. And, um, looking into it, uh, it's, uh, I have a few hands. Um, there are ways for a town to determine that it should be, um, a safe, uh, road. And we have new, uh, laws to protect, um, people from, I've had some of these around, from, uh, uh, vehicles, you know, resident walkers, children, you know, vulnerable people, cyclists, anyone like that, who's also has to use the roadway because there's no alternative. Um, and these, um, so therefore it would be good to have some signs that, you know, tell these trucks and all these people commuting, um, walkers and cyclists are using this road. There's no room for a, um, bike lane. You have to give them four feet, um, even people. Um, and yes, you can go over the yellow line to do that, but there's nothing that lets people know, lets drivers know that this is happening. And there have been, um, several studies done on, um, the traffic. And this one is just looking at rush hour, um, going, um, eastbound and westbound. And, um, the peak traffic, look at this peak traffic is marked on that one. Thanks to Doug, I believe, um, indicates that people are speeding, you know, at peak traffic times and it overlaps with when there's a bus stop, when there's a bus coming there. And, um, the average speeds, you know, are up to, uh, that's another, average speeds are, um, you know, between 36, 38 miles an hour, I guess is the average speed. Um, the 85th centile is at 42 miles and below. Um, so there's skis on the other page. If there's a nice indication that, um, oh, by the police department where they looked at one week in June, 2023 is still fairly close to the pandemic. And I don't know if school was out or not yet, but, um, there were 12,405 vehicles that went on the road at that time. And that comes out to 645,000 and change a year. And the, um, slowest speed was six. Speed limits is 25. Average speed was 36. 85th percentile was, um, 42 miles an hour. Um, and, um, at other times, like this is just, uh, um, by time, this is the rush hour one, rush hour only going eastbound. Um, you will see. Elizabeth, what is the article asking for it? The article is asking for two things. One, that, um, it, that Sherman's bridge road, um, be designated, um, us. There's a safe, you know, a safe zone, you know, so that it has, um, a 20 mile an hour speed limit. And that there are adequate signage and markings, maybe a crossroad for the, where the butt stop is, um, lots of signs that get people to slow down, stuff like that, so that people can feel safer. And just one last thing, um, on this particular handout, you'll see that at only 25 miles, 23 miles an hour, there is a 10% risk of death for a pedestrian and up to, um, 50% risk of death at only 42 miles an hour. And people are going 42 miles an hour. So that's basically looking for a lower speed, um, speed and, um, a lot of signage and safety stuff and maybe a nice, you know, school. And you have the next article as well. And, uh, we're able to rock can be from finance. Okay. I'm hoping. Okay. I decided because I read the chart. Yes. What's, what's the last name? Quimby. Quimby. Q-U-I-M-B-Y. Thank you. Um, can I get those papers too? Yeah. Quimby. From the, um, select four? No, no. Finance committee. And Doug Levine from the select. Yes. Okay. So, um, and you know, that if there's a way to separate the speed limit, you know, we don't even have to go down on the speed limit because people don't pay attention anyways. But if we get the signage and we need police, I mean, I went to, um, the town manager's office sometime before the October 9th meeting and said, you know, these people are speeding, you know, and can you tell, you know, what can we do? And can you tell the police? Yeah. And, uh, he said he would, but I never saw any officer show up. So the other one is, um, basically requesting that we put a, um, ban on heavy commercial vehicles for Sherman's Bridge Road. And what that means is, of course, any that are coming to, uh, service Sherman's Bridge Road, any school buses, including, um, the Lincoln Sudbury, um, any, um, emergency vehicles, any government things, they're all can come, but it's just people that are using it as a cut through. Basically they'll be going onto the bridge or they'd be coming off the bridge, um, and speeding or whatever. And so those vehicles would not be permitted on the bridge, on the road. Um, the benefit of that is also, since they have to go on our road to get to the bridge, or when they come off the bridge, they have to use our road, then it would also, uh, reduce the amount of traffic, um, that heavy traffic going over the bridge and hopefully prolong the, um, the bridge survival. Now, the, um, there were speed limit signs since the late 1960s, and they were removed in 1999 per the request of Sudbury to MassDOT. Now, if the mystery was solved, um, I believe the director of, uh, the Department of Public Works, um, was able to get that information. And I think Sudbury has a different, um, priority than Wayland, and I'm asking that Wayland please consider the, um, its people and the, um, the, um, the, the life. I mean, both of these roads on either side of the bridge are designated, um, scenic routes. Um, one is 20 miles an hour. Ours is 25 miles an hour. This is not a highway. And the bridge shouldn't be treated as a highway. You know, there are highways for these heavy vehicles. Interesting. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I can think the, uh, the issue is, you know, uh, Carol, . Perfect. Yes. I see it here. Just for like board purposes, the person on the long-term capital, long-term facilities, planning X, X article is. And me. Okay. Great. Thanks. Thanks. So that completes petitioners. Articles. Shall we go now? Just, um, planning board comes in a half hour. Should we just start with a, the select board, which is recognizing citizens? Please. Anything? Carol Martin, Lake Road, um, member of the select board. Article A is to recognize citizens and employees for particular service to the town. This is a standard article that we have every year. Um, Doug Levine is the liaison for the select board. Okay. All right. Um. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next article is previous year's bills. Is there a select, you know, select board representative? I am. Um, this. Thank you. Uh, this is just to determine whether town will vote to pay the bills of the prior fiscal years. Um, just a little background. Um, there were just sometimes, um, bills just aren't paid at the very end of the fiscal year. And, um, so this is just to allow us, uh, to go ahead and pay it. Um, the board voted, uh, five, zero on this. Okay. Great. Rod Quindy will be the point person from FinCon for this bill or article. Um, next article is OPEP funding. Current year transfers. I missed one. Current year transfers. Thank you. Um, yeah, that's, that's me, um, as well. Uh, this is just to determine whether the town will vote to appropriate a sum or sums of money for the operation expenses of various town departments for the current fiscal year. Um, just a little background. Um, this, this is for expenditures that were already, um, for funds for the current fiscal year, which were just not foreseen in the current budget. Um, I don't, uh, again, the board voted, uh, five, zero for this. We're both approved to submit the article. They're not our position. I'm not taking any position. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. Thank you for clarification. Um, and for that article, I believe Pam, you're the point person. Okay. And now we're onto article D OPEP funding. I believe that's me as well. Is that right? I have a, I think I'm going to be on a roll. Um, uh, this is just to appropriate and aggregate amount of, um, to be determined, uh, deposit into the town's other post employment benefits trust fund, which amount shall be provided by transferring the following sum of money from the enterprise and revolving funds. Um, a little background on it. Um, it, it gets a little complicated, but, um, essentially, uh, the town pays the cost of current retiree insurance premiums as they are incurred as part of its operating budgets. And, um, the town has historically contributed additional amount to the, uh, OPEP fund for future premium payments from available funding sources, including taxation and free class if the amount contributed to the OPEP funds as described above was appropriated entirely from taxation since F1 19, except for F1 22 when revenue pressures, um, there were revenue pressures, pressures from COVID, um, and it warranted the use of free cash for contributions. Um, so this is, it got a little convoluted for me, but essentially it's just funds that need to be paid in order to fulfill the requirements of OPEP. Um, and again, it was a 5-0 voted in just to submit the article, not for the article itself. Nope. No, Iris. Sorry. You need to print out with bigger type. Uh, Iris will be the, uh, queen person from FinCom. Yep. Uh, next article is enterprise fund budgets. Okay. Enterprise, uh, fund budgets. Um, again, this is just more of like a kind of dotting every I and crossing every T on the budget to determine, um, this is to determine whether the town will vote to raise appropriate transfer from available funds or borrow a sum of money in the aggregate amount of to be determined for the operation expenses of the water enterprise fund, the wastewater enterprise fund and transfer station enterprise fund as set forth in article E as printed in 2026. Uh, we don't have the numbers for this, but we will have the numbers, which I think will make things make more sense. Um, the town's enterprise fund budget set forth in this article reflect the cost of providing town services in an efficient manner with the objective of maintaining delivery of current levels of services to residents. Um, again, the board voted five zero to submit the article. Understood. Um, and Pam is the point person from. No. Yep. Oh, I'm sorry. I revolving funds. Sorry. Next. Keep correcting. Now we're on revolving funds. There we go. Yeah. So I just, I am. Uh, so these are all just, um, essentially, uh, again, just to, to make sure that we have, uh, everything appropriate in the right place. But, uh, this was to determine if the town will vote to set the following enumerated dollar values as a total amount to be expended from the respective authorized revolving funds to the fiscal year 2027, or take any action relative there, there