June 8, 2026 – Select Board – Video & Transcript
June 8, 2026 - Select Board
Good afternoon. As Chair of the Select Board, I'm going to call today's meeting for June 8th at 3 p.m. of the Select Board to order.
This is a remote access only meeting.
The meeting may be recorded and if recorded, it will be made available to the public on WACAM as soon as possible after the meeting.
Public will be excluded from today's executive session.
Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting will be conducted via remote access in accordance with applicable law.
No in-person attendance by members of the public will be permitted.
However, one may watch or participate remotely with the meeting link that can be found on the Select Board agenda or in the Whalen Town calendar.
When required by law or allowed by the Chair, persons wishing to provide public comment or otherwise participate in the meeting may do so via the remote access as on the agenda.
Public comment should be limited to two minutes per person.
So, joining me this afternoon in the room is Mr. Fay, Mr. Whitney, Mr. Levine, Mr. Reynolds, and myself, Ms. Martin.
We're also joined by Town Manager Michael McCall, our Assistant Town Manager Kelsey Powers-Burlett,
and our long title here, Management Analyst Communications Coordinator Jalen Bradica.
Today's agenda, obviously, call to order.
Review the agenda for the public announcements and public comment,
after which we will enter into executive session to handle one item.
There are no minutes available for June 1 to be reviewed.
This will be pursuant to Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 38, Section 21A1,
to discuss reputation, character, physical condition, and mental health of an individual.
Approximately 3.40, we anticipate we'll return to open session.
And then we will have two quick little items.
One is discuss the discussion of some suggested Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Gold Award projects and determine our next steps.
This would be in conjunction with our citation program that we implemented in March.
And then number six would be discuss the possibility of naming the pond at Pod Metal and determine those next steps.
And then no matter what, we will adjourn by 3.55 p.m.
So with that, I want to ask if anyone has any announcements.
No.
I have one teeny one.
The June 15th agenda is really, really, really tight.
And so I'm possibly thinking of starting at 5.45.
If that is not a good idea, I suppose, let me know in the next couple days.
And we'll just stay a little later.
But it is really full already.
Is there any public comment today?
There's no public comment.
Thank you.
All right, that being the case, I move that the select board enter into executive session, pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 30A, Section 21A1, to discuss the reputation, character, physical condition, or mental health around the professional compass of an individual.
And then is there a second to the motion to enter into executive session?
Second.
Thank you.
Was that you, Tom?
Yes, it was.
Thank you.
All righty.
Thank you.
The chair declares that a public discussion in these matters may have a detrimental effect on the litigating, negotiating, or bargaining position of the town.
So we'll have a roll call vote.
So, Mr. Reynolds, you have to come off the mute, please.
Yes. Thank you. Mr. Whitney? Yes. Mr. Levine? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Fay? Yes.
Our turn manager. Our turn manager. Kelsey Powers-Spurlett, our assistant town manager. David Jenkins from KP Law. Kate Ryan from Human Resources Direct, or Human Resources Director. The committee will rejoin the public meeting from the executive session, and we anticipate we will return to open session in approximately 30 minutes. So, I will see you all there. Thank you.
Are we being recorded, Jim? Yes, you are. Okay. So, since we have a quorum, I'm going to return the select board back to open session at 338. And then I'm going to just hold on a second until the other two members join us. Does that sound good? Yep. I just promoted Chris Reynolds. Thank you. I see. Okay. We're going to post the bill. So, Madam Chairman, while we have a moment anyway, I'd like to comment that I was... We're on tape. Yeah. We're being recorded, so. I've just returned back to open session. Somebody, I think, has a mic open because I'm echoing. I don't know if I'll hear it, but I do. Thank you.
Looks like... Mr. Doug, would you be so kind to see if you can send Bill a link? Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Okay. I don't think he has texted me. No.
I forwarded to him. Okay. Great.
Okay. We're just waiting for Bill Whitney to join us. We've come back from executive session, and sometimes it takes a while for all of us to reassemble. Did he respond?
No.
He didn't text me either, so.
We are waiting for Mr. Whitney to join us. If you're watching, wondering why we're not conducting any business. And I think here he comes. Hey, there. All right. So, we're all back together. We've already called ourselves back into open session. I figured since we were here, I would try to take a couple small items off the 615 agenda because it was really full. And there were two, a couple of small items that have been kind of in my list since about March. One of them was to follow up on a list of suggestions that we received from Kay Gardner-Westcott when we were looking at, when we created the citation program, particularly, you know, in regards to the Girl Scout and the Boy Scout Eagle and Gold Award. And there was a discussion I believe I had with the, I'm going to say the troop leader, but also much more involved from the group scouts saying, you know, sometimes they have difficulty finding, you know, projects, these projects for their scouts to do. And Kay came up with this list, and I was really impressed with the list, and I thought it was really nice to bring it forth. I shared it with Jalen. And the first page of the page really talks about, you know, how you get to be an Eagle Scout to this point where you're doing an Eagle Scout or Girl Scout project. But then there's quite a few in here. So this isn't meant to be a long agenda. I did want Kay to join us in case she wanted to say anything. I asked Jalen also to join us in case she has any thoughts because she is the person who will be the keeper of this. But I just wanted to throw out any initial thoughts from anyone on the board.
