Select Board - May 28, 2026

I call the Thursday, May 28th Select Board Meeting to order. Please rise, if you can, for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic with liberty and justice for all. Just please just stand for a moment, have a moment of silence for a friend of mine, firefighter Bob Kilduff was killed in the line of duty in Boston last week. Thank you. First item on the agenda, Dedham Citizens Open Discussion. Anyone? Okay, see you then. Town Manager's Report.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Just a few updates for you all this evening. First, I wanted to just confirm that The town will be raising the pride flag on June 1st as we have the last number of years in partnership with the Human Rights Commission. that's on the secondary flagpole out front here in town hall so we'll be doing that again June being Pride Month and as we've done again the last number of years we'll be raising the pride flag on June 1st in addition there will be a an event, a Juneteenth and Pride event at Memorial Field on June 20th. And again, that's being hosted by the Human Rights Commission.

The exact meeting is being recorded.

The exact times are still being worked out, but there's gonna be a public notice on that. So again, everyone should be looking for that on June 20th. And again, there will be an additional flag raising at that event as well. wanted to update the board on some good news. As you recall, you adopted the pilot policy back in the fall and we sent out letters to tax exempt properties throughout the town I guess about a month ago. We've received a number of inquiries already. We've been communicating with some non-profits. One is already committed to making a payment and we're working with several others currently. So I think we're making good progress on that and we'll continue to conduct outreach and have meetings and explain for the town's financial situation, why we're doing this.

We believe that the non-profits are bringing a lot of great things to the town, so this is also an opportunity for them to help us spread that message about what they're already giving to the town the credit program that we've adopted as part of this as well in this part of the policy so again I think we've had a lot of good conversations already I think this is just it'll help build those partnerships even more than they already exist today so I wanted to let you all know that that that thanks to your good work in adopting that policy that we're making that happen. Condon Park Splash Pad, I know I've given you lots of updates over the months on that. Parks and Rec Commission is making plans to have a soft opening of that on Sunday. that it's all been tested, approved, everything's all up to spec, and they've trained on it. So soft opening on this Sunday. There will likely be a public announcement on that tomorrow.

and then they'll be doing a public ribbon cutting ceremony in late June. They're going to be working. The Parks and Rec Commission will reach out to the select board so that we can have a joint joint celebration at that as well. So we'll work with you all on a date. Another fun event, Senior Prom at the COA, coming up on June 10th, 4 p.m. This is the second year of the Senior Prom. So it was a great event last year. I know a lot of people had a lot of fun. So if folks are interested in attending the senior prom at the COA, you can call the COA offices to RSVP. And again, it's a great event and people have a lot of fun. it's nice to see people come together and do some dancing. And then just another quick update on the public facing front, actually two quick updates. We're going to be updating our website domain to match our email domain. So we're going to drop the hyphen from our website as well.

That's going to come the last week of June, working out the exact date within that last week with our website provider, but it should be seamless for the public. if they still type in the hyphen it'll redirect but it'll be a little bit easier that it'll match our emails now, the domain. And then some exciting bit of technology is that we're working on implementing a tool from our website that we have a whole bunch of folks who have subscribed to email updates. a new tool to allow people to selectively subscribe to text updates as well so that news that pushes out via that will also come in short form in various various groupings to text if folks so desire. We'll have some additional information on that coming out probably in June. but it'll be based on like keyword.

So if they text a number with a keyword, it'll subscribe them to that particular news service and then we will have tailored messages that go out along with email messages that way. A lot of folks are using their phones now as their primary devices, not so much computers, and not even looking at emails as much, so trying to adapt to the way people are doing business and getting information out there in more ways. and thanks to Amanda Smith, our Director of Communications for working on that with our website provider to make that an option. So that completes my update, but I'm happy to take questions on those things as well or anything else.