too. Again, uh, these numbers aren't there yet, but they will be, um, they're just getting calculated, uh, passage of this article will establish the fiscal year 2027 spending caps for the town's revolving funds. Um, again, the, uh, board approved five zero, uh, to submit this article. Uh, Iris is the point person from Penn communism. Okay. The next article is the omnibus budget. Uh, surface. I'm sorry. Thank you. Surface water quality. Surface water quality. Surface water quality. Yep. Sarah Martin Lake Road, member of the select board. Um, surface water quality committee budget is a standard article where we establish the budget for this committee. Um, I am the liaison for the select board for this article. Bill Huss will be the fincom representative. Great. Um, the next article is not the select boards, but I'll save time and tell you I'm the liaison for the select board on number H. And I am the representative on number H. Absolutely. Uh, the omnibus budget. Next article is I, and that's capital stabilization fund appropriation. Um, that is me and all the stuff that, uh, that numbers, uh, yeah, the numbers, which is fine, by the way. Um, I like it, uh, to determine if the town will vote to appropriate, uh, to be determined, um, to be deposited in the town's capital stabilization fund. And that set appropriation will be funded by X. Um, again, these will be calculated. It will be included in the final, um, article. It's just, we don't have the exact numbers right now. Um, this, this is just the appropriation from the CSF to support capital expenditures, uh, and requires a two thirds majority vote at town meeting. The policy established the appropriation from the CSF and priority order are restricted to additional funding to support the town's capital investment plan for projects previously approved at town meeting, unanticipated capital projects resulting from a catastrophic or emergency event. If the financial burden of the event is in excess of an amount, which the finance community reserves fund can cover the town share of matching grants, support of critical capital expenses. If revenue from the water, whatever source, including free cash is less than forecast in the five year cap capital investment plan and providing for general fund pay as you go capital appropriations. I only read that just to, um, show that this is, this is going to abide by those. Um, and then it's, uh, again, five zero to, uh, approve submitting the article. And people, you're the, on that one, choosing town officers, article J. That is me as well. Um, this is just to determine, I swear, I'm not running this, this whole thing. You're, you're going to hear from the rest of the select board, uh, to do, to determine whether the town will vote to choose town officers, agents, trustees, councils, commissioners, boards and committees, not elected by official ballot. Uh, we do this every year. It's a, it's a pretty standard, um, article. And again, a five year zero to submit the article. And Pam, you're there. Great. Uh, article K here reports. Uh, another very standard, um, recognizable article, um, hasn't changed much in its, uh, its writing to determine whether the town will vote to receive an act upon reports of town officers, agents, trustees, commissioners, boards, and committees. And, uh, again, it's five zero, uh, to submit the article. And Carl Barnes is the, uh, point person from FinCon. Okay. Uh, and seller trade vehicles, article L. Okay. Um, again, very, very, very standard. Um, and we will have the information on the department, the vehicle equipment in the year before final submission. Um, and it's, uh, again, five zero for submission. And, uh, Hey, Ann, that'll be me. So, um, one of the things that I would add, um, last year, I had to search for this, but whoever submits the request to you all in terms of the vehicles, they're willing to trade. I know we don't change the standard language, but in the arguments for and against, um, if possible to know why the vehicle needs to be sold or trade, I think is pertinent, relevant information for the public to be able to support the bill. Um, last year, I tracked that down myself, but certainly if people are giving information, anyway, asking them at that moment, Hey, why are we selling this? That is helpful. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Next article is article N, special education reserve fund. Carol. Yep. It's a standard article. Um, it's a reserve fund for our special education program and the select would liaison in this is Doug Levine. Okay. And. Iris is. Okay. Thank you. And we're sending that. Ann, are you that one? It's me again. Yes. Um, to determine whether the town will vote to rescind the previously authorized but unissued debt. Um, pretty standard when, um, we've had unissued debt. Uh, again, the numbers will be finalized by the finance department. And again, it was, um, voted five, zero. Yep. And sorry, but my question is, um, how do you know for this bed reserve fund? Is there an amount already determined? No, I'm sorry. Um, no amounts have been determined yet. All right. These were just. Okay. It's just, okay. And then it's submitted because they're standard articles. Sure. And you want to have it. Yep. Fair enough. No, I know. I'm just asking you in terms of like actually writing. A couple of these standards may drop out because they may not need them. I'm sure we'll need the spec, but. We need probably need this. Yeah. And then 52 articles would be good. And then Brian, do we have a sense right now for this bed reserve article? The funding source. Will that stay similar to what it was last year? Or is there any likelihood of that changing? Well, right now there's still $500,000 in the account from fiscal 26. It was funded by free cash. The fiscal 27 will also be funded by free cash. We're still working with the school on the amount. Okay. Love it. Thank you for. All good. I think that'd be helpful to have an article to the balance from the prior year. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, so now we're on to article O, updating personnel. Did we say, well, the FinCon liaison was for N? Yeah. Doug Levine. For M. For N. The FinCon. It's Quindle. Thank you. Okay. Article O is a standard article. This allows us to update our personnel bylaws and wage and classification plan. Okay. And the, uh, collect board liaison is myself. Okay. And Carl from FinCon. Okay. The next article is reaffirm remote participation at town meeting. Good evening. Tom Faye, member of the select board. So this article, reaffirm remote participation at town meeting has presented, been presented before. Uh, it basically permits a home rule petition for the town of Whalen to, um, lobby the legislature and, and support legislation, which, um, has been filed, uh, more than once. To, uh, gain support from the legislator to, uh, legislator to, uh, permit, uh, Whalen to, uh, develop and implement remote participation where, uh, at that time meeting where individuals can be at home or elsewhere, uh, to, uh, actively participate. Um, and, um, it was recommended by local legislators to, um, submit this article for passage so that the legislature, um, is assured that the town still, uh, wants to proceed with this. We've done this before. We have. Yeah. Right. It's, it's the state legislature that's still there. Yeah. We need, we need, uh, special legislation to, you know, permit us to do this. And Bill Huss is the, uh, . Great. Um, are there other towns that are, or cities that are doing the same thing? There, there are several other communities that we've, I've been in touch with. Robert. Had the home rule petition and Weston was going to vote on it. Okay. And, um, and so kind of drum up support. The next article is Article Q, Acceptance of MGL Chapter 60, Section 2. Yes. Um, this actually, the liaison for the select board is, is Tom. We had a little switch here, so I'm going to be speaking on this. Um. The Colonel is the. Great. Thank you. I want to give you just a little heads up on select what actually submitted 31 articles this year, which is a very large amount for us. But when you look through the list, starting with this one, you'll see we have a number of these small items that just will make running the town much more smoothly. And they require stepping back, taking the time, get the research done and put the article together. Most of them probably don't have much financial impact like this one, but they just help us run the town better. And I want to give a shout out to both the town manager and the assistant town manager for bringing these to the board's attention and bringing them forth. So this one, and hopefully I will explain some of these correctly. So. Just for you to detail. Is it possible that these will go under a consent agenda as a, as a whole group? Um, well, I'm going to ask you later on, I'm going to stay for the meeting to see what you're going to have as non-financials. Okay. We will pick from those. Okay. And generally speaking though, anything that requires a code change, we like to have a separate article. Okay. So this one probably would be a separate article. Okay. But essentially we have on our tax rolls, a number of folks who own a dollar, $3, $5. Maybe it's some interest that fell through or something. This would allow the treasurer to clear those out. Anything up to about $25. It's not an opportunity for people to pay $25 less on the bill. Does anyone have any questions on this? No, was it again? Sorry. No, it's me. Uh, it's Tom. Sorry. I'm sorry. Taking your article. Thank you. And the next article is, uh, article R which is. Yeah. Now this article. Yeah. I'm sorry. 