My memory is that historically scouts or come to the town with suggestions, usually the departments, say it's con, con, whatever. And then town, I think the town manager or town administrator kind of gives the green light or the staff person. And I may be wrong on that, but I'm happy to keep that process going as opposed to involving the Select Board on making decisions on these projects. Oh, I don't think we're going to make the decisions. What's happening is, well, Kay will explain it, too. We're ending up with a lot of... Go ahead, Kay. Tell them what was the genesis of your list.
You're muted. Yes, I'm muted. It's just a list of activities that would encourage community involvement, or it would help beautify the community, or it's an improvement of various things that they could do for the community as their either Eagle Scout or Golden Award, according to their regulations. And it's just a list of different activities. Right. So I think, Tom, to your point, we're not trying to be the ones in charge of the list, but they sometimes have a challenge finding things. And Kay had mentioned to me, you know, we end up with kiosks, a lot of kiosks. And here are some things to kind of get the thought process going. I didn't explain that well. Sorry. So if you're looking for suggestions of things to do, you know, maybe a department ad or the library or the historical group have come forward with a list. If you want to come up with your own project, you do exactly what you're saying is that you go to the town manager and say, this is what we're interested in doing. I appreciate you doing the list, Kenny. It's a very good list. Very nice list, I thought. Any other comments from any of the other board members? Jalen, do you have anything you want to add? I was just going to say, I did look at a few other towns. I believe Lexington is one, but they have like their own web page information about Boy Scout Awards. And they do also have a list of suggestions for projects that they could do in the town. So maybe it's something I can create a page for on the website. And we have a list of those projects if Boy Scouts are interested in doing that for their Eagle Scout. Does that sound like a good idea? Yes. Bill, are you okay with this idea? Yeah. One thing I would suggest is maybe we provide this list to the Conservation Commission, as I think they frequently have scouts working on things like bridges in the various conservation areas. So they may have some ideas as well. I was going to suggest the library. You know, maybe Michael might mention this at a department-headed meeting and say, hey, if you have some projects you think might be worthwhile getting done, it doesn't mean they're going to get done. It's just there for someone if they're interested to, you know, where to choose. But I agree. So does the library sound like a good one as well? And whoever else has ideas. Can I interrupt and put on my hat as historical commissioner? Too often, conservation goes ahead and digs on town property without notifying the historical commission. And if they just tell us in the beginning, there would be no delay in the project. But we do want to be sure that someone is there to observe for any artifacts that might be dug up.
All right. Mr. Reynolds, did you have a comment? I do not. Thank you. Okay. So I think this is, we don't have to vote. I just wanted to, I mean, we got this list in March. So I thought it would be a good idea to get it on the agenda. And no one else has any comments on it. I thank you so much. I really am impressed with the quality of the list and appreciate it. And hopefully this will give other people ideas of things they might want to do. Then we have another item on here, which is, we were naming the pond at Podmeadow. We received, and I responded on half of the board, so you've seen it back March 24th from Mr. Stimson, who said that, how about naming the nameless but large pond at Podmeadow as Podmeadow Pond? And I wanted basically to put this before the board and acknowledge the fact that he had written to us, see what we think about this. I know we don't have a naming policy per se, so what, just open it to the board's thoughts.
You know what? Oh, I want to hear from some of those who have served for far longer than I, of course, I want to hear from Whitney and Faye. Okay. Okay. Well, my question is, have any boards that would be more aligned with this issue, have they been consulted? Whether it be surface water quality, possibly, or conservation, maybe even, maybe Parks and Rec, if there's a nearby Parks and Rec use near this pond. That's my question. It would not be surface water quality, but the other two, I think, make sense. Any other thoughts of what we should do? Because it does say here, next steps, just trying to acknowledge the fact that we received the suggestion and stuff like that. So, anyway. Mr. Whitney? I'm curious whether Michael has any experience with this, whether in Wayland or other communities in which he has worked or served.