Any questions? So one item I was gonna bring up on the old and new business, but not gonna make Anne stay, not make, I'm sure she would gladly have stayed. I think I forward you, I thought I did, we had an issue, complain concerning the look of outdoor dining specifically the Jersey barriers. Also received a picture today of another community that had something completely different that looked great. It was in Arlington. So I don't know at this point what we can do, but it's really, when you look at the mishmash of Jersey barriers within the square, some have writing, some have nothing,

It really is, in my opinion, and I think in others, obviously, it's not a good look, and it doesn't, you know, for the investment that the town and the businesses put in the square, you know, we're trying to make it attractive. we just spent millions of dollars on the town green, but we have these barriers. So I don't know, I'm not looking for an answer tonight, but maybe I don't know if others have some suggestions that we have to think of We got June, July, August, September. We have a long way to go. October, okay, November. So I don't know if you've had any thoughts on it and I don't know if anybody else has any. Any thoughts on it as well of how we can improve the appearance?

Yeah, we started to look a little bit what other communities were doing. And we looked at our own guidelines, which does require the barriers to be put out there for safety reasons. But in the past, we had worked with some folks to get them painted. Perhaps we could come up with a design guideline and either work with the vendors to get them painted or the businesses because they are provided by DPW as part of our licensing program. or if we did I guess in you know planned ahead next year and did it in advance to make them all uniform I think that's something we could look at it but it would probably require modifying our design guidelines our outdoor dining guidelines but we can certainly take a look at what other communities are doing more too.

And Leon, I think that's a good point of what other communities are doing. I understand the safety issue, But, you know, outdoor dining is, you know, it's no longer, you know, new. It's happening in a lot of communities. and you see different things being done so I think that would be helpful to see what our surrounding communities are doing and how we can adapt and if we have to make adjustments.

and Arlington always sets a nice bar so we can take a look at what their program looks like.

Any of us have any comments? Thank you. Next item on the agenda, the Consent Agenda.

Move to approve the Consent Agenda including request for use of Town Green House Revit Network 71926, 10 to 3, Dedham Hometown Heroes, we had our program 6, 10, 26, 6 to 7 p.m. DSC Freed Fall Yoga and Parades, June 7th, 13th, and 28th, 2026 at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on July 12th, 2026, one day Entertainment License for Music, BSAAC, 7-12-26-94, One Day Liquor License, NBACC, 6-12-26-6-10 p.m., Dedham Porch Fest, 6-26-26-4-8 p.m. Cloth Parties, Alpine and Winthrop Streets, 6, 6, 26, 12 to 7 p.m. Richards Street, 6, 26, 26, 4 to 11 p.m. Gift Acceptance. $1,200 from Dedham Women's Exchange for the Dedham Youth Commission.

Do I second?

Second.

Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Thank you. All right, next item on the agenda, public hearing, request for a class one license, Rivian, LLC 250, Legacy Place.

Bryant is attending remotely. They are across the country in California. And Ariana is also a member of the team. They're both joining remotely.

Thank you.

Are both across the country? Yes.

Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. My name is Brian Reed. Chair, Brian, Brian, can you put your camera...

Brian, can you put your cameras on, please? Mr.

Chair, I don't see the ability on Zoom.

To put your camera on? See where it says video? You click on that, and I believe that that puts your camera on? I'll put them to panelists, they'll be able to. Oh, panelists, okay, gotcha.

As well as Garrett as well.

Okay, perfect, okay.

Yes. Okay, wonderful, hello.

Okay, go ahead.

Please. Yeah, so Reagan has submitted a class one deal license application in order to open up an EV showroom at Legacy Place. We are planning on opening this location in July. And just to be clear, even though we are applying for a dealized application here, it will not be a traditional dealership in the sense that customers can come onsite and purchase their vehicles from the location. All the entire purchase process will still have to be done online. The primary purpose for this deal license is so that when customers come into our shop, Pricing, and the purchase process, we can engage in those sales conversations freely with our customers.

Thank you. Do you have this model in other parts of the country?

Yes, sir, we do. We have these similar showrooms all over the country. We have showrooms in New York, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco. I believe we have over 30 similar showrooms. in other parts of America, similarly situated in shopping centers like Dedham Place. I'm sorry, like Legacy Place.