53 section 18B. Yeah. This article is near and dear to the select board's heart. Doug Levine is going to be the liaison for this. When we have a special election, the board voted to, you know, hold the election but wanted to also include information on the ballot. A yes ballot. Vote means this. A no vote means this. Being able to send home some information out to the residents. Um, in order to do that, we, we, the town have to accept this section of the code. So this is another one of these, no financial impact, probably in your opinion, but certainly be very instrumental and helpful. I think, um, to the residents. The next. Who's the liaison? Carl. Yeah. Okay. The next one is chapter 138, section 12. Okay. Mr. Whitney. Yes. Mr. Whitney. Article. Yes. Dr. Yeah. You're S and T. Evening. The Whitney member of the select board. Um, the, uh, this article would, uh, if adopted, uh, enable the town to convert wine and, and mold licenses to liquor licenses. I'm sorry. This is a vertical S. I'm sorry. Uh, chapter 138, section 12. You think you were just speaking to article T, but I'm not sure. No, actually that was, yes. Okay. Sorry. Keep going. So, uh, the other one was liquor licenses. That's correct. Uh, so, uh, under, uh, chapter 138, uh, uh, communities are allowed to, uh, convert malt and, uh, wine licenses to liquor licenses. Yeah. So, so we're, uh, seeking town meeting approval to do that. With respect to T, um, we are. Just for tracking purposes, Rob Quimity is the one. Okay. Thank you. And, um, with respect to T, additional liquor license. Uh, the town has, uh, used up, uh, or has issued all of the liquor licenses that it has available. So we're, uh, seeking, uh, permission from the town meeting to petition the general court for an additional 10 liquor licenses. As you know, the state legislature controls the number of licenses. Got it. Okay. Is that wrong as well? Thank you. Uh, the next article for considerations allow print free digital legal notices. Article you. Okay. This is, um, Doug Levine is the liaison of the select board. Okay. Essentially what this article is, this is another one. We don't have, or we didn't have them to put this in. You know, we don't have a weekly newspaper. We have a bi-weekly now, which is great. Um, bi-monthly. And, um, so what's happening is we're spending money, you know, for example, on, um, I think some online, um, like the patch and what have you. This will allow the town some flexibility. If they feel they want to put a hearing notice in, uh, on just an online or a web, uh, platform, that's what they will do. They feel we, it's a larger one and we need to put it on the print. We'll put it on the print. Also save us probably some money. Not much, but some. Do you have any more questions? Great. Okay. Yeah. That would have a. I'm sorry. It would. It's a cost savings. There's a financial. Very small. No, because I believe the hearing notices are about, well, depending on which department is, there's a couple hundred dollars. Here. There's a financial. You look at what it's in, how much it would be. Right. You know, the first year, just bracket. There. Okay. The next article is cryptocurrency machines. Article V. Yes. I'm Tom Fay, member of the SelectFord, Happy Hollow Road. So, um, cryptocurrency, as many of you know, is a digital or virtual currency. It uses crypto topography for security and operates independently of a central bank. Um, the form, the formatting for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Coin Hub, Dash, Litecoin, Ripple, Zcash, Ethereum and other blockchain based tokens. So this bylaw is an effort to prohibit the installation and use of cryptocurrency machines. We'll be amending the general bylaw in the town. Um, these machines are used to buy or sell virtual or cryptocurrencies using cash or debit and credit cards. They pose risks to consumers, particularly individuals who are older. And, uh, we think it's, uh, in the interest of the town, uh, to, uh, prevent their existence in the town. Have very good towns done this? Just out of curiosity. Um, not that I know of, um, not that I know of. Maybe a town manager does know the answer to that question. But I don't know if, uh, but, are there other communities? Yes, I have actually, um, there was, um, I think I read an article at the, um, meeting and I was in the form of sound independence. There were, there was quite a few in the case, like 25, and they were banning the town act. It might be something that the state might take action on. So each time they have to look at the subject. Yeah. At any rate, it is what it is. Um, and the person on this one? Yes. Yep. Okay, great. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. We're probably going to manage on that, right?
Sure. Actually, there are several towns that they have done, and they go, you know, and the next article is the article W issue of pension fund bonds or notice. Yay. So the liaison on this is myself, uh, for the select board. This article was, um, you may have actually, Mr. Kevin, he may have come and spoken to the Finance Committee about this. The town has been notified by the Middlesex retirement that we, in fact, have some, um, make up is the wrong word, but there is going to be unfunded. Thank you. Like make us. That's not the correct word. We have some unfunded liability. So in addition to our annual contributions, which have increased, uh, we all, I think it's $58 million. It was, and they, I believe they would like us to fund this over a 10 year period, which is quite interesting. Um, ordinarily we run the retirement through our, um, operating budget. However, I don't think the operating budget, this year, for example, is $900,000. And you saw what happened to the budget that. Um, so our bond issuance company Hilltop has brought this forth and Brian has brought it forth to the select board that this is like a new idea and that, um, you issue, you do a debt exclusion to issue your pension fund bond notes with the hope that your rate on the note is less than the earnings that you would make in the retirement system. There's a lot of language to this and I'm sure we're having Brian coming back. He's focused select board a couple of times. Um, it is this case. We are asking the state to allow us to have this. So here we're just asking town meetings to authorize the select board to pursue this as a potential tool in our toolbox. But what it does mechanically again, is it allows us basically to issue debt exclusion for these now and you have the opportunity. You can structure it any number of ways. You can structure it. You know, you borrow the whole 58, the whole amount once you may borrow a three year amount. You may do it in five years, five years. There's a reserve fund component to it that, you know, perhaps we put our money in a reserve fund. Um, it's, it's, and it's not without it's challenges, but it certainly is an opportunity and we, we felt we should look at it because again, it could be a nice tool in the box and the tool in the toolbox. Should we need this as we go forward to fund this? How many other towns have done this? Anything like this? I don't think so. Brian, Brian. Mr. Kevin, can you help me out? How many other towns have done this? Yeah. So let me, thank you, Carol. So what this article is doing is seeking special legislation to issue pension obligation bonds. Currently in Massachusetts, there's probably five towns that have done it. Andover, Quincy, Worcester. It's viewed as a high risk investment. Meaning that the taxable bond, this is a bond that would be issued on a taxable basis, not exempt tax. When we, when we issue bonds to pay for things, the municipal bonds in their, um, tax excluded for the investor. This is different. This is a taxable bond. Um, in California recently, there was about a hundred towns that issued pension obligation bonds. What we're asking here is simply for the town to speak, to seek special legislation. If the town ever wanted to issue such a bond, they would first need to have this special legislation in place. If the stars were correct, meaning that you could borrow, um, Carol's right. It's $58 million. That's the present value of our unfunded liability is $58 million. If you could borrow $58 million, pay that over say 20 years, the, um, the investment cost of that would have to be less than your return on the money you borrow. So basically you'd be giving $58 million to Middlesex retirement, and they would be seeking an investment return greater than what we're paying on the debt. It comes with a high risk, but that's not what we're talking about at this town meeting. We're simply asking town meeting to put themselves in a position. If they ever wanted to do this, if the stars were correct, they would be in a position to do it. So this is a special legislation article. I understand the request and Iris is the point person I think on this. Um, Brian, just to, for context, what is the amount that we're spending sort of fiscal year 26, 27 in our unfunded pension liability. Somehow I remembered something excess of $5 million. Yeah. It's more like seven. The, the assessment is about $7 million. It's going up 6.4% in fiscal 27. Yeah. And currently that's projected at this rate of spend that we get that behind us in whatever it was, 20, 20, 36. Yeah. Back in, back in the mid eighties, uh, the state made this a requirement for municipalities to be fully funded on their pension obligation in 40 years. Many, uh, municipalities are fully funded or close to it. Wayland currently now through middle section retirement is about 50 to 60, 50, 50 to 60 percent fully funded. So in 10 years, we've got to go from 60% unfunded. I mean, funded to 100% funded in a matter of 10 years. So Carol's correct. There's an escalation of payments. So we certainly have to look at the present value of those payments and compare that to, you know, the cost of issuing the bonds, doing this kind of a bond structure is very complicated, but that's not what we're asking Tom eating to do. It's simply putting yourself in a position to do it. And just to be clear, 2038 or thereabouts, we would be able to drop our costs or expenditures on the order of seven plus million dollars. Yeah. I mean, by the time we get to 2036 or 2037, we'll probably be paying around $10 million a year in assessments. That would simply fall off our budget in the year we become fully funded. That would be the biggest swing factor that we'll probably have in a decade. Right. But you also got to keep in mind, we could have a correction in the market like in 2008 and you could get pushed out an additional five years. Yeah. All right, Brian, hang on. I'm going to need your help with the next one. The next is Article X, Transfer to the General Stabilization Fund. Yeah. So we actually have three articles that deal with funding the fire contracts. We have a collective bargaining agreement that expired in June that's not funded. And then we have a collective bargaining agreement that's, you know, hopefully the next iteration is being negotiated. So I am going to let Brian, because there's three of them, and this one's not labeled which year it is. So Brian, which year is XFAR? This says to the General Stabilization Fund. Is that for 26 or 27? So