Select Board- March 12, 2026

Good evening.

A call to order the Select Board, Dedham Select Board meeting of March 12th, 2026. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

and the God in the visible who have lubricated

could remain standing. We'll have a moment of silence for the loss of a great member of our community, Chief Dennis Tan. Thank you. Is there anything you'd like to share about your dad?

Oh my god, thank you so much, Erin. I mean, thank you to everyone in the community for the amazing outpouring of love and support that myself and my family and my father has gotten over the last few days and weeks. It's really helped us. get through what has actually been obviously a very difficult and dark time for us all. It's never easy to lose someone that you love. As we all know, it never stops hurting, I think. You try to pick up the pieces and take one baby step at a time, and that's what all of us in my family are doing this week. My father was a Great man, a terrific human being, a terrific chief, a terrific select person. He was...

accomplished a lot in his life, in his career, both personally and professionally. Read his obituary and see all the things that He did, and he was just someone that was really well loved in a world where there's definitely good and evil, and he was good. He was a good man. and we will miss him very much and try our hardest, I will try my hardest to continue to carry forward his legacy of service to this community he loved. Dedham, he loved this community, he served this community, he always tried to do good to the people that came across him, whether it was a patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, Chief, and then just, you know, in the community afterwards, you know, talking to someone at the platform at Endicott Station, you know, we always tried to treat people kindly and with respect and decency and understanding and

I think that's why he affected so many people and moved so many people and so try to carry that legacy forward you know that love of community forward and Do the best we can. And thank you again to everyone that reached out. And God bless him. God bless my father. He was a terrific guy. Thank you, Aaron.

Okay, we'll start today's, this evening's meeting with Dedham residents, open discussion. Is anyone here for public discussion? Anyone online? Okay, we can move into the town manager's report.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Brief update this evening. To just continue our discussion around the FY27 budget, we held an all-day budget hearing with the Finance and Warrant Committee on Saturday. it's a great opportunity for not only the Finance and Warrant Committee to hear from all the departments but the community as well and I think this year was as good or better than years past, just because I think we're really hitting a rhythm, organizing our information. The department's really brought a lot of good information for the Finance and Warrant Committee this year. There was a lot of great discussion. It was a long day, but it was I think a very positive and constructive conversation throughout the day and so I extend my appreciation to the Finance and Warrant Committee for volunteering to do that, as well as the departments that came out. And again, talk through. It's going to be a tough budget year, and we all know that.

but to talk about the programs and the initiatives and the services that the departments offer and that not everyone is aware of those and I think to be able to express those and explain it to the Finance and Work Committee as it relates to their budget. It was really important. And I think that was a big takeaway from the day. So that happened on Saturday. on Tuesday evening the school committee came and met with the finance and warrant committee and went through their budget proposal for FY27 as well and that was also a very good meeting, a lot of good questions, a lot of good information shared both of those meetings are available on Dedham TV. And we also have information on our town website, the slide presentations, et cetera, from both meetings for members of the public to check out. Coming up, we have continued budget discussions and hearings with the Finance and Warrant Committee March 23rd and 24th are the next dates. and then following that is it the 31st and April 1st?

April 1st.

April 1st, okay. April 1st and April 8th. April 1st and April 8th, sorry. And so again, members of the community should check those out as well. Again, a lot of this work happens and folks really should tune in because I think it's very important conversations happening at those meetings and we'll make sure we advertise them through all the proper channels. again working with the Finance and Warrant Committee we're hoping to have a A sustainable, good budget presented the town meeting in May that sustains our services, but while maintaining affordability, and I think that's the real balance that we're trying to strike. Another update for the board, I think if you drove through the square recently, you noticed that the pavilion is finally being erected, the snow has melted, the poles are going up. Onyx, our contractor, is out there installing that now that the weather has turned and the materials have been remanufactured. So we're expecting it could...

as long as six weeks. We're hoping it'll be a little shorter than that for it to be done. And then we can open that up for the public to enjoy. hopefully find shelter and shade from the rain, et cetera, this summer. We had a great first summer last year with the town green, and I expect it'll be even better this year, so I think that that pavilion will lend a lot. and that concludes my report for this evening but again happy to take questions and I know we have coming up the facilities master plan so I won't talk about that or the goal setting session because we also have that on the agenda.