Thank you. Questions? Dimitria, please.

So you're going to have models in the showroom there in Legacy Place? You'll have models there for customers to sit in and see and they'll be charging in there? Do they charge in there or do they charge outside?

So the vehicles inside the showroom will not be charging. They will be display vehicles only. Again, those vehicles will not be for sale though. There will be publicly available chargers located in the parking lot of the retail center, though. Thank you. And we will also be offering drive as well. So if a customer comes to our showroom, sees the vehicle, but wants to take they would be able to take approximately a 20 minute drive on one of our demonstration vehicles which again will not be available for sale on site just be clear any vehicle that the customer wants to purchase will all have to be done online

May I ask, where are you keeping your demo line?

The demonstration vehicles will be parked in two designated parking spots. at Legacy. And there's also six parking spots for vehicle charging as well.

Thank you. Michelle, I'm sorry.

Oh, no. Michelle can go. Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Just two quick questions. How many vehicles in the showroom and how many available for test driving?

I believe there will be two vehicles in the showroom and four vehicles available for test driving.

Aaron?

Sure, thanks. Thank you for that. I was curious about how that was going to work and if test driving was going to be possible. My only comment is that Legacy Place is is very busy with traffic, most surprisingly, most hours of the day, all days throughout the week. I'm not sure if you've been at that site. I'm curious where the designating parking spots are. I'm not sure that I would want cars that aren't owned by anyone to be driven in and out of that busy high traffic area that gets congested and bottlenecked. on a daily basis. So I would just check the layout of that parking area and where your designated spots are and consider that.

Yes, we've negotiated that with the mall already and they've been specifically designated. And they have taken into consideration the traffic, the mall traffic as well.

Do you have one on Boylston Street? You have another showroom like that in the heart of Boston as well, too, correct?

Yes, that is right, ma'am. It is on Boylston Street, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Steven, anything? Okay. Okay, this is a public hearing. Does anybody else wishes to weigh in? Seeing none, what is the wish of the board?

Move to close the public hearing.

Is there a second? Second. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Thank you. What's the wish?

moved to approve the issuance of a Class I license to be an LLC 250 Legacy Place.

Second. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay. A few minutes early, but we can move on, Zaina. No, I didn't see you get up. Sorry, I was looking down.

Sorry, we made eye contact.

So please, go ahead.

Good evening, everyone. Good to see everybody again. I'm here to, oh, sorry, my name is Rana Monadorfer. I'm the Assistant Finance Director, and I'm here to present two grants that we've been awarded. The first one is the Community Compact Cabinet IT Grant Program. and that is $130,000 to help us digitize our permanent and historic and commonly requested documents and as well as creating a resident facing searchable archive. Do you want me to go to the second one? Yeah, please. Perfect. And then the second one is from the Executive Office of Public Safety. It's the FY26 FIFA World Cup funding. and we are receiving $6,905.48 to fund assigning Dedham police officers to monitor various locations for up to 12 hours a day during FIFA World Cup events taking place near Dedham.

Thank you. Questions?

Can I ask a quick question? Please. Can you tell me which of the ones that you're doing, the documents that you're going to be scanning first, are you doing it, like you said, by departments, or...?

Great question. So we are utilizing our public records request system, Next Request. We pulled the data from there to look up what are our most commonly requested documents, and we're prioritizing those so we can make them readily available. instead of having to send somebody over to grab them from the archive or restore them, scanning them, and then sending them to the resident that's requesting it or whomever. and then second in the level of like priorities is stuff that's like historic or is going to fall apart, things of that nature.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Michelle?

First, congrats on the competitive IT grant. That's great work to be able to get done. My question's about the FIFA grant. I'm curious if we know yet what it would be used for. Something in there sounded like maybe hotel security, but I wasn't sure where. and just you know it's obviously not a lot of money so I'm curious if there's kind of estimated or expected cost to Dedham from the World Cup and are there like additional costs where are expecting to have to cover that won't be covered by the grant.