Mute. Thank you. Mr. Collier, on mute. I have not. I do often say it becomes difficult when you name things, you know, for certain individuals living or deceased. Sometimes geographical names are good. It's just that I've seen that with the naming of monuments and memorials in the past. So, that's the only thing I would throw out there, you know, when you're trying to figure it out in whether or not it's a name that will stick or somebody would want to change it down the road for some reason. I think, to Michael's point, I'd kind of like to have a more public process here. For all we know, there are historical events that have occurred around that pond of some sort that might be significant. So, I kind of would like to get input from people and boards and committees on this idea. It seems like a natural name for the pond, but I still would like a public process on it before we make a decision. Right. The agenda item is not to actually do a name. It's next steps. But I felt that, you know, we owe the courtesy to Mrs. Simpson. It's been a couple months. You know, we did have Tom reading in there, but I did want to put this before the board. So, what we should do. Bill, did you finish your comments? You deferred to Michael and then? I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. I was kind of thinking, I like what Tom said, but I was also thinking that perhaps maybe we have a contest or something. I don't know. Anybody else on the board have any comments? No? Okay. Kay, I can't call on you because this is not on your... Thank you. But could you send me your comment or send it to the board? Send an email to us and send it to everyone. That would be great. Does that sound like the right thing to do? Send it to all the boards. So, I'll find some next steps for this. How's that sound? Sounds good. All right. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn at 3.51. Excuse me, Whitney. Oh, I'm in a survey. On the exit. Thank you. All those in favor, Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. See you Monday. Appreciate this. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Mr. Whitney? Yes. Mr. Levine? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Fay? Yes.
Our turn manager. Our turn manager. Kelsey Powers-Spurlett, our assistant town manager. David Jenkins from KP Law. Kate Ryan from Human Resources Direct, or Human Resources Director. The committee will rejoin the public meeting from the executive session, and we anticipate we will return to open session in approximately 30 minutes. So, I will see you all there. Thank you.
Are we being recorded, Jim? Yes, you are. Okay. So, since we have a quorum, I'm going to return the select board back to open session at 338. And then I'm going to just hold on a second until the other two members join us. Does that sound good? Yep. I just promoted Chris Reynolds. Thank you. I see. Okay. We're going to post the bill. So, Madam Chairman, while we have a moment anyway, I'd like to comment that I was... We're on tape. Yeah. We're being recorded, so. I've just returned back to open session. Somebody, I think, has a mic open because I'm echoing. I don't know if I'll hear it, but I do. Thank you.
Looks like... Mr. Doug, would you be so kind to see if you can send Bill a link? Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Okay. I don't think he has texted me. No.
I forwarded to him. Okay. Great.
Okay. We're just waiting for Bill Whitney to join us. We've come back from executive session, and sometimes it takes a while for all of us to reassemble. Did he respond?
No.
He didn't text me either, so.
We are waiting for Mr. Whitney to join us. If you're watching, wondering why we're not conducting any business. And I think here he comes. Hey, there. All right. So, we're all back together. We've already called ourselves back into open session. I figured since we were here, I would try to take a couple small items off the 615 agenda because it was really full. And there were two, a couple of small items that have been kind of in my list since about March. One of them was to follow up on a list of suggestions that we received from Kay Gardner-Westcott when we were looking at, when we created the citation program, particularly, you know, in regards to the Girl Scout and the Boy Scout Eagle and Gold Award. And there was a discussion I believe I had with the, I'm going to say the troop leader, but also much more involved from the group scouts saying, you know, sometimes they have difficulty finding, you know, projects, these projects for their scouts to do. And Kay came up with this list, and I was really impressed with the list, and I thought it was really nice to bring it forth. I shared it with Jalen. And the first page of the page really talks about, you know, how you get to be an Eagle Scout to this point where you're doing an Eagle Scout or Girl Scout project. But then there's quite a few in here. So this isn't meant to be a long agenda. I did want Kay to join us in case she wanted to say anything. I asked Jalen also to join us in case she has any thoughts because she is the person who will be the keeper of this. But I just wanted to throw out any initial thoughts from anyone on the board.
My memory is that historically scouts or come to the town with suggestions, usually the departments, say it's con, con, whatever. And then town, I think the town manager or town administrator kind of gives the green light or the staff person. And I may be wrong on that, but I'm happy to keep that process going as opposed to involving the Select Board on making decisions on these projects. Oh, I don't think we're going to make the decisions. What's happening is, well, Kay will explain it, too. We're ending up with a lot of... Go ahead, Kay. Tell them what was the genesis of your list.
