March 23, 2026 – Select Board – Video & Transcript
March 23, 2026 - Select Board
Good afternoon, Carol Martin as Chair of the Select Board. I'm calling the March 23rd, 2026, 3.30 p.m. Remote Access Only Meeting of the Select Board to order.
Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting may be recorded, and if recorded, it will be made available to the public on WACAM as soon as possible after the meeting.
Now, it's 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 Waylandstown calendar or on the Select Board agenda for today's meeting.
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 remote access.
Public comment should be limited to two minutes per person.
So, joining me in the room this afternoon is Mr. Fay, Mr. Whitney, Mr. Levine, and myself for the Select Board.
And then for our staff members, we have our Town Manager, Michael McCall, and our Assistant Town Manager, Kelsey Power Spurlet.
Today's agenda is very short, meaning we are going to vote the question accepting a grant from Federal Emergency Management Agency, commonly known as FEMA, regarding a very exciting grant we have received for the Snake Fork Dam repair work.
And then we are going to have a quick discussion to discuss and vote the question of approving a common victual license for the Mission Hill Donuts, which will be doing business as Jimmy John's and Dunkin' Donuts, located at 289 Boston Post Road.
There are no topics, not reasonably anticipated by the Chair for the hours in advance. And I'm hoping we'll be adjourned long before the 35 minutes we've allocated for the meeting. Because this is our practice, I am going to allow announcements from the Board, if anyone has one.
No? Okay, thank you. And then also, if there's any public comment, we will accept that. So, Robbie, do I have any public comments? No, I see no public comment. Terrific. Okay. Just, if I may, Madam Chair, public comment.
I didn't attend most of the last meeting. I didn't know where we stood relative to the order of articles. I just want to express my concern that I feel like the 25 Holiday Road article is a significant article that ideally should be addressed on the first night of the town meeting, possibly as early as after Article 10, which I believe is the budget article, given the extent of interest that we've had by residents on that topic. That's my comment. Thank you. Okay. And guess what? I get to rule you off the preservation here because this is public comment for the public. This is not, looks like, board concerns. However, your comment has been made to others. And I'm going to respond. It's very difficult to put together the order of articles. We have changed it four times already. We made some other changes after the last meeting. I can guarantee you, as always, no one, everyone is not going to be home. So, anyway. Okay. With that, I turn the meeting over to Mr. McCall to talk to us about item number three, accepting and authorizing him on the town's behalf. Madam Chair. Yes. I believe that Elisa has a hand raised. All right. Go ahead, Ms. Carter. That's a public comment. Yes, thank you. Okay. How are you? I've been struggling with many personal tragedies, injuries, and ADHD that makes writing an email to you guys take about 8 to 12 hours to complete because I'm trying to make this road safer for myself and my neighbors. We are subjected regularly to too many excessively speeding vehicles for a tiny 0.7 mile all residential road. And it's single family homes relatively close together compared with other parts of town. No sidewalks in the worst traffic and speed areas. Even the police chief told you recently that it is one of the worst roads in town for speeding. It's Sherman's Bridge Road. Homes range in age. The oldest, perhaps the one that belonged to Ed Sherman, his brother, and the guy who the bridge was named after. And there's some that are less old, some that are newer, but no brand new homes. They're all fairly close together. Our property values are dropping compared with other parts of town, though this doesn't affect our taxes. And I feel very little support from the town management in trying to do this, who too often seem to consider Sudbury or Lincoln residents even, or unknown residents who are using this bridge from other towns, more important than keeping the people who live here safe. Other towns that you guys have been looking at for raising, you know, the pay scale have lower tax rates. And Lincoln last year or the year before, their budget didn't even go up at all. But ours always goes up, our tax, our valuation of our properties go up, and we live in a scary place where even the town vehicles will speed by without giving, you know, extra space if you're standing on the side of the road, which is against the vulnerable road user laws established in 2023. So I just needed to express that, and I wish that the people that we have elected and hired would take more concern for the people who are living here and what we are going through. Thank you. Ms. Carter, could you please wrap up? It's been a little over two minutes. I said thank you and finished before you even said that. Okay, thank you. That's good to hear. And just for the minutes, you live on Sherman Bridge Road, correct? Thank you. Yes, thank you. And then could we let the minutes show that Ms. Brensley, hello, and joined the meeting at 3.35 p.m. All right. Are we ready for Mr. McCall?