Excellent question. So when our police chief was notified of this, we initially were allotted a bigger amount because the police chief was anticipating an uptick in hotel stays in Dedham. but after everything that's going on, it didn't seem like the hotels were actually getting booked up so our allotment was reduced and the money will be going towards paying for the time that the police officers will spend monitoring high traffic areas like University Ave. things of that nature. We don't anticipate that we will incur a ton of costs just based on the fact that nobody's really booking hotels in this area or anywhere because of the cost of FIFA. Thank you.

Just to follow up on that So it's the first I've heard that the grant was reduced because it was a couple hundred thousand dollars that we were receiving because the officials were supposed to be staying at the hotel and they're not staying at the hotel. Yes. But that's, I mean, that's a pretty significant drop. And I get the reason, but... Wow, that's all I can say.

So let's hope that people really don't come.

Well, I mean, from $200,000, it was, they were paying for 24-hour security.

So, Leon, did you want to? Just to say that, the conversations I've had with Chief Dondremont, he looked at what he thought he would use as far as scaling up to cover for overtime. on those game days and feels like this is just a viable request for the additional overtime because he wants to make sure that we don't get anything that we don't use and therefore take it away from other municipalities that may be more impacted and is closer to the venue. and this was based on his review of what he thought we would need for overtime. The first number was huge, but that was based on, as you said, based on the assumption that we would have 24-7 security.

I also think it's unfortunate that when the MBTA designs were being made that Dedham Corporate Center was not included as a primary stop on the way to Foxborough. That would have been a great opportunity for Dedham, but with them all leaving out of South Station, I'm guessing that before that was known, that would have had a significant impact in stays in Dedham.

Right. OK. Chair, one quick question. Yes, please. for the town manager, the digitization was something that originally was proposed initially in the budget process. Am I correct on that? What was the total amount of that and then how much will this offset?

This will cover roughly... and a half to a third of what we expected it would cost to do all of our records. So this will be a multi-year project. We can apply for future grants. and try to absorb it within our future budgets. But we have a lot of records. This will certainly take a big chunk out of that and get us started. And whatever system, and again, I think kudos to the team for working on this. but the system that we're implementing is scalable so that we can implement it over time and incorporate more and more records and hopefully manage it in such a way to make it more accessible to the public.

Anybody else? Is there a motion?

Move to accept the FY26 Community Compact Cabinet IT Grant Program in the amount of $130,000 and the FY26 FIFA World Cup Funding Grant in the amount of $6,905.48.

Thank you, is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, have a good night.

You as well. Our next item on the agenda, a few minutes before, request for issuance of transfer of stock, new stockholders for Abbey's Beverly Inc.

Good evening.

Good evening. Hi. Introduce yourself, please, and tell us what this is.

My name's Yingling. I'm here tonight regarding The stock transfer for Abbey's Bevel Inc, DBA Ochi, the corporation was previously on... equally by myself, Yingling, and Hua Pan, each holding a 50% ownership interest. Under a private agreement, I have purchased Hua Pan's 50% interest in a corporation. As a result of the transaction, I'm now the 100% Seoul Chairholder, Seoul Officer, and Seoul Director of the Corporation. Hwapan has fully resigned from all position. and no longer holds any legal, beneficial or financial interest in either the corporation or the associate alcoholic beverage license. there are no proposed change to the daily business operations, the trade names, or the physical license premises.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any questions? This is a public hearing. Anybody wish to weigh in? Seeing none, what's the wish of the board?

Move to close the public hearing. Second.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. What is the wish for the vote?

move to approve the transfer of stock, new stockholder for Abbey, Beverly, Inc., 545 High Street, Dedham.

So second?

Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Congratulations.

Thank you. Have a good night. Thanks.

All right, moving right along. Next item, discussion and consensus on the artwork for Sawmill Lane pathway. Nancy, did you want to?

