February 24, 2026 – Route 20 South Landfill Visioning Committee – Video & Transcript
February 24, 2026 - Route 20 South Landfill Visioning Committee
all right so we'll call to order the meeting of the route 20 south landfill committee at 503
on tuesday february 24th um this meeting is being uh recorded it can be viewed
on waycam at a later date we invite an individual to provide public comment if you have any public
comment just indicate with the yellow hand and we'll acknowledge you the meeting this evening
is being attended by uh cliff lewis mike spellman ira montag mark norton asima cherian and we may be
joined uh by erin givens um at some point um the tonight's meeting um will include public comment
uh discussion and possible approval our minutes from february 17 2026 and possibly minutes february
24 2026 which i've prepared um given that this is possibly our last meeting then we'll move on to
discussion of the um report that uh it's in draft form provided to members and a possible motion to
um authorize the chair to finalize the report and submit it to the uh select board and after that we
will um uh adjourn so i invite anyone who uh is here to give public comment if they like seeing none i will
uh close the public comment and move on in two minutes i will entertain a motion for uh approval of
um draft minutes from february 17 2026. so moved okay thanks ira and do i have a second second okay
all right i'll take that as uh mark i think that's mark um uh any discussion on the draft minutes
uh hearing none those of those voting uh um those in favor of the motion indicate uh cleft yes uh mike
yes yes mark yes sima yes and tom uh six nothing vote appreciate that and we'll come back to the other
minutes uh possibly before the end of the meeting um i'd like to next turn to um the draft report that
uh was in your packet the draft report that i sent um consent contained some comments from asima but i
believe the body of the report um was finalized i believe i made changes um considering asima's
comments uh i can bring up the report on the screen but i i'm not going to do that yet i think that
might be somewhat distracting um before we get to the report i want to talk about the cost estimate
that was provided um within the packet uh it's the last page um of the of the packet from weston and
samson um i wanted to open up any if anyone had any comments i i will say that what i'd like to do is
modify the report before mentioning that caught cost estimate and attaching the cost estimate to the
report having said that does anyone have any thoughts on what they saw in that cost estimate from western
and samson it seemed to be really well i think did it again i said i think it was it looked like it was very
well done yeah yeah it seemed very thorough yeah there are big contingencies in there but those are
pretty much mandated by the state right yes it's pretty standard yeah um all right anybody else
all right so i'll add that to the report and uh both in the body not extensively but i'll mention the
body and add the cost estimate as an as an appendices uh to the report um moving then to the final report
as you've read um i'd like to kind of go around the horn here and and seek any comments uh any suggested
changes or any typos uh um anything at all um we'll start with you ira any thoughts i'm sorry what
were you talking about the report that you yeah the draft draft report any any comments on uh the
content the flow the typos anything at all any changes you'd like to see uh no not at the moment
thank you okay um how about you mike uh you you're muted i think um i think the only thing that i think
might be missing from the report is only in the interest of trying to push this forward because
i think we're all in agreement this is a great thing for the town it's a great idea maybe the cost is is
okay is that we're going to have to get votes on this to to move it through and get it paid for and
approved um but there's going to be some people who are like oh yeah i don't really think we really
need to spend this money do we know how much that parcel of land costs us every once in a while to
remediate it or shave it down or do we have to do every once in a while or like you know what kind
of what kind of asset does it become what kind of savings or what kind of a black hole is is it right
now or is it you know just a net net it it isn't very much um i mean we have to mow it every once in
a while but that's not a lot of money yeah the state wants us to keep it clean yeah i know i know
it took them you know better part of a couple months a bit ago but it had gotten extensively
overgrown yeah to clean it out and cut down all the trees and the shrubs and so that was a major do
that was several hundred thousand dollars but now it's just a matter of mowing it every once in a
while i think once a year and it's not a big deal okay but it could cost up to it could cost several
hundred thousand dollars every few years or something like that if we don't stay on top oh my god yeah
yeah if you don't continue to do it it's a mess and clearly if we put a field there and some stuff
there's going to be some maintenance associated with that there's no doubt about that
i agree um but you know there's some upside to that too is maybe we can you know rent that sports
field to some private you know private teams and things like that to offset some of those costs
we do we do rent some fields now but we don't make very much money doing it i was going to say
recreation charges and i know um we're obviously a customer on the recreation side