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to, you know, today we're here. We're very fortunate. We have some exciting news. As I had alerted some of you about two weeks ago, I had heard from the staff from Senator Markey's office that they were able to push through some of the paperwork on this FEMA application. FEMA application, which was put together through our conservation. Linda Hansen was the one who initiated this. And it's been years in coming to get this through. And as you know, it bogged down with the various federal shutdowns. But we had been continually writing to FEMA. And then I reached out to our legislators last summer asking for assistance and was very surprised, pleasantly surprised two weeks ago when I was contacted by Senator Markey's staff to say an award letter was forthcoming. As you may recall, back in January, I spoke to the board and it was unclear due to the shutdowns whether we would get this grant at all. And I had shared with you that it was my belief that we should move forward so as not to jeopardize the ARPA funds that have to be expended by December of this year. And additionally, we had received some state monies in the amount of $800,000 town meeting had already authorized us $1.4 million from our real estate reserve. So we we felt we should move forward and not jeopardize losing any of those other funds. The good news about this timing was we haven't actually started construction due to the bad weather. We had selected a contractor. So the timing of this was most fortuitous as we can now, with your approval, accept this grant. And then we will be able to submit. This is a reimbursable grant. I knew Mr. Whitney usually asks. As we do the project, we submit for the reimbursement. We'll get these monies and then they will show up next year, according to Mr. Keveney, and we can either return them to stabilization, the real estate reserve or some other type of reserve. So I think this is a great win for the town. It's not going to be monies we're going to put into an operating budget, but back into some of our reserves as we utilized our reserves for this project. But, you know, we did the right thing and moved forward. And now it seems we're being rewarded for our efforts that this has come in at the last moment. So, again, I thank everybody involved. We got the award notice. It came through the Federal Emergency Management Association to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Association. They're going to administer the grant. I have a series of documents that need to be signed, and I'm asking your permission today to accept this grant and then authorize me to sign all the necessary paperwork so that we can get the notice to proceed and get this project underway. Okay. So is there any conversations or discussion from the board? So, Tom, did you want to start? Just to say that great work to Linda Hansen, her staff, your staff, Michael, for pushing this. We've all been very skeptical. It's where this would ever come through. But it's nice to see it come through, and it'll help us in the years ahead with our operating expenses, obviously, our capital expenses as well.
Doug? Well, Michael, given that success, we would expect the same from the interest-free loan for the MWRA hookup. We're working on that. We're working on that. Come on. It's a 10-minute meeting, and it's been the best we've had in weeks.
I'm going to start with Ann then. Ann?
Yeah, no, Michael, great job. The team, great job. It was something I remember discussing, and I gave it probably a 50-50 shot, so to have it land on our end is awesome. So, thank you. And Bill? I would move that the town manager be authorized to execute the necessary documents to accept the grant. Second. Before we take a vote, I want to just say to Tom and I, remember, one of the first earmarks we made, if that's the right word, from the ARPA funds was we just said this budget. And we keep applying for this grant, and it's not coming, and I don't know how long ago that was, five years when we said that. And so, we set aside a chunk of money from the ARPA funds that was one of our first awards or suggestions. So, really and truly, Michael, great job. The town is really appreciative of that. And having said that, if no one else has any other comments, we'll have a vote. Ann? Yes. Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. And, Carol, yes, that's five zero. So, if you could just hold on for one second. Ms. Sullivan, you would like to join us, please? Thank you. So, we're going to- I'll just say, Madam Chair, again, you know, we helped land it, but there were a lot of people, especially Ms. Hanson, that got that up in the air, got it off the ground, and we helped land it at a critical time with all these shutdowns. So, good work all around. Thank you. All right. Hello, Ms. Sullivan. How are you? So, the next item on our agenda is, we've been asked to grant a common victual license for Mission Hill Donuts, which is going to be joining us, hopefully, by mid-April. And that is a combination of a Dunkin' and a Jimmy John's location at 89 Boston Post Road. So, in the supplemental package, you will see all the documents related to this. There is a checklist of items, of documents that need to be presented to the town. The very first one was the payment for the license was not checked off. So, I did confirm with Abby this morning that the check was delivered to the town this morning. So, the checklist is all done.