Thank you. Questions from board members?

Liam, refresh my memory of how much did we set aside for snow and ice, and how much over are we?

we had approximately, let's call it 700,000 in the budget for snow and ice. We are over I think as of our last accounting, we were at about 1.6, 1.7 million, approaching $2 million. We had had a placeholder in the budget for $2 million though, so I think we're, were still within that healthy range of what we anticipated using, but I can give the board a much more detailed accounting as soon as we process some of the last bills that have come in. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Just one comment. I appreciated watching the... Saturday all-day budget, the more uniform templates and the presentations from all the departments. I think that was new this year. Is that true, those presentations?

We got it a little bit more polished this year. We started last year, but this year it definitely was much more organized and really filled the format better, yeah.

Yeah, having sat through those meetings for many years, and it could be drastically different what kind of information one department presented to another. So I think that having that framework seemed to really work.

Credit goes to Amanda Smith, our director of communications. And the department heads to working together We pulled a lot of that information from the budget narratives that we're asking all departments now to submit the last couple of years and trying to distill that into slides so that we can then share that with both the public and the Finance and War Committee. And like you said, some departments would bring 30 slides and some would have nothing and really trying to level the playing field and make it so that everyone's sharing similar information.

Okay, if there are no other questions. we can move on to the consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda including signs, banners, Fairbanks Garden Club plant sale on 5-9-26, Bikes Not Bombs bike-a-thon 5-17-26, request for use of Town Green, Dedham Museum and Archives, 7-4-26 from 8 to 11 a.m., and Donahue Real Estate, 5-30-26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Second with discussion?

Mm-hmm. I know a little bit more about the Donahue Real Estate on 53026 event. I happen to know about this.

Yes, my neighbor, Sheila Gallagher, who's a realtor at Donahue, is organizing an event with Schultz, Schultz's Guest House for meet and greet with their dogs. I should say hosted by Sheila Gallagher and her dog Lucy. and yes, so there'll be some dogs from Schultz's along with some community members and members from Donahue.

I was reading that and I thought that was a very interesting use of the town green and really, you know, Creative and Fun, and hopefully we'll get some of those puppies adopted as well, too.

Absolutely.

That was all. That's all I had.

Okay. So was that a second? It was a second, yep. Okay. Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Chair, there are two items not on the agenda this evening in front of you. We could have a motion to take them up this evening. Move to take two items not on the agenda.

Second.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Move to approve DiRenzo Company as a drain layer in Dedham.

Second.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye. Close note.

move to accept the grant award of $1,300 from Med Project for 2026 for the collection and disposal of unwanted venison.

Second. Hearing motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, next we have candidate statements, appointment to the Republican Town Committee, Board of Registrars.

Madam Chair, two of the candidates that had submitted, Colleen Hines and and Kathleen Chaisson have removed their names from consideration. So in front of you this evening is Sheila Sullivan. Okay.

Madam Chair, I'd move to appoint Sheila Sullivan as the Republican Town Committee recommendation for the registrars.

and I believe that we do have Sheila here in the audience. Would you like to say anything before we conclude our vote or are you comfortable with the vote?

I'm comfortable with it. If you have any questions for me.

Okay, great. Thank you. So hearing a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Congratulations. Thank you for coming today.

Thank you for your willingness to serve.

So Nancy will tell you what you have to do now, okay? So reach out tomorrow to get Swan in and so forth.

Thank you.

You don't have to stay.

You're welcome to.

When we do stuff like that, Madam Chair, people always sit there, do I get up and leave?