You all received the submissions that came in from several different artists. and the board has come to a consensus on the 40 pieces that will be part of the project on the Summer Lane Bridge. Jeremy, I don't know if you wanted to add anything different, but I appreciate the effort put in by Meredith to coordinate the submissions for the board to review and make its choices and the time that you all put into it as well. believe that the deadline for the work is in 30?

Yes. So Jeremy, you can give, since you're here, you could just give us a, for those that might be just tuning in, saying what are they talking about? Just give just a brief update of what... Sure.

Good evening members. Jeremy Rosenberger, Planning Director for the Planning... Sorry. and Natural Resources Department. I know where I work. Anyways, we received over a $30,000 grant to build what is known as a, a tough one to say, the pollinator pathway, or the, Sawmill Lane Pollinator Pathway Park. And this is ultimately planting native species along the mother brook over at the Sawmill Bridge and behind what is known as the DeLapa Plaza. and so this was a very competitive grant actually. Staff went out with all the grantees that were awarded, very competitive. We were the few that were selected. Nice little photo op in Worcester. with the Fish and Game Wildlife. But nonetheless, $30,000 to build a pathway, bring native species, remove a whole lot of invasive species along the Mother Brook banks behind the Lapa Plaza.

currently a lot of that work has already been done but the secondary component of all this is that we wanted to get a community component to this and that's putting some artwork along the pathways and we put out a request coordinating with Mother Brook artists to put a call for artists to submit for roughly about 40 individual artistic tiles that would go on this pathway for folks that will help guide them along their journey and make it obviously a beautiful journey. and there was over 100 submissions, much more. We didn't think we were going to be having this tough of a selection process so it's a good thing to have and beautiful art that's come in and I know it's been a tough selection for the select board. And so thank you for your diligence. And this grant has been very time pressed. And we thank you for committing all this time. But this is probably one of the more fun things, where you get to see great art and much better inventory and curation than we would have anticipated.

Thank you. Nancy, one of? So there are 40?

There are 40 total submissions. by a majority, and we're from three to all five of you agreeing. They are representative of a number of different, actually there's one from each of the many and Meredith will be working on getting the entire process in order so that we meet the June 30th deadline and we will be keeping us updated as to when they'll be in and when they expect that they will be installed.

No. Unless somebody else wants to. I just want to also point out that in order to conform to the open meeting law, all the drawings were submitted individually to the select board who individually responded back to Nancy and then from there they were then put into a spreadsheet and that's how we got the numbers of five, four, three. So at no time did the board outside of the meeting have any discussion on any of these. So we do have any, anybody want to comment on any of it?

There were some great submissions. It was a very difficult decision. I kind of felt badly not voting for all of them. Thank you to everybody who submitted and thank you for the hard work that's going into it. I think this is going to be a very nice project down there.

Yes, I mean, I agree. We're very lucky to have had such great submissions from artists of all ages and it'll be great to build our representation of art and commitment to art in our community through this walk over the bridge. So this is great.

Thank you. Michelle?

Just echo everything that everyone said. And if people are wondering, are the artists notified? Or how would people know if they've been chosen? How will this get announced?

The Motherbrook Arts Council. Community Center, they've been in charge of this curation and they will be letting all the awardees know.

Thank you. So do we need a motion for this?

I think we should for consensus to select. for the consensus of the board and recording for the works of art.

Does somebody want to make a motion?

Move to accept the 40 top selections of artwork to be placed along the bridge.

Good. Is there a second? Any discussion? Give me nine dollars in favor.

Aye. Aye.

Thank you.

I forgot to say aye.

Thank you. Thank you. So we have an item that's not on the agenda concerning the to statements for the vacancies on the Commission of Disability. Is there a motion to take this item that's not on the agenda up, please?

So moved.

For a second?

Second.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Okay, two are here. So whoever wants to come up first. and you know, it's very easy. Just tell us who you are. You know, just a couple of minutes and it's painless. It's painless.