So, I'm going to let, since Ms. Sullivan has joined us, would you like to have a two-second comment? Please feel free. Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice. I represent the owners, Mark and Megan Paish. We already have one other location in Weyland, and we operate in about 21 other towns. So, we're really looking forward to opening this new multi-brand concept here in Weyland. Thank you. Does anybody have any other questions, either on the paperwork, the process, the request? From Ms. Sullivan, anybody? I don't see anyone raising their hand right there, Tom. You look like you might have one. I'm just curious, if this vote is positive for you today, do you anticipate when the opening may occur? We are anticipating opening April 15th.
Great. Thank you. Anybody else? I do know that Mr. McCall had a tour the other day of the building. I think, obviously, Nicole's smiling, so she must have been there. I was there, yes. She was nice enough to come over.
All right. If there's no other questions, then why don't we have a vote? A vote. Why don't we have a motion? See, I thought I was having today off. The brain's, I'm not with it. I'm happy to move to this board vote to designate Tom Manager Michael McCall, a sole signatory for the common, particularly a license for Mission Hill Donuts, LLC, DBA, Duncan, slash Johnny Johns, located at 289 Boston Post Road in Wales. Second. Second. Okay. Okay. If there's no other discussion, Doug? Yes. Ann? Yes. Bill? Yes. Tom? Yes. And Carol, yes. Motion passes 5-0. Congratulations. We'll look forward to your opening. Thank you so much. Good luck. Thank you. Before I take a motion to adjourn, I want to thank everybody very much for making time during their work days to come and do this, these two important items. And Mr. McCall has a point you would like to raise. Okay. I want to go back and double check that Mr. Whitney's motion on the grant was to vote to authorize me to sign everything to accept. I would just maybe go back and ask for a friendly amendment of thinking about that the board does. I think the board should say they vote to approve and accept the grant and then authorize me just so in case there's any question. Okay. All right. Mr. Whitney, would you like to revise your memos or something? Surely. Options. I would that the board accept the grant and authorize the town manager to execute all documents appertaining there to. Second. Okay. Is there any more discussion? Starting with Mr. McCall, is that good? I think so. I just want to make it clear that you've accepted it and then authorized me to do all the paperwork. Okay. So this is to accept now the grant. With glee, I would like to make the men. Bill?
I'm not sure for the record. In FEMA, we need to express glee.
We can feel that way. But I don't know. Could you please vote? Yes. Anne? Yes. Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. And with glee, yes. That's five zero. Okay. And now the next motion is going to be to authorize Michael to do the documents. Would you like to make that, Bill? I believe my motion included both. Yes, he did. He did a combo motion. All right. So we're good. We're trying to be efficient with the board's time, Carol. Thank you. I appreciate that. So am I. I try to keep getting to adjourn. How about a 347? We do an adjournment. So moved. All right. And the second is going to be Doug. And then all those in favor, Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Doug? Yes. Carol? Yes. Motion passes five zero. I will see you all on the 30th. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
There are no topics, not reasonably anticipated by the Chair for the hours in advance. And I'm hoping we'll be adjourned long before the 35 minutes we've allocated for the meeting. Because this is our practice, I am going to allow announcements from the Board, if anyone has one.
No? Okay, thank you. And then also, if there's any public comment, we will accept that. So, Robbie, do I have any public comments? No, I see no public comment. Terrific. Okay. Just, if I may, Madam Chair, public comment.