Can I stay? it's our chance to have an audience we don't tell them we have a lot on TV watching right James? Okay, next we have Heather Sutcliffe, the founder and curator and executive director of Museum and Community of Leo's Art to give us an update on inclusion training in Dedham. Welcome, Heather.

Hi, thank you so much. Would anyone like a hard copy? I know we've got it up on the screen. That's way better than what I'm using. Well, thank you all for having me here tonight. So just to give a little bit of background, I'm Heather Sutcliffe. I'm a resident of the Riverdale area. I've lived there since 2014. I have two sons with both who have autism and an intellectual disability. They're 15 and 22. and so everything I do, including my day job and the nonprofit I founded is really with them in mind. Everything is for them. So one of the pieces I did a few years ago is complete a fellowship. And my project in that fellowship was the Crocker Fellowship with the Institute of Inclusion in Boston.

My project was to develop inclusion training for small local businesses that may not have access to what some large organizations have. We developed that and launched it and have really been learning. I'd say the last 18 months that it's been launched, I consider it really a pilot. The first thing I just want to call attention to is, well, let me just go through this, and then I'll end with the seal. So what we've improved since the last time we saw each other is we did create the seal. And that is something that really strives to represent every disability possible, those that are visible and invisible. And I think that there are just so many things and so many different ways that folks are impacted. So the seal even to the point of the colors that it displays is representative of something. So we developed that.

and then we really looked at this experience and on the right side of the page are the four modules that we currently have in the training. the users would complete those sequentially and they really provide that high level 101 in terms of this is understanding, don't assume, et cetera, and just really trying to get folks to think and really shape perceptions. The first thing we did is really simplify the experience. So the view that you see with these modules right now is the view that it looks like when you go in to take the training. And that's a change that we just made over this year because it had been previously quite clunky where you have to click back and forth and it was just very confusing in terms of what needed to be done. One of the groups that we trained was the library staff. And so we were able to go in and do that as a group using the monitors that they had.

And myself and another member of the COD participated to really help them through that confusion, but it was really obvious that we needed to simplify the experience, so we did that. And anyone that has taken the training since we simplified it, it's been met with positive reception. But what we've really learned is that it's a challenge maintaining sort of the contacts at these organizations. There's quite a bit of turnover. and that makes it really heavy administratively. The only cost for this is what we're funding to license the training. We have 25 licenses. that can be reused and that's how we really got the cost down to what it is because typically the Center for Executive Excellence works with large organizations and so they have discounted this as much as they possibly can. I did ask before they sent us this revised invoice,

whether or not they'd be willing to go even further with their discount given that my organization is a nonprofit, 501 , I also asked if they'd be willing to reduce even the number of licenses, thinking we could try to save. They're not. This is sort of as far as they can go with it. but I think we've just really, we've got some, the administrative burden is really heavy because with these organizations, sorry, with the, Folks that we're training, there's just quite a bit of turnover, and it can be challenging to have 100% participation. So we went in and had a wonderful experience with the library, and two weeks later, there were new staff and it's just very hard to sort of keep up.

And so I would say that what definitely is not working is the arduous nature of all of that and we're concerned about it scaling to larger groups and organizations because you can only do 25 people at once. And that whole setup process is really a lot of handoffs and back and forth. We also are pretty limited to the current setup. I was able to convince the organization to make that change to the user experience for free. because I kept giving all the feedback we had, but we're pretty limited. We can't really do much more, so anyway. what I'm looking for for the next year is to really try to relax our rules a bit and really look at the operating model aspect of this. We're not gonna be able every time just using the library as an example, hire somebody new to go right out and get them up to speed and trained. I think we've got to relax a bit and maybe batch that quarterly.

have now organizations that are renewing. The original goal was every year we'd have them complete the training. And while they're willing to, it's repetitive information. And so I think that's the other piece at this price point, there is not any change or update to the information. And as it evolves, we really want to evolve and keep up with how disability awareness and language is being presented. So I think there's some relaxing there and refinement of the operating model. And then what I really want to research and what I'll commit to researching here to the town is, just what options we have. What options we have to perhaps adjust from this vendor, perhaps we can build something ourselves and we've gotta get to the point I think where we can train larger groups at once. I think it'll have a lot, further impact.