you don't you don't pay a lot though yeah but recreation charges our internal non-profits more than they charge our external folks coming in oh that makes sense right that's correct of course really yes that's true yeah um so mike any other comments besides that no that's all i got okay um erin any comments on the report as it stands now made my comments previously and i like the way it looks um my only suggestion would be that when you and it's not specific to the report but when you do present it to the select board if you'd like any members of the committee to join that meeting i'd be happy to do so to support the work that was done and to try and help push this forward right yeah all right i'll keep that in mind i think that was that's a good suggestion appreciate that asima any uh comments on the report um not particularly um i think guys is there a typo on page 13 i'm not sure what secondary there's a pv in between secondary i read the right report uh 13 page 13 i'm on right now and what under recommendation reuse strategy for property okay in that in that section what paragraph is it it's just the title i just i just i was just i just picked it up as i was looking um recommended property secondary recommendation yes sorry i i i i'm i'm seeing a pv in between mine i think maybe there's an error in my work in my document maybe um if you're not seeing that it's fine i printed final late today uh after taking out your comments so i think we're good okay so maybe that's fine uh no i think to mike's point if we're trying to make the case of we really want this field i think it makes sense to have some comparison do we know like if we didn't have this field where how much we would be paying to go somewhere else to get a field renting in order to kind of make the case of hey this field is a really good use and also like a um low impact use in terms compared to the other uh uses we had uh if we want to make the case or it i don't know if it's necessary if the select board will be able to understand that the need for the field is enough yeah that's my only thing i don't know if we have that kind of information all right i mean that information rests with the different user groups like lacrosse um and soccer uh i know that they have expressed that they do need to rent from places like rivers um library field house um and this would you know ease that burden but to the extent i'm not sure yeah okay yeah i mean that was the only other thing i could think of but it's a good point well team i could reach out to the um recreation director and uh try to get some data um a lot of data was put together when the local field was being pursued and that data may still be um accurate or may it may have been updated you know but i'll i'll i'll read up to her yeah dave bernstein may have data as well okay all right right good i can know that all right uh mark any comments on the report uh nothing further i saw in one of the documents the comment um around lighting and yeah so i i fixed that yeah yeah yeah um and cliff uh no look good to me tom just uh quickly are we just planning to hand this to the select board and say here have fun or we're going to make a presentation or we're going to recommend that we have an ombudsman kind of a group to pursue it or you know i don't think the selectmen are going to go just you know run this through uh because they probably have more things to do than that but um
this will be on the agenda uh for during the meeting in march possibly as early as march 9th and we'll be allowed a certain amount of time and i'll let everyone know when that will occur and you're welcome to attend and we'll we'll present and um they would have gotten the report ahead of time to digest it they may have questions and then the board will uh discuss it either that night or another meeting and decide how to how to proceed um we have a fairly organized system now in town relative to capital projects including the creation of a capital um planning committee that has been meeting last few months uh and they are their charge includes kind of recommending who's going to be in the queue and and where you're going to be in the queue so um like you're at the top right of course right i mean you and you you cliff and mike and others i think you're well aware of you know the big the big expense coming up if it's approved that's for um hooking up to the mass water resources authority and once that's done there's some talk as everyone knows of um dealing with schools the you know school buildings and i'm not sure what timetable that that effort is on so my point is there there will be competition for capital projects in town now tom holder has placed this um feel this area these parcels on the on the capital improvement plan for i think 2027 uh so what that means is it's it'll it'll be considered and discussed however the amount of money that he said that he placed in that line was only half a million and that's not a criticism of tom holder at all it's just you know it gets it there um this report reflects multiple uses right it's just not it's not a feel it's which is what he anticipated it it's it's it's other uses though so the budget that we saw the cost estimate reflects those other uses and you know maybe the select board will modify that maybe it won't but obviously the end costs will be uh the term to be determined by what uses are actually pursued um so um there may be money from the dcr but probably not that much there may be money from uh p the uh uh the um cpc committee but i don't they don't have the kind of money that we're talking here right so they may be able to contribute some monies but uh you know and then you go to the capital project over a certain amount of money maybe it can be it can be um um amortized right over uh over a period of time and that's that's a question for brian company so a lot of work to do but i think this is a good