I didn't attend most of the last meeting. I didn't know where we stood relative to the order of articles. I just want to express my concern that I feel like the 25 Holiday Road article is a significant article that ideally should be addressed on the first night of the town meeting, possibly as early as after Article 10, which I believe is the budget article, given the extent of interest that we've had by residents on that topic. That's my comment. Thank you. Okay. And guess what? I get to rule you off the preservation here because this is public comment for the public. This is not, looks like, board concerns. However, your comment has been made to others. And I'm going to respond. It's very difficult to put together the order of articles. We have changed it four times already. We made some other changes after the last meeting. I can guarantee you, as always, no one, everyone is not going to be home. So, anyway. Okay. With that, I turn the meeting over to Mr. McCall to talk to us about item number three, accepting and authorizing him on the town's behalf. Madam Chair. Yes. I believe that Elisa has a hand raised. All right. Go ahead, Ms. Carter. That's a public comment. Yes, thank you. Okay. How are you? I've been struggling with many personal tragedies, injuries, and ADHD that makes writing an email to you guys take about 8 to 12 hours to complete because I'm trying to make this road safer for myself and my neighbors. We are subjected regularly to too many excessively speeding vehicles for a tiny 0.7 mile all residential road. And it's single family homes relatively close together compared with other parts of town. No sidewalks in the worst traffic and speed areas. Even the police chief told you recently that it is one of the worst roads in town for speeding. It's Sherman's Bridge Road. Homes range in age. The oldest, perhaps the one that belonged to Ed Sherman, his brother, and the guy who the bridge was named after. And there's some that are less old, some that are newer, but no brand new homes. They're all fairly close together. Our property values are dropping compared with other parts of town, though this doesn't affect our taxes. And I feel very little support from the town management in trying to do this, who too often seem to consider Sudbury or Lincoln residents even, or unknown residents who are using this bridge from other towns, more important than keeping the people who live here safe. Other towns that you guys have been looking at for raising, you know, the pay scale have lower tax rates. And Lincoln last year or the year before, their budget didn't even go up at all. But ours always goes up, our tax, our valuation of our properties go up, and we live in a scary place where even the town vehicles will speed by without giving, you know, extra space if you're standing on the side of the road, which is against the vulnerable road user laws established in 2023. So I just needed to express that, and I wish that the people that we have elected and hired would take more concern for the people who are living here and what we are going through. Thank you. Ms. Carter, could you please wrap up? It's been a little over two minutes. I said thank you and finished before you even said that. Okay, thank you. That's good to hear. And just for the minutes, you live on Sherman Bridge Road, correct? Thank you. Yes, thank you. And then could we let the minutes show that Ms. Brensley, hello, and joined the meeting at 3.35 p.m. All right. Are we ready for Mr. McCall?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to, you know, today we're here. We're very fortunate. We have some exciting news. As I had alerted some of you about two weeks ago, I had heard from the staff from Senator Markey's office that they were able to push through some of the paperwork on this FEMA application. FEMA application, which was put together through our conservation. Linda Hansen was the one who initiated this. And it's been years in coming to get this through. And as you know, it bogged down with the various federal shutdowns. But we had been continually writing to FEMA. And then I reached out to our legislators last summer asking for assistance and was very surprised, pleasantly surprised two weeks ago when I was contacted by Senator Markey's staff to say an award letter was forthcoming. As you may recall, back in January, I spoke to the board and it was unclear due to the shutdowns whether we would get this grant at all. And I had shared with you that it was my belief that we should move forward so as not to jeopardize the ARPA funds that have to be expended by December of this year. And additionally, we had received some state monies in the amount of $800,000 town meeting had already authorized us $1.4 million from our real estate reserve. So we we felt we should move forward and not jeopardize losing any of those other funds. The good news about this timing was we haven't actually started construction due to the bad weather. We had selected a contractor. So the timing of this was most fortuitous as we can now, with your approval, accept this grant. And then we will be able to submit. This is a reimbursable grant. I knew Mr. Whitney usually asks. As we do the project, we submit for the reimbursement. We'll get these monies and then they will show up next year, according to Mr. Keveney, and we can either return them to stabilization, the real estate reserve or some other type of reserve. So I think this is a great win for the town. It's not going to be monies we're going to put into an operating budget, but back into some of our reserves as we utilized our reserves for this project. But, you know, we did the right thing and moved forward. And now it seems we're being rewarded for our efforts that this has come in at the last moment. So, again, I thank everybody involved. We got the award notice. It came through the Federal Emergency Management Association to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Association. They're going to administer the grant. I have a series of documents that need to be signed, and I'm asking your permission today to accept this grant and then authorize me to sign all the necessary paperwork so that we can get the notice to proceed and get this project underway. Okay. So is there any conversations or discussion from the board? So, Tom, did you want to start? Just to say that great work to Linda Hansen, her staff, your staff, Michael, for pushing this. We've all been very skeptical. It's where this would ever come through. But it's nice to see it come through, and it'll help us in the years ahead with our operating expenses, obviously, our capital expenses as well.
Doug? Well, Michael, given that success, we would expect the same from the interest-free loan for the MWRA hookup. We're working on that. We're working on that. Come on. It's a 10-minute meeting, and it's been the best we've had in weeks.
I'm going to start with Ann then. Ann?