I'm Bridget Driscoll. I'm a current member of the Commission on Disabilities and have been for Four years. I've been a Dedham resident for 19 years. I've been a special education teacher in Brockton for 22 years and currently serving as an inclusion coach, which has a lot of overlap in my position on the Commission of Disabilities. and most importantly I'm a mom to two sons in Dedham. My son Ryan is 17, he has autism and attends the league school in Walpole and my son Andrew is 15 and is finishing up his freshman year at Dedham High School. So on the commission for the past four years, I've served on the Summer Grants Subcommittee and the Inclusion Subcommittee, really working on trying to have, working with businesses and having inclusive, being, for disability awareness, so having, not just for autism and being sensory friendly, but also making sure that it's accessible.

And I've also, with that subcommittee, we've been working with the Parks and Rec Department brainstorming ways that we can make some activities that Parks and Rec already does make them a little more inclusive for students with disabilities. And I really enjoyed a couple years ago, worked with them, and I need some visual supports for some of the activities like the touch and truck and some communication boards at the snack so that everyone that came to Dedham could participate, could communicate, and if they need a little help, they had those supports. So I'd like to continue my position.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Questions? Sorry. Doesn't mean that there might be one.

Usually it's me. Do you serve on any other committees?

In Dedham? No, just the Commission on Disabilities.

Is there anything that we could do to support you?

There's a lot. I know, I mean, I think that's what the commission is working on. We're really, you know, especially I think I look at it from an from the younger because I have a teenage son and younger and I work with elementary school students. So that's kind of where my expertise is. But really I think trying to make events so that all, kids can be, it's accessible to all kids and it has the support so that they can be successful is I think one of our main goals is.

and I think Mr. Chairman that you are going to have different committees come in at some point as well too. And that question can be asked at that point.

But we'd love to work more with you for some of our initiatives that we're discussing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mary? Yes? You're next. Welcome.

Thank you. So I'm Mary Nicolaitis. I have been a resident in Dedham for pretty much over 40 years. I'd like to say thank you for mentioning firefighter Kel Doff. I am the daughter and granddaughter of Boston firefighters, both of whom who died at age 55. So it's a hard thing to digest what's going on right now. I am a nurse. I still work as a nurse. I've been a nurse for 56 years. I work full-time for caretenders visiting nurse. I sit down all day, which is a great place for old nurses. I have three children. My oldest works for a dermatologist, my middle daughter is a Boston public school teacher, and my son is a detective for the town of Dedham. I didn't want to say that. Anyhow, my...

strong point on the commission is, first of all, I oversee the scholarships with high school. This year's my first year doing it. Secondly, I'm an advocate for the older generation in town. I don't want to see them get lost in the shuffle. I'm very much aware of the obstacles that face the elderly, that they are reclusive, find it hard to get out. We need to explore how we can better provide services to them. There are quite a few elderly in this town, myself included. I hate saying that and admitting it. In my mind, my mind says I'm 25. My body says... Not so much.

And so that is my focus of being on the Commission for Disability. I enjoy my time. I've been on for now maybe four, going on five years. So I look forward to going back on.

Thank you.

Questions?

Thank you. I believe we have two that are on Zoom. is either Matthew or Sherry. Okay, promote him please, thank you. Hello Matthew.

Try again. Oh, okay. Well, now we can hear. Hi. Welcome. So tell us a little bit about yourself and... Yeah, so...

and I've definitely applied the skills and experience that I've had on the commission to my professional life. I work as a housing case manager for a non-profit in Boston and I apply the knowledge and skills that I've learned from the commission to that position. have been a part of is the Inclusion Training Initiative where we're training local organizations on disability inclusion. So far we've gotten many of the staff of the library for certifying and disability inclusion.

So that's an initiative I'm definitely hoping to expand upon in a second term. Just also just becoming more aware of issues around town that need to be addressed for the benefit of the community. I'm definitely very interested in expanding my knowledge of those issues. are making a difference in that sense.

Thank you. Questions?

Yes. I don't have any. Just a comment on, I think, the program that you are that you piloted, I guess, at the library. Sounds like a great program, and to move it through different departments and inclusion is a very worthy goal. So thank you for working on that.