start to uh get the conversation moving um all right so um my intention then would be to modify the report with further data relative to the need for a field um and add the cost estimate as a as an appendix and put it in the body um those two things um unless there's anything else um um that would be my plan so at this point i'm i'm happy to entertain a motion to authorize the chair to to make those changes finalize the report and submit to the select board on behalf of the committee if the committee is comfortable doing that all right all right thank you thank you all right uh discussion on the motion i'll just say it's been a pleasure working with all of you as well as members who were on this committee uh in the past and uh it's been um it's been a real pleasure and each of you brings such a great uh attitude to the work and you all bring different um different pieces of knowledge in what you do professionally and what you do uh what you've done for the town and i really really appreciate your uh your assistance and uh so um any further discussion thanks for leading this tom oh you're welcome my pleasure yeah thank you thank you thank you all right so uh here we know for the discussion those in favor of the motion cliff yes uh mike yes erin yes ira yes mark yes the sema yes all right tom yes that's seven nothing vote right so now what i'd like to do is move to the draft minutes for february 24th 2026 i drafted these because this um appears to be our last meeting and um the minutes uh are a best estimate the draft minutes and um what i'd like to do is uh uh ask for a motion to approve the minutes from february 24th 2026 as amended and i will amend the minutes and submit them based on our discussion um so if that's uh okay with folks um i want to take such a motion tom can we just authorize you to go ahead and submit the minutes and be done um well what i'd like to do is is just kind of mention the fact that we talked about x we talked about y and we wanted that but uh um that would be make i'd be more comfortable doing that so okay so so the motion would be motion to permit the chair to uh motion for approval of the minutes of february 24th 26th as amended the amendments will include will reflect our discussion uh on the uh during the meeting so that's fine all right thanks erin do we have a second second thank you cliff all right um uh those in favor of the motion mark yes asima yep ira yes um cliff yes mike yes yes yes um great um great um great so um i think that ends our work for our committee that and and for our meeting uh therefore i'll entertain a motion to adjourn
second that's ira thank you second by cliff thank you are those in favor of the motion asima uh mark uh mark yes ira yes cliff yeah mike yes yes yes great good good thank you all
you don't you don't pay a lot though yeah but recreation charges our internal non-profits more than they charge our external folks coming in oh that makes sense right that's correct of course really yes that's true yeah um so mike any other comments besides that no that's all i got okay um erin any comments on the report as it stands now made my comments previously and i like the way it looks um my only suggestion would be that when you and it's not specific to the report but when you do present it to the select board if you'd like any members of the committee to join that meeting i'd be happy to do so to support the work that was done and to try and help push this forward right yeah all right i'll keep that in mind i think that was that's a good suggestion appreciate that asima any uh comments on the report um not particularly um i think guys is there a typo on page 13 i'm not sure what secondary there's a pv in between secondary i read the right report uh 13 page 13 i'm on right now and what under recommendation reuse strategy for property okay in that in that section what paragraph is it it's just the title i just i just i was just i just picked it up as i was looking um recommended property secondary recommendation yes sorry i i i i'm i'm seeing a pv in between mine i think maybe there's an error in my work in my document maybe um if you're not seeing that it's fine i printed final late today uh after taking out your comments so i think we're good okay so maybe that's fine uh no i think to mike's point if we're trying to make the case of we really want this field i think it makes sense to have some comparison do we know like if we didn't have this field where how much we would be paying to go somewhere else to get a field renting in order to kind of make the case of hey this field is a really good use and also like a um low impact use in terms compared to the other uh uses we had uh if we want to make the case or it i don't know if it's necessary if the select board will be able to understand that the need for the field is enough yeah that's my only thing i don't know if we have that kind of information all right i mean that information rests with the different user groups like lacrosse um and soccer uh i know that they have expressed that they do need to rent from places like rivers um library field house um and this would you know ease that burden but to the extent i'm not sure yeah okay yeah i mean that was the only other thing i could think of but it's a good point well team i could reach out to the um recreation director and uh try to get some data um a lot of data was put together when the local field was being pursued and that data may still be um accurate or may it may have been updated you know but i'll i'll i'll read up to her yeah dave bernstein may have data as well okay all right right good i can know that all right uh mark any comments on the report uh nothing further i saw in one of the documents the comment um around lighting and yeah so i i fixed that yeah yeah yeah um and cliff uh no look good to me tom just uh quickly are we just planning to hand this to the select board and say here have fun or we're going to make a presentation or we're going to recommend that we have an ombudsman kind of a group to pursue it or you know i don't think the selectmen are going to go just you know run this through uh because they probably have more things to do than that but um