there's two articles that transfer money to the General Stabilization Fund. The first one would be, I'm sorry, this, the first one would be to take the fiscal 27 callers, not include them in the general fund budget, but put them in a special, a separate article at town meeting funded by taxation, and put that amount of money into the General Stabilization Fund. The purpose of that would be, if the collective bargaining agreements were not ratified by the time we close out town meeting, you would not need to reappropriate that money in fiscal 2028. The money would already be appropriated. This saves the town from appropriating something twice. Hang on one second, Brian. Brian's talking about, I believe, Article Z. Transfer to the General Stabilization Fund to fund FY27 union contract. That would be the call was 27. Brian, is that me? Is that track? I think that's right, Carol. Yeah. So there's a 26 amount, there's a 27 amount in the full contract. Just, you know, okay. Okay. So, so one of the, one of the articles, I forget what Carol said was, was to take the full amount of the 27 callers for all employees and transfer it into the General Stabilization Fund. We may not, we may not go through with that. We may put the money in the salary reserve for appropriation, like we've done in the general fund budget. But that, that conversation is still ongoing. The second one, Carol mentioned. Hang on one second, Brian. We want to stick. Who's the liaison? Okay, great. Okay. Okay. Who's the liaison there again? Iris is the FinCom liaison. Carol said you could select for it. I'm, I'm, I'm the select one, Brian. Okay. So then the next one, Brian. Sorry. Go ahead. There's two more articles, both relating to the fire contract. The first article says to transfer a fiscal 26 salary reserve into the fire budget. We need that article at town meeting for this purpose. If the fire contract is not settled by the time we print the warrant, but it does get settled before town meeting. There will be a high probability. There'll be a motion on the floor asking Miranda to allow a motion to transfer money from the salaries. I just saw her head pop up the salary reserve into the fire budget. Right. If we did not have that article on town meeting floor, we would not be able to fund the COLA for fiscal 24, 25 and 26. That's article AA. And who's the liaison? It's me. Iris. Okay. Okay. If the fire contract does not get settled, then we'll pass over that article. Right. If the fire contract is not settled, then we will, there's another article as Carol mentioned, we will transfer $537,000 by free cash into the general stabilization fund. The purpose of that is that you don't reappropriate it a second time in the following year. Who's got that? Iris? Iris. And X. Sorry. That's what we've been talking about. X and Z. We've been talking about three different articles. She has X. She has Z as well. I have X and Z. And AA. And so do I. Got it. And so do I. Okay. So AA, the fire payroll budget, that's assuming if the contracts go through. And if it doesn't go through, then it's X. If it's not signed. If that one doesn't go through, we will pull that article. There's one that's going to go. That's what I'm just trying to make sure. I think a couple of these are going to go and Brian's going to give it, lead us on the way of this. How's that sound? Yep. That's good. When, unfortunately the titles are not strong enough here for you to differentiate, but when you read the article right up, so I'm sure you'll see the difference. All right. Now I'm going to come back. We're going to article Y now. But I have a question of permanent. Well, no, no. Well, go ahead. Sure. But I'm going to extend the. So. The rail trail. The rail trail. So. The rail is a fincom. Carol. If you're tracking bills, they're going to fincom member for the rail trail. Thank you. Bill's Bill or rail comp Bay. Right now it looks like Bill. Okay. We're going to do a tag team, just to make it confusing. So in order for completion of this portion of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, the town needs to acquire and convey to the Commonwealth, DCR specifically, I think, easements for both permanent easements and temporary construction easements. So this is for town-owned land as well as land that is owned by the town center. The town center will convey their interest in the property to the town for nominal consideration and the town will in turn convey it to the Commonwealth. Any questions, Bill, at this point? Any sense of costs over that coming at some point? Just legal fees, I would think. Okay. So when we get these easements, they won't necessarily be a purchase price, they'll just be granted. Right. So the town center has indicated that they will just convey it for a nominal fee, the nominal price, and then the balance is town-owned land. Okay. Great. Let me just keep working through. Screen burial. Screen burial. Yep. EG. Carol. Carol. Thank you. Doug Levine is the select board liaison on this article. Iris. Okay. Iris. Okay, great. This is another one of the small ones that we feel is important to put forth. We had an instance in town last year where a resident wanted to have a green burial and the state, as General Cole or whatever it is, general law said that that has to be authorized by town meeting. And, you know, something that- It was last year. It was last year, but it was about an eight or nine month wait for that poor resident to get to town meeting. So the select board is going to ask the town meeting to authorize this home rule petition to allow the select board to authorize green burials in the future. And I also think that the resident in question was extremely gracious to the town, could have follow the special town meeting, which I think would be in her right, but it would have been an expense to the town. So this will be a nice thing to do and a fiscally smart thing to do. Questions? I understand. We think that there's- So last year's article on the green burial, I think where we landed is that there really was no financial impact. And I'm sort of a similar mind, Carol, that there's no financial impact. This is just a legislative ask for the town, so. Yep. Right. I think you'll notice we only put the 150 words on that right up anyway. Perfect. Yeah. And then the next one is the many time code checker 36. One. Yep. I'm the select board liaison on this one. This is- Okay. Thank you. April. What this one is, is the last couple of years, we seem to have had difficulty finding time meeting dates that were amenable to everyone. Granted, we can call time meeting whenever we like, but you know, we're trying to work around the various schedules at the Fieldhouse is very popular. And so it just seems that two years in a row, if we just could have held time meeting like after May 15, or even started May 15, would have been good. Okay. So this book is just expanding the dates. It actually brings it back March 15 to June 1. And that's, that's all we're changing on this. And the next is our ODD Holiday Road. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, as the, uh, the draft one article indicates, uh, this pertains to, uh, a 13.7 acre parcel owned, uh, by the town, uh, with care and custody vested in the school committee located at 25 Holiday Road. Pardon me. Um, property was acquired by the town in 1956. Uh, and, uh, has, uh, heretofore not been developed. Uh, the, uh, Wayland real estate planning committee or the wrap committee, uh, identified, uh, this parcel in June of 2017 and its final report is being appropriate for market rate and affordable housing. Um, uh, as the finance committee is well aware, uh, the town faces significant challenges. Uh, new growth is, uh, an area where we think, uh, development of a parcel such as this could, uh, contribute to, uh, the town's financial stability. Uh, the select board, um, has, uh, not had a chance to really, uh, do a detailed discussion of specifically what would be involved. Um, my recommendation to the board will be as follows, uh, that, uh, the, the board should this one article be approved, uh, undertake, uh, site planning to test options for reuse alternatives for the site. As, uh, the one article indicates, uh, I think a site survey and preliminary civil engineering would inform availability and sufficiency of utilities on the site as well as distribution within the property. In addition, uh, geotechnical analysis would, uh, help determine the bearing capacity of the soils and inform recommendations as to foundation systems of whatever may be built. Uh, a phase one environmental assessment could be commissioned and depending on the results of that analysis would establish whether further environmental study is needed. Uh, in addition, preliminary septic design and engineering would be undertaken to determine, uh, what is needed to support the eventual build out of the property. Uh, conceptual design of a building or buildings, uh, would, uh, help townspeople, particularly area residents, understand what, uh, could be developed as well as to inform potential zoning or other regulatory actions. Traffic analysis would be conditioned, uh, could be commissioned to determine potential traffic impacts of the proposed reuse as well as, uh, recommended mitigation measures. Uh, requested some could also pay for legal fees associated with a proposal, including regulatory reviews, a review of, uh, draft request for development proposals, preparation documents related to the eventual conveyance of the property and so forth. Um, actions that may be requested at a future town meeting, not the upcoming town meeting, could include transferring care and custody of the property from the school community to the checkboard authorization to dispose of the property and potentially an action pertaining to zoning of the site. Uh, with respect to the $200,000, that is, uh, admittedly a ballpark estimate, we will be working to refine that, uh, based on the, the scope that's been described here. Uh, as a point of reference, I'd note that in April of, um, 2012, the town meeting approved $360,000, uh, for similar kinds of studies, uh, for what's now Alta Oxpo. So, uh, I think the sum is within line. Uh, with respect to, uh, the question of care and custody of the property, I've spoken to the school superintendent as recently as today about this. Um, as you're probably aware, the school committee is working with an architectural firm, HMHF of Cambridge, uh, doing a long-term, uh, facilities assessment, uh, or master plan really for K-8. Um, part of the work that that consultant is doing is looking at potential locations where a future school or school or schools might be developed. Um, I have asked, and the superintendent has agreed that, uh, we would, uh, very much appreciate, uh, a word back from the school committee during the month of February with respect to what, their potential future interest in the property. How is it that it's the school committee's property now? Just out of curiosity. I, I, I think it was acquired in 56 from that point. Oh, but the school committee, or the school of the work? Uh, I, I think, uh, that's my understanding. I, I was, I was a baby. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Holding up to it. Yeah. Um, and the, uh, quick person from, uh, FinCom is Rob Quimby. Okay. For this, any other questions? Um, the 200,000, is that still, you feel like that's adequate to cover everything that you noted? Uh, I, I think, uh, that bears further investigation. Okay. Good. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Annette Lewis from the planning board. We had to recess our other hearing and could we be taken at the border? Thank you. Yes. This means the, uh, article LL housekeeping zoning. Well, we've each taken. Yeah. Thank you for. For the record, Robert Hummel, town planner in the planning department. Um, this article is, is a collection of stakes, things to clean up in the past. And also we had our code enforcement company go in and give us a list of things that may be changed. So if you look through many of these changes, a lot of our out is to fix outdated, um, department names, like the executive office of housing and liberal communities, formerly known as DHCD. So taking out things that are just not relevant anymore. We don't refer to the bad DHCD anymore. Um, also a lot of just things that are duplicate and we don't need definitions of things that are just things that have been missed over time. Um, so my understanding is that every year we always have a list of housekeeping articles and a different, different things. And it's about, you know, how much you can put in one article. But also in this case, we want to clean up just the same thing. So we want to make it short, but we also want to make sure we, we don't forget things that need to be changed all the time. So. Bill Adams will be the point person. Do you think, um, do you want to select it? I want to move on for the five plan of order articles about L. It is swimming. Okay. I'm sorry. I couldn't hear. Who? Bill Whitt. Yeah. Two bills. Um, any questions? There should be financial, um. Understood. Thank you. Yep. Amending the floor plan or floodplain in federal protection. Hello. So, um, I return in, um, on the planning ward 17. Concord. Um, let's see, we're providing, um, several, uh, street forward, but important updates to the floodplain district and the federal floodplain blood protection district regulation, mostly housekeeping. Um, they'll clarify permitted uses, uh, and incorporate the latest FEMA flood insurance rate map into our zoning map in order for the town to be eligible for national flood insurance program. Um, we need to, uh, marry these two, um, regulations and we voted 5 to 0, uh, in support. Yep. Okay. I'm curious. When was the last time this has been updated? Do you. Uh, the floodplain regulation or the map? The map. I think it was the last time. But what happened was in the meantime, the state told us, told the conservation commission that we needed to do more than just the maps. Okay. Got it. But it's the same map that I did last year. Pretty much. I think there might have been, I, it might be a slight change, but I think they were pretty much this time. Got it. Thanks. And Bill Huss is the point person from here. Yeah. Did the Whitney from here. Thank you. Well, next one accessory dwelling units. Is there any units? Good evening. Robin Borgset from the planning board. 90 Oxbow Road. Um, this is a pretty extensive rewrite of what we put through last year. Last year, we were sort of reacting in a, on an emergency basis to changes in the law, the affordable homes act. And it meant that we had to restrict the size of ADUs and many, if not most people in Whalen want larger than what was allowed by the statute. So we've gone back and fit the two things together so that we have the parts that comply with the statute, but then also, uh, special permit provisions to allow for larger ADUs. And to allow the town to regulate those in an appropriate manner, but still allow people to come and seek what they need for their homes. Initial impact. Um, happier people? No. I think Carl is the point person from, uh, who from Carol from Select Board? Whitney. Bill Whitney. Carl Barnes from Select Board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. I'm seeing the point person on our original article last year. And although I haven't read it again since, since April, or like maybe me. Um, I thought the statute limited the size. Do we have the ability with special permit? It limits the by right size. So, and so we needed to comply with that. And we had to have majority vote versus tooth. It was just, we needed to stick with the statute for, for then. And it was always our plan to come back this year and allow a special permit process. Thank you. Thank you. Next, which is multi family housing. We're up 20. We're so distant. Annette Lewis, uh, Clay Pitt Hill Road, chairman of the planning board. Um, we had approved article 27. I believe two years ago, um, to be in compliance with the MBTA communities act. Um, at that time we created four sub districts. This is just one of the sub districts. Um, the, um, property owner, uh, approached the planning board and said that they have a project that they would like to put in. Um, but they would like to have, um, some relief on the, uh, maximum building height and on the maximum units per acre. As to the maximum units per acre, uh, they proposed, uh, 32 units per acre for the route 20 west. And that's similar to what river's edge is at 20 at 32. Um, and then for the maximum height of the building, it was originally 35 because we were keeping them all the same, uh, throughout the town, uh, with our regular zoning, uh, except that it with river's edge, it was 45. Uh, and we had some leeway at the town center for things that were, uh, above the roof line. Uh, but here, uh, the majority of the site is below route 20. So that any building that you put in there will not see like it's 58 feet. And it will in fact appear shorter than the, uh, river's edge or Augsville housing. Is this Maloney's property? No, it's where, um, it's the, uh, it's the beginning of the road into Longfellow. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Um, and the next one, um, Jesse Newbery, hopefully has joined the meeting and yes. And he's the. All right. Turn over. Jesse, you should be able to speak. Hi. All right. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Well, okay. Very good. Very good. Thank you. So, um, this particular. Oh, go ahead. Uh, where do you live? All right. Jesse Newbery with the planning board, uh, 29 river road. Correct. Great. Thanks. Um, so this particular article, um, we're, we're proposing this because we don't really have anything on the books to regulate, uh, photo photovoltaic arrays, um, right now. And, uh, so we wanted to establish some predictable, clear rules for small, medium and large installations, um, while getting compliance with the state law for solar, uh, installations as well. So this allows small installations by right. And, uh, requires planning board review for larger projects, uh, set standards for height, size, um, setbacks, lot coverage, screening, stormwater management, noise, glare, um, and environmental protection, again, all in line with the state law. Um, also has requirements for site restoration and decommissioning at the end of a project. Um, and supports general renewable energy and development while keeping our neighborhoods, uh, character and covering for public safety and keeping our natural resources intact. Um, what's the break point between small and not small? So, uh, it's by, it's by, um, area and that was, uh, acreage. That was at the recommendation of a friend that works for a national grid since this technology is ever developing and getting more and more efficient. Well, but what is the acre? Um, so small. Yeah. So small is less than an acre. Medium is between one of five and large is anything over five. Uh, Bill Huss from 10 common will be the person on this. Okay. Great. Thanks, Jess. Thank you. Is that complete planning committee? Yeah, I appreciate it. You're welcome. And now moving back. We CPA next, I think? Sure. Okay. I agree. Equally. Planning board appeals. Select board. My understanding that if, uh, the site, uh, a site plan is approved by the planning board, and someone is aggrieved by that decision, they need to wait until the, uh, a building permit issues, and then they can appeal the, uh, uh, the issuance of the building permit by the, uh, building commissioner. This article seeks to clarify that, uh, if someone is, uh, unhappy with a, uh, decision, uh, with respect to, uh, a planning board site plan approval, they may appeal it directly to a court of competent jurisdiction. They don't have to wait until the building permit. Correct. Yeah. And, uh, Bill, we hear the representative on this. Any financial, though, are we getting ourselves in more legal issues because of this? Uh, potentially. I don't know. Uh, so you, you might say that, uh, we're going to incur the costs earlier rather than late until the building permit issues. But we might be encouraging more suits, I guess, might be. Potentially. But we don't know. Yeah. I, I, I don't know if, uh, telling people they can file suit is really encouragement. Uh, I think it's, uh, you know, particularly with some of the recent activity with, uh, some of these Doberman projects, uh, there is, uh, a real interest in seeing if there is a way to, uh, uh, have a recourse, uh, before building permit issues. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, are you the liaison from? Yes. Okay. Thank you. And then the next article is FF, Community Preservation Act. Hello, Susan Weinstein, uh, Concord Road Chair of the Community Preservation Commission, uh, Committee. Yep. Thanks so much for having me. Um, so FF is our standard article for set-asides and transfers. Presumably you all know that the Community Preservation Act requires the town to set aside at least 10% of the annual revenue into each of the three purpose funds for open space, community housing, and historic resources. So that's the first part of this. Uh, second part is that we took out, uh, we borrowed, uh, in order to purchase a conservation restriction on Mainstone Farm. We're paying that. So that's what the $374,000, uh, is debt service. Uh, we're gonna add, uh, $20,000 to the Community Preservation Committee Administrative Fund. And, uh, the money that we, the 10% that went into the, uh, community housing bucket, uh, will be transferred to the, uh, Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And, uh, who from Select Board? Um. Tom. Tom. And, uh, Pam Roman will be from Cincinnati. Tom's on the next one, too. Awesome.