Yeah, no, Michael, great job. The team, great job. It was something I remember discussing, and I gave it probably a 50-50 shot, so to have it land on our end is awesome. So, thank you. And Bill? I would move that the town manager be authorized to execute the necessary documents to accept the grant. Second. Before we take a vote, I want to just say to Tom and I, remember, one of the first earmarks we made, if that's the right word, from the ARPA funds was we just said this budget. And we keep applying for this grant, and it's not coming, and I don't know how long ago that was, five years when we said that. And so, we set aside a chunk of money from the ARPA funds that was one of our first awards or suggestions. So, really and truly, Michael, great job. The town is really appreciative of that. And having said that, if no one else has any other comments, we'll have a vote. Ann? Yes. Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. And, Carol, yes, that's five zero. So, if you could just hold on for one second. Ms. Sullivan, you would like to join us, please? Thank you. So, we're going to- I'll just say, Madam Chair, again, you know, we helped land it, but there were a lot of people, especially Ms. Hanson, that got that up in the air, got it off the ground, and we helped land it at a critical time with all these shutdowns. So, good work all around. Thank you. All right. Hello, Ms. Sullivan. How are you? So, the next item on our agenda is, we've been asked to grant a common victual license for Mission Hill Donuts, which is going to be joining us, hopefully, by mid-April. And that is a combination of a Dunkin' and a Jimmy John's location at 89 Boston Post Road. So, in the supplemental package, you will see all the documents related to this. There is a checklist of items, of documents that need to be presented to the town. The very first one was the payment for the license was not checked off. So, I did confirm with Abby this morning that the check was delivered to the town this morning. So, the checklist is all done.
So, I'm going to let, since Ms. Sullivan has joined us, would you like to have a two-second comment? Please feel free. Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice. I represent the owners, Mark and Megan Paish. We already have one other location in Weyland, and we operate in about 21 other towns. So, we're really looking forward to opening this new multi-brand concept here in Weyland. Thank you. Does anybody have any other questions, either on the paperwork, the process, the request? From Ms. Sullivan, anybody? I don't see anyone raising their hand right there, Tom. You look like you might have one. I'm just curious, if this vote is positive for you today, do you anticipate when the opening may occur? We are anticipating opening April 15th.
Great. Thank you. Anybody else? I do know that Mr. McCall had a tour the other day of the building. I think, obviously, Nicole's smiling, so she must have been there. I was there, yes. She was nice enough to come over.
All right. If there's no other questions, then why don't we have a vote? A vote. Why don't we have a motion? See, I thought I was having today off. The brain's, I'm not with it. I'm happy to move to this board vote to designate Tom Manager Michael McCall, a sole signatory for the common, particularly a license for Mission Hill Donuts, LLC, DBA, Duncan, slash Johnny Johns, located at 289 Boston Post Road in Wales. Second. Second. Okay. Okay. If there's no other discussion, Doug? Yes. Ann? Yes. Bill? Yes. Tom? Yes. And Carol, yes. Motion passes 5-0. Congratulations. We'll look forward to your opening. Thank you so much. Good luck. Thank you. Before I take a motion to adjourn, I want to thank everybody very much for making time during their work days to come and do this, these two important items. And Mr. McCall has a point you would like to raise. Okay. I want to go back and double check that Mr. Whitney's motion on the grant was to vote to authorize me to sign everything to accept. I would just maybe go back and ask for a friendly amendment of thinking about that the board does. I think the board should say they vote to approve and accept the grant and then authorize me just so in case there's any question. Okay. All right. Mr. Whitney, would you like to revise your memos or something? Surely. Options. I would that the board accept the grant and authorize the town manager to execute all documents appertaining there to. Second. Okay. Is there any more discussion? Starting with Mr. McCall, is that good? I think so. I just want to make it clear that you've accepted it and then authorized me to do all the paperwork. Okay. So this is to accept now the grant. With glee, I would like to make the men. Bill?
I'm not sure for the record. In FEMA, we need to express glee.
We can feel that way. But I don't know. Could you please vote? Yes. Anne? Yes. Doug? Yes. Tom? Yes. And with glee, yes. That's five zero. Okay. And now the next motion is going to be to authorize Michael to do the documents. Would you like to make that, Bill? I believe my motion included both. Yes, he did. He did a combo motion. All right. So we're good. We're trying to be efficient with the board's time, Carol. Thank you. I appreciate that. So am I. I try to keep getting to adjourn. How about a 347? We do an adjournment. So moved. All right. And the second is going to be Doug. And then all those in favor, Tom? Yes. Bill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Doug? Yes. Carol? Yes. Motion passes five zero. I will see you all on the 30th. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.