You're muted. Yes, I'm muted. It's just a list of activities that would encourage community involvement, or it would help beautify the community, or it's an improvement of various things that they could do for the community as their either Eagle Scout or Golden Award, according to their regulations. And it's just a list of different activities. Right. So I think, Tom, to your point, we're not trying to be the ones in charge of the list, but they sometimes have a challenge finding things. And Kay had mentioned to me, you know, we end up with kiosks, a lot of kiosks. And here are some things to kind of get the thought process going. I didn't explain that well. Sorry. So if you're looking for suggestions of things to do, you know, maybe a department ad or the library or the historical group have come forward with a list. If you want to come up with your own project, you do exactly what you're saying is that you go to the town manager and say, this is what we're interested in doing. I appreciate you doing the list, Kenny. It's a very good list. Very nice list, I thought. Any other comments from any of the other board members? Jalen, do you have anything you want to add? I was just going to say, I did look at a few other towns. I believe Lexington is one, but they have like their own web page information about Boy Scout Awards. And they do also have a list of suggestions for projects that they could do in the town. So maybe it's something I can create a page for on the website. And we have a list of those projects if Boy Scouts are interested in doing that for their Eagle Scout. Does that sound like a good idea? Yes. Bill, are you okay with this idea? Yeah. One thing I would suggest is maybe we provide this list to the Conservation Commission, as I think they frequently have scouts working on things like bridges in the various conservation areas. So they may have some ideas as well. I was going to suggest the library. You know, maybe Michael might mention this at a department-headed meeting and say, hey, if you have some projects you think might be worthwhile getting done, it doesn't mean they're going to get done. It's just there for someone if they're interested to, you know, where to choose. But I agree. So does the library sound like a good one as well? And whoever else has ideas. Can I interrupt and put on my hat as historical commissioner? Too often, conservation goes ahead and digs on town property without notifying the historical commission. And if they just tell us in the beginning, there would be no delay in the project. But we do want to be sure that someone is there to observe for any artifacts that might be dug up.
All right. Mr. Reynolds, did you have a comment? I do not. Thank you. Okay. So I think this is, we don't have to vote. I just wanted to, I mean, we got this list in March. So I thought it would be a good idea to get it on the agenda. And no one else has any comments on it. I thank you so much. I really am impressed with the quality of the list and appreciate it. And hopefully this will give other people ideas of things they might want to do. Then we have another item on here, which is, we were naming the pond at Podmeadow. We received, and I responded on half of the board, so you've seen it back March 24th from Mr. Stimson, who said that, how about naming the nameless but large pond at Podmeadow as Podmeadow Pond? And I wanted basically to put this before the board and acknowledge the fact that he had written to us, see what we think about this. I know we don't have a naming policy per se, so what, just open it to the board's thoughts.
You know what? Oh, I want to hear from some of those who have served for far longer than I, of course, I want to hear from Whitney and Faye. Okay. Okay. Well, my question is, have any boards that would be more aligned with this issue, have they been consulted? Whether it be surface water quality, possibly, or conservation, maybe even, maybe Parks and Rec, if there's a nearby Parks and Rec use near this pond. That's my question. It would not be surface water quality, but the other two, I think, make sense. Any other thoughts of what we should do? Because it does say here, next steps, just trying to acknowledge the fact that we received the suggestion and stuff like that. So, anyway. Mr. Whitney? I'm curious whether Michael has any experience with this, whether in Wayland or other communities in which he has worked or served.
Mute. Thank you. Mr. Collier, on mute. I have not. I do often say it becomes difficult when you name things, you know, for certain individuals living or deceased. Sometimes geographical names are good. It's just that I've seen that with the naming of monuments and memorials in the past. So, that's the only thing I would throw out there, you know, when you're trying to figure it out in whether or not it's a name that will stick or somebody would want to change it down the road for some reason. I think, to Michael's point, I'd kind of like to have a more public process here. For all we know, there are historical events that have occurred around that pond of some sort that might be significant. So, I kind of would like to get input from people and boards and committees on this idea. It seems like a natural name for the pond, but I still would like a public process on it before we make a decision. Right. The agenda item is not to actually do a name. It's next steps. But I felt that, you know, we owe the courtesy to Mrs. Simpson. It's been a couple months. You know, we did have Tom reading in there, but I did want to put this before the board. So, what we should do. Bill, did you finish your comments? You deferred to Michael and then? I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. I was kind of thinking, I like what Tom said, but I was also thinking that perhaps maybe we have a contest or something. I don't know. Anybody else on the board have any comments? No? Okay. Kay, I can't call on you because this is not on your... Thank you. But could you send me your comment or send it to the board? Send an email to us and send it to everyone. That would be great. Does that sound like the right thing to do? Send it to all the boards. So, I'll find some next steps for this. How's that sound? Sounds good. All right. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn at 3.51. Excuse me, Whitney. Oh, I'm in a survey. On the exit. Thank you. All those in favor, Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. See you Monday. Appreciate this. Thank you. Thank you.