I would say to date, we've trained probably about 75 people, maybe just under 10 to 12 organizations. And so we know we can do more, but the administrative burden has just been quite a bit. And all of the administrative part of it from the creation of the seal to administering and going back and forth with the contacts has been volunteer hours. either myself or somebody working with my organization. I do want to just touch upon the seal. Again, it represents really as broad of a range view as we can get, and we took the time to really define what each of these pieces mean. I'm envisioning a world where we can have this be visible and

even to the point of making t-shirts and just getting that awareness for this seal because I think it's really representative of what we're striving for with the training.

Great, thank you so much. Thank you. Do we have questions from board members?

I have some, and I apologize, I haven't been on the board that long, so this is the first I'm hearing, so I apologize if these are things that you've represented before. Thank you for your work on this. So you created the training, but the company you refer to, who implements it? I'm just trying to figure out how this figures out. the town of Dedham and our HR department and our trainings and your role and the company's role.

And I would love to explore what you have and either A, leverage it or B, have the town complete the training. That's one of the pieces I've been in touch with Amanda Smith on before. So no, I didn't build the training. We basically are licensing it. And by we, you mean you or the town? Well, the town is covering the cost I'm administering through my organization, so yeah. the Center for Executive Excellence partners with a vendor that has snippets of content and they're taking this content and packaging it up in sort of micro lessons on any topic imaginable from the disability pieces to any sort of organizational training. we were able to pick, my organization was able to pick from their library of content to put these four modules together.

We purposefully went really simple, just trying to give an awareness to think of others and recognize differences and presume competence. We kept it very simple and high level. I, for example, neither my organization or the town of Dedham can go and say, OK, we want to make a change to this. There's something outdated in one of these snippets. because this is what they're licensing. They're the ones maintaining it and so that's, it's not only the snippets of content but it's the experience of sort of assigning the license out, making it available with a login, and then tracking that it's done. It's that whole sort of piece is what we're licensing.

And you mentioned the library, but are all town employees doing this training?

I would love to do that. We have not done that yet, but I would love to. Arrange a group like we did with the library and do that. I think that would be tremendous. We focus just on small organizations and I've worked with Anne Miranda on some of the Dedham Square Circle participants. So that's how we've ended up with the groups we've got. And some of this comes down to just again like the administrative aspect of it I would love to partner with would be a wonderful project for like a high school intern or a high school group or local group that could help sort of do that outreach because it's quite, you know, I don't have a lot of discretionary time. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

If I could, Madam Chair. So I think it might be helpful for those that have not heard you speak before Let's just do just a brief background of tell people about the Museum of Leo's Art and how that is really the impetus for what you're doing. And when I first met you downstairs when your boys were selling art.

I think many of you have met them.

Yeah, and it's really, you know, they're amazing and we know that it's a lot, it's a lot of work, both professionally and personally for you, but I think it might help sort of give some insight to what this is really all about.

Sure.

Just briefly, just talk.

I'm happy to. Yeah, I know it's hard to be brief when I'm talking about my kids. I know. So Leo, my younger son, is 15 and a half. Owen is... 21 1⁄2, so we're actually facing the cliff for Owen for turning 22. And so I started Museum and Community of Leo's Art. That's our official name. It's a 501c3, and I started that when... Owen, my older son, was about 13 and we were trying to just start getting vocational experience and building a resume and This was right before the pandemic. And we started just very simply in all the clinics that we were going to for services, setting up a table and doing like a bake sale and raising money and having them do all the pieces, make the products, set it up. talked to people, take payment, et cetera. And when the pandemic hit, we had to obviously revisit all of that. And my younger son