Um, uh, happily, we don't have any huge, uh, requests this year, so we're able to consolidate all of the projects into one article, also with the urging of certain members of the, uh, select board to try and, you know, minimize the number of articles. I don't think that it's confusing, but if it is, then please do say so. Um, but there are very, uh, modest requests, uh, for, uh, the Open Space Fund, uh, for, uh, uh, from the Conservation Department, uh, what is it? Um, the one for the boardwalks is for the Recreation Department, but it's really a conservation thing, just the way that has to be categorized, because it's not acquisition of open space. Um, uh, DPW, we were able to fund part of their whole big study around Dudley Pond. Uh, there are many expenses that were in the request that we were not able to fund, but there were, there were some that we were. So, uh, we were able to, um, you know, propose funding a pretty substantial amount of that. And, uh, anything, um, any projects that involve soil disruption on, um, town owned land. We like to have money for historical monitoring in case it's needed. And, uh, planning department wants to work on the housing production plan, which we have to do every five years, I think. Uh, and so we were able to take money for that. And finally, the, uh, Groud Heard House and Museum. The Historical Society is proposing to do some work there. And then the other thing that we have started doing is, uh, putting in a 36 month timeframe for projects to be completed. Okay. So, yeah. Would you like to vote on that? Sure. Tom. Got it. Good. Thank you. And, Mr. Chair, I have to say, you know, I have to say, CBC and Susan in particular, kudos to you leading the charge and making the warrants a much better product. Thank you. Did you hear that? Happy to help. Okay. Great. I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't hear who the FinCon person is. Pam. Also Pam. Awesome. Thank you guys. Appreciate all your work. You're welcome. Thank you. And now what are construction? I don't know whether it's going to be Tom Holder or George. We just want to speak. Uh, it's George. George has his hand raised. Antoine has his hand raised. And Carl Barnes is the. Okay. Great. And, and I'm the liaison. Are you sure? Carl, that was no surprise. No. To do that. No. Tom, you're up. Please. I'm George. It looks like Tom's raised his hand on this. Yes. Good evening. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Please. Beautiful. Thanks very much for, for having us tonight. Um, the purpose of this article is to appropriate the sum of thirty eight point six million dollars for the construction of a permanent happy hollow water treatment facility and a permanent connection to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority water system. Uh, this article was the result of a three year evaluation performed by the Department of Public Works in collaboration with the Board of Public Works. Um, and that evaluation was to, was to determine a solution to some of our current, uh, drinking water challenges. We have received prior appropriations for the design, which we are currently performing. We're at the sixty percent, uh, design threshold at this point in time. This project is critical to the continuance of the town's long-term ability to deliver safe and reliable drinking water to Wayland. Um, we've got a long story to tell. Um, we have a, a pretty, uh, significant article written, uh, which I believe FinCom has. Uh, and I'm happy to answer any particular questions you might have, uh, tonight, uh, or in the future. And one question I would encourage Tom and, and team to think about is making sure it's, it's distinguished from the earlier article in the Water Enterprise Fund just to, so people are familiar realizing that there's two articles around this so that it doesn't, and then I don't know what's being planned, but, uh, I think a significant amount of town education is still likely to be needed to, to sort of help everybody come up to speed what our options are and what our circumstances are. So I encourage, uh, that to be done. Yeah, I, I'm glad you mentioned that, uh, Mr. Chair is, we have scheduled a form, uh, on this particular subject, uh, to be held at the, uh, uh, Council on Aging, uh, Community Center. And that is on April 7th at 7 PM, uh, Department of Public Works staff, Board of Public Works members, and members of our, uh, design team will be available. Uh, we'll offer a presentation and be there to answer questions in preparation of this important town meeting vote. Great. I encourage the town manager, McCall, to put it in his weekly or whatever it is every week newsletter as well. I'll send some, some, some discussion of what the options are and how we're, where we are at this moment. Get it, get everyone up to speed. Any questions for Tom at this point? I have none. Okay. George, is your hand up? I'm not sure. Is, uh, going to screen. Uh, I was, but, uh, Tom got me there, got in first, so I'm all set. I think we're good for now. Thanks. All right. Thank you for the consideration. Uh, next article is peddling, peddling with. Headling with hawkers and solicitation. Okay. So I'll add the next three or four articles. Tom, actually the first was four, but there's two there. Okay. I think the time article is going to be on. Trudy Reed. Trudy Reed. Trudy Reed. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Excellent. Welcome. Thank you. Um, Trudy Reed, town clerk, um, is a little bit of background information. Um, for the last two years off and on, I've been working with our vendor who hosts our bylaws on the town's website, also known as E code. And it was discovered that the town of Wayland has not done a turtle recodification for 20 plus years. So I initiated a project and worked with department heads, boards and committee members. So we have gone through the entire bylaws, the majority of the bylaws and, um, made some suggested changes that would bring us, um, in compliance with at least the state law, if not better. So while I was doing this project, it gave me a better view of Wayland's bylaws, which brings us here tonight as to several articles that I have submitted for consideration. So the first one is, um, the peddler, hawkers and solicitation. Um, it's currently referred to as sales at chapter 149. So the article would change the title to make it more relevant to what the article or what the, um, bylaw typically is. Um, we've just made some minor changes to try to clean it up a little bit, um, and, um, made it so that it's more clear to the, um, solicitors who want to come into town and go door to door, which is required. Um, it's the whole process starts at the police department. So I worked with the former police chief and the current acting police chief to rewrite this and to clean it up a little bit. And, um, so that's what this one is about. It also introduces, um, a section that allows residents to register their property so that they're not, um, I don't know if bothered is not the right word, but so that they're not bothered by solicitors. And it also allows the residents to request a list of, um, companies that have signed up to be solicitors in town. Sort of a do not call list. Stick with the. There you go. Um, and bill house is the point person for income on this. Okay. And Tom Faye from select work. But next on my list is accepting gifts of land if needed. Um, yeah, sure. I'm a member of select board. Um, so this is a standard article. Yeah. Sometimes not too often individuals, uh, offer their land for acceptance by the town. Um, and, um, we're unaware of any such, uh, offers at this point. Um, but we just like to keep this article in place just in case. Yeah. Me or not. Go for it. Yep. Carl. If you get the offers on your. Very good. Thank you, Carl. And the, uh, next article is senior property assessment credit. Good evening. You click or two 74 Concord road. Speaking on behalf of the senior tax relief committee. We are proposing to. Have an article that will establish a senior property assessment credit. Of $30,000 for senior residents, 65 or plus who've been here for 20 years. And that's been good, uh, active, uh, participants in the paying of the town bills. Um, in this process, we have a few criteria that we have suggested would be good. I think we are minimal to try to simplify it if we can. I've already had a few suggestions on that, but the idea would be to basically give seniors a $500 credit on their assessed value of their house. The, uh, board of assessors suggested it ought to be a direct $500 credit and not a reduction to their assessed value. It's the same result, but it'll be simplified. It's simpler for the, uh, processing. Should it was sure to go through. Um, so their house value would go from X to $500. They would know, uh, what is suggested I have on here that we would drop the assessed value by $30,000, which translates into a $500 run. The department of, uh, assessors suggest that not doing it that way, but rather just giving them a, uh, $500 credit. As a, uh, for example, fourth quarter bill and the result, and that is basically everybody in the town would pay $200 more. So when you're calculating the assessed value, and since seniors represent about 40% of the town residents with homes, they would, and the seniors would end up getting $500 back. They pay $200 more in their assessed value. So what we're really talking about is $300 to seniors. And the intent on this is to, to try to bring to the town's attention, the fact that seniors do pay