Oh, yeah, of course. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

I'll just thank all of our applicants for your continued interest in the role and for your volunteer time and effort, so thank you.

Thanks, Evan. Is Sherry on? Laurent? No? Okay. And by the way, we are not voting tonight. We're just taking the statements, so just so you know. We believe we, June 18th. Okay. So Nancy, just to be clear here, there are four vacancies, four incumbents. No other applicants. four vacancies, four of them. So all these . I just want to make sure that we all know.

We're just waiting to see if the other individual.

Thank you very much.

Sure. Thank you. Thank you.

Have a good night. I'm hoping that would be five different members of the Commission. These terms will be expired at the end of June, so yes, there will be five different members that will be used.

Yeah, so if it's all right with everyone, I would like to move that we go ahead and accept the candidates that we heard from tonight. And so I move to accept these three candidates.

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? Have you none? All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Matthew, thank you.

Have a good night.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Yeah. Evan, do you second that? I do. Me too. So is the other one?

She's logging in now.

She's logging in now? Okay.

All right.

Michelle, you did a perfect work.

Yes.

Yeah, I see. Yeah, that is what I said.

I think we can remove Matthew.

Moving her to panelists here.

Does she need to accept?

She needs to accept when she gets the prompt.

Yes.

Sherry if you can hear us could you accept the request to join as a panelist?

Here we go.

Thank you.

Thank you. Can you hear us? No. That was a while ago. So she cannot hear us? I mean, we might just have to wait. No, she's been there, but hasn't answered. Can she hear us?

Okay. Well, let's just leave it up and we'll just go to old and new business and then... if by the time we finish Old and New Business. If at any time you can unmute yourself and speak, we'll take you. In the meantime, Old and New Business.

Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to give a brief update on the status of the Facilities Master Plan Steering Committee and the work that continues to move forward. So the committee met last week and continues to make significant progress as we work through the important town-wide planning effort. Members of the school committee's educational model subcommittee also joined the meeting as part of the broader discussion regarding how the educational model works and the facilities master plan process will continue to move forward along side each other. but they remain separate reports and processes. There are naturally areas that are going to overlap and the work will overlap. and the consultants discussed how educational programming considerations and facility plannings may help inform one another throughout the process. It was a really interesting discussion that we had on that.

An important discussion also took place regarding maintaining the integrity and intent of the overall facilities master plan. Members of the committee emphasized the importance of ensuring that the final facilities plan remains comprehensive and truly Townwide, rather than becoming solely a school-focused working group. And everyone agreed on that, though the projects are working together. that they are separate at the end of the day. They just need to work with each other because they're both important components. The committee also received a high-level review of the existing conditions evaluation process for all the town facilities and included general assessments of the buildings, the conditions, the infrastructure, accessibility, and sustainability over the long-term facility needs. On the community engagement side, outreach efforts for the town-wide survey were very strong. As of May 22nd, the survey had received 464 responses. I don't have an update. It did close at night on May 24th.

but that was a high level of community participation and I do thank everybody who took the time. It was about a 10 minute survey and they took the time to fill that out The next major public engagement opportunity is going to be on June 15th, which will be a community meeting at the middle school. The meeting will include an update on survey results, a high level review of the condition of the town facilities, and an interactive data walk. during which residents will have another opportunity to review information, provide feedback, and continue participating in this process. So overall, committee continues to focus on ensuring that the work remains comprehensive that we're continuing to be transparent and getting out the word as much as possible that community members have their chance to voice what they feel is important to the town. That is my update, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

Okay, in a second.

Anybody have any questions for Dimitria?

Thank you for the update.

Well, we'll try again. Sherry, you want to unmute yourself, please? There you go.

Hi, good evening everyone.

Here we go, good, hi.

Good evening.

So just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve on the committee.

Sure. So, my name is Shari. I have lived in Dedham since 2013. I currently have been serving on the Commission of Disability for a few years now. My son is now 10. He is diagnosed with level 3 autism spectrum disorder. I also have worked for the state as a social worker for coming up on 16 years now. So I initially wanted to be part of the commission just because I have lived experience and lots of ideas. So I'm hoping to continue to share those.