they're impacted even though they both have the same diagnosis they're impacted so differently and I wanted to get him involved and he at the time was doing a tremendous amount of drawing and it got us thinking, well, how do we bring this out? How do we get this out? So we started preparing his artwork and selling his artwork that's really mushroomed and become this community. And so from there, we rented space at Mother Brook We have an actual studio space there, and we've been able to, and that's for the past four years, I think, have not only been able to display and sell Leo's art, but we feature art of other individuals, local, other local teens or young adults, a variety of artwork. It was all so different. We've got one

young man from Hyde Park that's a photographer. We've got another young man from Westwood that is just a beautiful artist and works with a remote art teacher through Zoom in California. So, I mean, it's just, we've been able to feature under the community of my son's artwork making opportunity for others and really that's the mission of the organization is to create and elevate opportunities for those with neurodiversity or other disabilities and their families and the therapists that help them progress because it isn't just about the individual. My life is forever changed because of my sons and the community that we've met. I was talking with the mom last night, like some of my best friends now have come from this community that I've only become part of because of my sons.

And so this organization that we created truly is meant to just, again, create and elevate opportunity. And when you see there's such a need, especially when you get to these and so on. And I think that when you get to these older ages, there's so much for the younger kids. And when you get to some of the older ages, it just kind of falls off. all the money that we raise through the sale of that artwork and we participate in the Dedham Farmers Market every week which is a wonder and a few others locally but tremendous vocational opportunity for and my sons and others that we've had join us, but all of the money that we raise goes back to programming. So we offer two quarterly eight week classes, one for elementary age kids

M114s, and we do those right on the Dedham West Roxbury line. That organization and all the individuals involved have completed the training to bring it back to that. I want to do more and we will do more. It's just trying to keep everything going and grow in a way that we can maintain that level of success. and just by saying last night was our last session for the elementary age group and a lot of the folks that participate are from Dedham. and I brought flowers for the parents as well as the therapists because and Again, it's not just the individuals who are getting quality experience with the program. It's recognizing everything that everybody does as a caregiver, the therapists who have chosen these fields.

it's all of us together working for this successive the individual. So thank you, Jim, for giving me the floor. That's as concise as I can be.

Well, as Owen has a terrific advocate for him and knowing when you turn 22, You'll have a lot of challenges, but I know that you have the skill set to make sure that he and others continue. Thank you so much.

Thank you. He's loved coming. He's on the fourth floor for the Life Start program. He's loved coming here. to this building. So thank you all. Any other questions? Does he make tote bags?

We do have some tote bags. Once you started talking, my son bought at one of the strolls a tote bag, and I'm wondering if it was from your son.

I wonder, next time I come I'll bring merchandise. Can I leave you, I have a copy of the invoice, can I leave you with anything else?

Any other questions? No, just thank you for everything that you do. I've been a fan of Leo's art and your organizing around that for years. And just appreciate the amount of effort that you have taken and have had to take to make sure that your sons and other children with Neurodivergence and Disabilities have meaningful opportunities to participate and contribute in our world and so I'm grateful for that.

Thank you so much. I can't say enough about the town and the support and I mean, Anne Miranda has been tremendous. I mean, we're fixtures at that market. And it's been, even if we make $1, there's always value in it. I just can't say enough about the support from the town. So thank you. Thanks. Thank you.

Hey.

No, you have to stay.

Apparently, I can't do that. I can't keep all our audience members. Okay, next we have department updates from Council on Aging and the Health Department this evening.