this will be on the agenda uh for during the meeting in march possibly as early as march 9th and we'll be allowed a certain amount of time and i'll let everyone know when that will occur and you're welcome to attend and we'll we'll present and um they would have gotten the report ahead of time to digest it they may have questions and then the board will uh discuss it either that night or another meeting and decide how to how to proceed um we have a fairly organized system now in town relative to capital projects including the creation of a capital um planning committee that has been meeting last few months uh and they are their charge includes kind of recommending who's going to be in the queue and and where you're going to be in the queue so um like you're at the top right of course right i mean you and you you cliff and mike and others i think you're well aware of you know the big the big expense coming up if it's approved that's for um hooking up to the mass water resources authority and once that's done there's some talk as everyone knows of um dealing with schools the you know school buildings and i'm not sure what timetable that that effort is on so my point is there there will be competition for capital projects in town now tom holder has placed this um feel this area these parcels on the on the capital improvement plan for i think 2027 uh so what that means is it's it'll it'll be considered and discussed however the amount of money that he said that he placed in that line was only half a million and that's not a criticism of tom holder at all it's just you know it gets it there um this report reflects multiple uses right it's just not it's not a feel it's which is what he anticipated it it's it's it's other uses though so the budget that we saw the cost estimate reflects those other uses and you know maybe the select board will modify that maybe it won't but obviously the end costs will be uh the term to be determined by what uses are actually pursued um so um there may be money from the dcr but probably not that much there may be money from uh p the uh uh the um cpc committee but i don't they don't have the kind of money that we're talking here right so they may be able to contribute some monies but uh you know and then you go to the capital project over a certain amount of money maybe it can be it can be um um amortized right over uh over a period of time and that's that's a question for brian company so a lot of work to do but i think this is a good start to uh get the conversation moving um all right so um my intention then would be to modify the report with further data relative to the need for a field um and add the cost estimate as a as an appendix and put it in the body um those two things um unless there's anything else um um that would be my plan so at this point i'm i'm happy to entertain a motion to authorize the chair to to make those changes finalize the report and submit to the select board on behalf of the committee if the committee is comfortable doing that all right all right thank you thank you all right uh discussion on the motion i'll just say it's been a pleasure working with all of you as well as members who were on this committee uh in the past and uh it's been um it's been a real pleasure and each of you brings such a great uh attitude to the work and you all bring different um different pieces of knowledge in what you do professionally and what you do uh what you've done for the town and i really really appreciate your uh your assistance and uh so um any further discussion thanks for leading this tom oh you're welcome my pleasure yeah thank you thank you thank you all right so uh here we know for the discussion those in favor of the motion cliff yes uh mike yes erin yes ira yes mark yes the sema yes all right tom yes that's seven nothing vote right so now what i'd like to do is move to the draft minutes for february 24th 2026 i drafted these because this um appears to be our last meeting and um the minutes uh are a best estimate the draft minutes and um what i'd like to do is uh uh ask for a motion to approve the minutes from february 24th 2026 as amended and i will amend the minutes and submit them based on our discussion um so if that's uh okay with folks um i want to take such a motion tom can we just authorize you to go ahead and submit the minutes and be done um well what i'd like to do is is just kind of mention the fact that we talked about x we talked about y and we wanted that but uh um that would be make i'd be more comfortable doing that so okay so so the motion would be motion to permit the chair to uh motion for approval of the minutes of february 24th 26th as amended the amendments will include will reflect our discussion uh on the uh during the meeting so that's fine all right thanks erin do we have a second second thank you cliff all right um uh those in favor of the motion mark yes asima yep ira yes um cliff yes mike yes yes yes um great um great um great so um i think that ends our work for our committee that and and for our meeting uh therefore i'll entertain a motion to adjourn
second that's ira thank you second by cliff thank you are those in favor of the motion asima uh mark uh mark yes ira yes cliff yeah mike yes yes yes great good good thank you all