Thank you. Any questions?

Thank you for your years of service and your continued interest.

Thank you.

Thank you. What is the wish?

I would move to go ahead and accept the applicant to continue on the board.

Is there a second? Second. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you.

Have a good night.

Good night.

Okay, continuing with old and new business.

My other thing, I thought this was a great event that's happening this weekend. which is the puppy adoption meet and greet event on Saturday from 11 to 1 at the town green in the square. There's going to be some adorable dogs. I have to stay away. but I was really, I know that we approved this but just to let everybody know, if you're looking for a puppy, an older dog, they're looking for their forever home. So go for the little meet and greet. You might find that perfect match there. And it's being hosted by Donahue Real Estate and Schultz Guesthouse. It just sounds like such a fun event. So love it. That was all.

Thank you. Anybody else? Aaron, do you have anything? Michelle.

I just wanted to make a comment that coming off the budget vote at town meeting and the budget challenges we all know are coming ahead and the likely difficulty of building a budget for next fiscal year, I'm just hoping that we can kind of come up with a plan to get kind of started now on thinking about that. I know obviously town staff is always working on the budget and forecasting all year long, but I'm hoping there'll be some conversations continuing on this board and between boards and with the staff and especially with the community. to help make sure people really understand the challenges and the options and different scenarios that might face us next year so that we're not caught flat-footed with that next year. Yeah, just hoping that we'll be able to kind of start to learn from the staff kind of a clear menu of options, even though there's some information we won't have till later, just really starting those conversations in whatever ways make the most sense.

Thank you. Stephen? I just want to sort of bring it to everyone's attention if I didn't see it already that due to the World Cup, the Franklin-Foxborough commuter rail line is completely down on match days. So that's June 13th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 26th, 29th, and July 9th. so just so commuters who take a train out of Dedham Corp, Endicott, and even Readville for the Franklin line, that is not an option. So you're gonna have to have and I have an alternate. I know the MBTA recommended 34E. I believe Readville will now serve the Providence line, which is sort of sparing normally. The updated schedule is on the MBTA's website, so I just would encourage commuters to check that out and plan ahead. FIFA or someone from the World Cup is asking people to stay home on those days. Most people, that's not an option. If you have that option, enjoy that.

It's probably not going to be a fun commuting day, but just want people to be aware.

It's not operating from here to Boston, just not at all?

No Franklin Line, because that's, as Erin mentioned, that's the Match Day train is going from South Station Street to... Boston Stadium. Yeah, so there's no Franklin line at all.

Thank you. And maybe we can push that out as well. in one of the briefs for those. I know there's a lot of people that utilize.

And if there is, and if we could clearly, if there is the option for rebuild to share what other alternatives there are. I know I looked at it briefly and it was a little complicated to decipher. So if we could help in interpreting where other people can go to get around.

Good idea. Just a few items, since we're not meeting until June 18th, Flight Day, June 14th, Flight Day Parade, it is starting at 5, 5 p.m. this year. So hopefully, let's pray for a non-wet weekend, which seems to be the norm lately. and also on Saturday at 4.30 in the public safety building, the fire house side, swearing in at 4.30 for Chief DeVincent. and finally just thank Joe Hamilton, Joe Flanagan, the Summit Heavy crew, and everyone that worked on the police and fire, American Legion color guards who stood in the rain last Monday for the Memorial Day services.

thank everyone for it went well and we had a great crowd considering the weather and also to thank the Pulido family for their once again they sponsored the luncheon back at and the American Legion. So thank you. And with that, we do have need for an executive session. and entertain a motion to move into executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21A, Exemption 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body, and the Chair so declares, and I do. Second? Second. Second. Discussion? Hearing none on the vote, Erin?

Yes.

Steven? Yes. Michelle? Yes. Mitra? Yes. And the chair votes yes. We will only adjourn from executive session without taking in any votes. Thank you.