about 40% of all the town's expenses. And of that 40%, school represents almost 70% of the total bill. And they've done this voluntarily for 20 years. They've been contributors. So, um, this is more something to put in place that will say, thank you. Got it. And the point person on that is, uh, Carl. Right? Carl? Yes. And me. And Carl. Right. Thank you. Now we're to, uh, is that right? Yes. Trudy, you're up for, uh, dogs, chapter 91. Hi. Um, Trudy Reed again. Thank you. So, um, again, during the review of the total bylaws, this came to my attention as needing some work done on it. So I've basically, um, working with several different departments in towns that would, this would impact, um, police conservation, recreation, animal control officer, and the article that I have submitted would basically replace the current bylaw. So some of the changes in this would be, it would eliminate the dog control appeals board and shift, um, hearings when needed to the, um, police department and select board. It moves the penalties, um, for dog violations out of the dog bylaw and into, I believe it's chapter two of the current bylaws where all of the other penalties and fines are listed for other boards and committees. It streamlines the responsibilities of the animal control officer. Um, it removes hooved animals, um, which probably belongs to the board of health regulations and are probably in the board of health regulations. It allows the select board to set the fees instead of town meeting. Um, if we wanted to increase the dog registration fees, it would have to go before town meeting currently, and it could take us six months to the following year to implement with the select board. We could, um, do it a little bit sooner. Um, and it also takes into consideration a law that was passed by the state two years ago. It's called, it's referred to as the Ollie's law, and it gives better protection to dogs that are placing kennels for one reason or another, whether they're overnight day boarding. Um, I took this from some of this from North Andover because they had just recently redid their dog bylaw, and the majority of these changes were already approved by the AG's office. And Pam is the point person from pin come on this. And Tom. And Tom from select board. Any questions this time? No, I, I guess it's just rewriting what's been done. So we don't, there's no need to have the prior. Usually there's a comparison. The black. Yeah. I'm sorry. I think you broke up a little bit. That's my question. So this is just a total rewrite. So we don't need to have a comparison of what had been the prior loss. Correct. I don't know. I'm assuming town council will be reviewing all of these. And if there's anything that's right or wrong, they'll let us know. Okay. And then the next one is also a penalties regulation dogs. So as I had just mentioned, it was, it's just taking the fines out of the dog part of the bylaw and moving in them into chapter two with the other penalties and violations. It just, it'll streamline it so that if residents are violating or they need to know what the fine could be, it just puts them all in one place. And our 52nd article of the night is visible house numbers. I think that's your results of Trudy. Yes. So this is a new one and it came after discussion with the assistant fire chief. So it is, it's a state requirement that, um, homes and businesses are properly numbered. Um, so that they are easily be easily seen by first responders that may have to respond. So we were thinking that by putting it into our town bylaws, it would just be easier to enforce if the police or fire department needed to. And it also allows, um, the, the, um, fire department, if there's a transfer of homes during the sales, things like that, just to make sure that the house numbers are visible. And this is an existing requirement, isn't it? By state law. By state law. Yes. And we just thought by adding it to the town's bylaws would make it easier, um, for people to hopefully recognize and to abide by. Yeah. Got it. Okay. And April is the 21st FinCom. Um, are you? Yes. Yeah. Got it. Next concludes the article workshop portion of our article workshop. Any other comments, questions? Great. Last couple of orders. Business from the FinCom standpoint. One is, uh, minutes. Oh, excuse me. Um, yeah. Um, I want to adjourn that meeting of the select board at 8 to 45 PM. I need a motion. Sorry. No. I'm ready to go. If you guys are ready to go, I'm willing to stay. All right. Is that a yes? Yes. Is that a yes? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Great. Thank you for your participation or working with you for the next item. Okay. So the next door business was, uh, minutes. I gave April a few comments and she incorporated them and sent out a new version at like 6 PM. Okay. Well, did people have comments on minutes? Don't know what your comments were. So his comments were related. It just expanded upon the, um, details of streamlining the ATM. Um, through your discussion of suggestions to streamline the ATM warrant. I add minimal, like when you discussed. Yeah. And he added a bunch of. Um, the, uh, documents that were in the material that we circulated for just to have it in. Okay. And then there were two others. One just to name, uh, spelling change. Um, and the second was, I was confused. There was a mention of a January 15th deadline. And I thought for January 16th deadline and then March 6th deadline. Yeah. And I had thought that was referring to when the particles needed to be submitted to the town. But this is actually was the article in the town meeting. So we worded that sentence slightly to that. It was clear. But don't change. So those are the reasons. So people, the only thing I've heard was the reference to the meal. Meals tax being capped of 7.5%. I see. And I think, I don't think that's correct. I think it's. If you're talking about the town's tape, it's 0.75%. Thank you. Um, or 7% overall should stay in the town. So. So. So meals tax is about 7.5%. If you're talking about. What town? It's 0.75%. Okay. The report is about 7%. Yeah. That is. I just thought that sentence before that. Especially. Mine was a hit. I was trying to say, um, not. I mentioned viewing the large capital expenses we projected for to demonstrate how close this finance these initiatives. I think I was trying to say how, look at large, um, real estate or other projects and the new growth that was generated from them, like we put in, I'll talk about, like, just like how did that list? Yeah. And then what the, what the potential new growth is for, for other proposed or potential projects that they, that they discussed. So what's new growth generated from proposed projects, real estate projects, not capital. Um, large, um, proposed, um, large projects, new business projects, large development projects. I think it's a good way to say that. Yeah. Capital expenses. Sounds like town capital spending. Right. And this is really talking about getting developed. Okay. Okay. Recruiting minutes with modifications. Second. Okay. Iris. All in favor. Okay. Thank you. Feel free to send April comments, you know, individually as they come together. Next group or businesses, the calendar. So, uh, I don't think there's any change from the overall annual town meeting election calendar that we sent around last meeting. We do are holding Mondays and Wednesdays through February, uh, for, uh, think on meetings. Uh, we don't have a proposed budget in hand at this time, but that as soon as we had, we would like to meet as a committee to discuss that. But we're expecting it by the end of this week. Say what again? February 9th. Um, so with select board that there's going to be a presentation. So there are three budget presentations. I would like to put on the calendar when appropriate. One is with school committee or members of the school committee to understand their budget. One is with the capital long-term capital planning committee. Um, and one is with the town manager. I would like the town manager for the operating budget. Michael McCall and I talked about that. And he was going to try and sort out dates that would make sense. We're glad to participate in select board. If there's joint meetings, that some of those are coming together or invite select board members. I want to. So we can go either way. So as select board gets dates around the budget, those three budgets in particular, um, please select fincom know and if we participate, juggle. Um, it's important as we all know. Iris, thank you for submitting questions. Um, on the initial, the preliminary budget, but it's really time to look at the actual budget and then we'll all be able to start going through that. Yeah. Was I the only one who submitted questions? So as I understood. Oh, really? Okay. All right. I was, I was actually going to ask where we, okay, that's fine. I mean, when we go to look at the actual budget, to be very frank, I'll probably have similar questions. Yeah. And I was appreciated that Brian did respond to the questions that you asked, but it's sort of all pending. Of course. And there's still some significant swing. Okay. That makes sense. Cause obviously I'm sure you saw a pattern in my questions. A lot of the pattern in my questions was if there's significant swing year over year. Wow. Really too, which to me is like a greater than 10% swing, I would say is significant. Um, so if the real numbers come in and we actually see that it's not that, then I don't, I don't have concerns. Yeah. We'll see. Because the short answer, but I think they're all relevant. Okay. Question on the calendar. Um, Mondays and Wednesdays for the month of February, excluding the 16th. Yes. Thank you. The, uh, vacation week. Yeah. That has been mentioned. And we'll finalize agendas as appropriate. Um, so there's sort of two big agendas going between now and the warrant submission, which is what's the budget and how are all these articles, uh, working with. So individuals should feel free to start working with members and refining what the article is as soon as you can. We're going to talk about articles because I have to say that, uh, and articles, including capital is going to be really rude then because capital alone is insane. Um, with the amount of spreadsheets and working that entire spreadsheet. So that's the one area that I have for it. So thank you for Rosie. I, I mentioned in my email that we're having, you know, 500 million ways of doing this. And I messed it up. I picked the wrong one. I allocated. I allocated one article twice. Just paying us kind of to take on. Um, that would have been Rob's. So let me start. He's now down one. So let me start by offloading one. And let's talk about how else we can do that. Yeah. That I want to ask was remote participation. I've done that with that remote voting on that you have. So I've done that the last couple of years. So I already familiar with it. If you wanted. No problem. And then. You want to give me a. That depends. Yeah. I'm kidding. And then. Think about it. Yeah. Think about it. I don't have time. I'm just talking about articles. OPEB funding last year. Was that, um, Brian? I think it was. I think it was. As I recall. I might reach out to him and see if he still has, or maybe I'm sure in our emails, maybe he sent a copy and I might use that as my launching point. Of the copy of what? The article from last year of the OPEB funding, just like for the pros and cons, just to see what he had written stuff. It's in the last year's warrant. Yeah, of course. But I think we should have a word doc version of it. It's just easier to review. Yeah. If you can't find it, reach out. I might feel like that one thing that would be helpful to me, and we don't have to necessarily do that. I mean, do it offline, but some sort of template of what is the deliverable for each of the articles that I'm in charge of. So like right now I'm thinking, well, you have to discuss what the financial impact is and what the pros and cons are. So I would go back. If there's something else. Yeah. So I would go back. So in the notes that April is now included is the sort of specific comments about streamlining the articles. Yeah. I guess I've read some of the stuff. I'm not sure. Like I want like question one, fill in this blank. So question two, fill in this blank. Is that there? You can use the last year's warrants, especially on anything that's relevant. How do I get the last year's warrants? It's online. Years and years back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad to get on the phone and chat with me about it as well. But April, get to a point where you're okay with it. You know, like if you look at it and say, you can do five or six or whatever. I was looking at like, are there any that's not financial impact? Yeah. The VB that I think is assigned to you. Yeah. I think they mentioned VB and I'm also questioning WW. Like I, I'm, I'm purposely optimistic that those agreements that there's not financial impact, right? Because in like, at least not VB, he's, he's specified. There was no financial. So that one I think actually becomes a no financial impact. Therefore, no commentary needed. And there's a ton of others. I mean. See, that's what's all in the commentary. I don't know if I would get from it. If there's no financial impact, then no commentary needed. That's that's. There's no financial impact. What we did last year's FinCom took the stance that we will not comment on the article. So therefore there's nothing needed by us. We actually, we don't write anything. We don't write pros or cons. No. We'll vote on it. And then we'll, then there's language that we used last year. It's very short. We'll just pop that in. Correct. And we don't have to do the pros and cons. Right. Or the description. Basically, there's no financial impact on any of mine. They just went through all of them. So. Okay. All right. I guess that's our first question is to figure out which ones are financial impact before we go down the road. And, you know, it's a judgment call. Sure. You know, I did rodenticides last time, the rat voices. And I think initially I said no financial impact or no material. So there was some, yeah, but, and so we decided to go with pros and cons. Okay. So that would be an early step for us to evaluate. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we, we should probably be doing that either tonight or at the February 2nd meeting. Yeah. Which was next Monday. To go through them and say these ones don't have. I, I agree. Yeah. I think that makes sense. Probably not. Yeah. Let's read through them now. A little better sense of it. But, by all means, let's, if, if it's close, let's just say no finishing. Okay. We'll go back to this right forward with that. Yes, Senator. Yes. I'm getting everything. Carol Martin. Why don't you sit up here just so we can have it on the recording. Please. Okay. Seeing how I'm with your liaison and you had a meeting other than a Monday, I thought I would stay. Maybe I can offer a couple of comments to help you. So, in terms of the financial, no financial impact warrants, what actually ends up in the warrant is just 150 words from what they call either the article sponsor or the petitioner. So, even if you think that a petitioner's articles really have no financial impact, if you don't write a report, there's only one side of the, the discussion appears in the, in the warrant. All those you kind of end up having to do something. It doesn't say you have to do a giant or just do something with the pros and the cons. I would love it. If you did your no impact articles sooner than later, it does say on the annual time meeting calendar, you'll do them next week because on the 9th. Mondays. Monday. I went on Monday, the 9th. I want to run all the ones who you think are no impact right through the select board's agenda. Hopefully then we take a position, send them back to you. You take a position or you take a petition next week. And then we can send those into the town manager's office. And I think this probably, if you want, we can put our heads together. But I think this solid 10, more like probably a dozen or more that can be beyond that group. The select board does intend to do another consent calendar. Those will be the small items. I'm going to do one this year instead of three. One set of explanation. Understood. Put like a dozen articles in there. Hope it just goes through smoothly. Last year we had 40 articles-ish. This year we have 50. I think we have 38. This year we have 52, which is why I apologized up front. But I do believe that some of the, I say the little, the little nitty articles are really things which some housekeeping ones we need to do. The other thing is you need to appoint someone who's going to be your article reporter. And then what you need to do, you need to send that information in tomorrow if you can to Kelsey and Jalen. And then you can see Cece, Doug, Levine, and myself. So that, and those will be added to the chart. Then the charts come back out to both our committees so we can keep track of who's doing what. You'll see on the, you may not have the most recent chart. We voted to insert some articles last week. And then our liaisons are on there. And then, yeah. Yeah. And then once those liaisons, that list goes in, Kelsey will send you a Word document file of every article you're assigned to. So that gives you a new template. I don't know if that helps. I feel good questions there. This is why you pay me big bucks. I have two, but I missed. We'll have to be in touch with you. I'm sorry. Yeah. Sure. I have. You do have. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. And I have the others involved on any of them that, I don't have exact names, but I put question marks if I didn't have to do those. Anything else? And as far as the, as far as the joint meeting, I, you know, I started in the finance committee and I think that the, my personal, we're definitely happy to host that meeting and invite you to it, but I really feel it's. I'd like to host it. I would like to join you. Yeah. So you just reach out to me and say, listen, you come visit us, but on the ninth, the town manager. Now my schedule on the ninth is really full. So we should probably put our heads together on that. Yeah. So the call. Okay. But I heard today on the ninth. So if you want to make it to the second, I've already published an agenda though. Yeah. Okay. I'm around if you need me. I unfortunately also have meetings Monday nights. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. have meetings Monday nights. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. That's true. The other business of for tonight? When will we actually get the articles? Sounded like Carol said, like in the next couple days, as word documents. Yeah, this is the chart in, then they turn them around. Okay, awesome. Lovely. That's right. So if you see me on the chart goes in, I know it went in and then I look in. Alright. Sounds good. And we should have the budgets by end of this week.
Okay. And that I'd simply so I think that healing's budget was coming out. There's a proposed budget. There is a number from states of work. It has changed Friday to Monday to Wednesday. Okay. So I know that still not Friday, Monday was a good way. And then yesterday or today, it went down a little bit. Okay. I'm not sure. Well, when should that be? Do we know? I can't remember. I think maybe it's pretty well locked from state support standpoint at this stage. The unknown was still health costs. Okay. The West Suburban. I saw something on that. But that's was also expected. Chapter 70. The state money. For education. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It sounds like it's less than more than much of it. Yes, I think it is. A big wild card right now, you know, I don't have the numbers yet is the special education budget. And not just the direct costs, but also the transportation costs related to that has seemingly driving school budgets up by us. Yeah. And so we don't have the details. Okay. But we waited for those actions. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. And then the one term capital planning committee has issued a report. So we do circulate that. So people start looking at Kelly. Could we get back into her spreadsheets April? So you know, hopefully be something to connect with? She's back in her spreadsheets, but she has confirmed that she was not going to be able to see them. So it's the thing that I'm very stressed about. Right? Good to know. Because their work has really been fiscal year 27. Yeah, she's like, they are buried in everything that they were doing. So she won't have time to assist with those spreadsheets this year, like she did last year. So got it. Okay. Did you hear the topics for tonight? Closure to adjourn. Seconds favor. Thank you. Thank you for your journey. Thank you.