Good evening. My name is Courtney Daly. I'm the Director of the Council on Aging. I just passed out our current newsletter, and it's full of fun activities going on in the Senior Center. So just a reminder, the Council on Aging serves the Dedham community, 55 and older, with wide ranges of services and activities. Above is a couple of examples of what we do, social services. We work with our outreach coordinator. She helps with fuel systems, housing applications, and referral services. Our social worker has created all these bullet points that you see. A couple things I do want to point out is her bereavement group, the first one she started,

over three years ago, they still meet weekly at the center as they created a bond. So that group has been very strong, and she currently has a group right now. It's an eight-week program. and her coffee and conversation has grown so large that actually had to go into two different days. So she's definitely making a huge impact with the seniors. Currently she is working on a pen pal program where she's connecting seniors in the community with homebound seniors that unfortunately can't get to the senior center. That's going to be a great program. Hopefully I can update you in the future. And then, of course, fun trips in and out of the country, as you can see, which is very exciting, and local trips. We have 12 fitness classes throughout the week at all different levels and educational lectures. And we started this year a Lunch and Learn with each department head.

It just gives a chance to have a department head each month to educate the seniors of what their department does, put a face to the name and any updates that's going on that they should be aware of. This is our strong staff of eight, even though some days it does not seem like enough, as we have about 80 to 100 seniors come per day. So it's a very busy senior center. but you could always use more, more hands. Transportation, we are lucky enough to have three vehicles for the town of Dedham. The transportation is just for Dedham residents. We do grocery shopping twice a week, local medical trips, and we were lucky enough this past year to get grant from the Commission of Disability so we can book taxi services when our transportation is fully booked. So that has been a huge help.

with just getting seniors to medical appointments and of course in the city because we don't drive that far into downtown Boston. These are the statistics from this past fiscal year. It's divided by events, fitness, outreach, social services, transportation. We have a great program, My Senior Center, so when someone comes into the Senior Center, They scan in, and I'm very strict with that. I want to make sure we get our numbers. It's very important. and this last page is just fun pictures from our senior center. We max our space, I'm sure. you all have walked through our senior center at the first floor and we're busting out the seams already, which is good and bad, but we definitely maximize our space and we have a lot of fun. Anyone have any questions I can answer? Thank you, Courtney.

Questions from board members?

Madam Chair, if I may just throw in, I think as someone who spoke at one of the lunch and learns, it was awesome. Thank you for setting that up. I think that's fantastic. Do you want to just tell the board a little bit about the grab and go lunch program that you started too?

Oh, yes, yes. So we started this in, we have a beautiful kitchen downstairs, a commercial kitchen. Unfortunately, we don't have staff for, but we were lucky enough to have someone come in for one day and we planned a grab and go lunch. This was an opportunity for seniors to come in, grab a lunch. They had an option of a tuna fish sandwich or ham and cheese and pasta salad, a bag of chips, and a water bottle for $4. they were able to have lunch there, socialize, and or have a brown paper bag and take it home. So it was a very successful day and everybody loved it. Our next one will be April. We are working out some kinks. We had a lot of feedback, so we are having soup. next month. That was one of the important things that the seniors wanted, which is great. So we're finally using our kitchen on a regular basis.

We have cooking classes every other month with a great vendor. So we're hoping that in the future that we can get a staff in there to have ongoing meals. Parking is tight, but we definitely utilize our time and space again, so we're hoping to get that in the future. Thank you.

Other questions or comments from board members?

So thank you for everything. Thank you and where you've taken, you know, you've advanced the Senior Center even more from when it opened. and bringing your ideas and your talent to it. And just a couple questions. Is there still a pen pal program with the elementary schools?

We did one session that was during COVID. So we never follow up and had a second one. We're now working more for isolation with seniors, so we're focusing on homebound seniors. But that was a huge success during COVID.

It was great. Yeah, having that. getting to know each other, the kids and the senior adults and all that. And then my other question goes to, I know that we call it a senior center, but it's 55 and older than I happen to be. somewhere around there. So I'm an older adult, I've been told. But I'm interested in going to more events later during the day. I obviously work and so forth and I know that there's a lot on your plate but hopefully at some point we'll be able to maybe start doing some programming in the evening that can attract someone at my age that is able to go here, that we would be willing to pay to do cooking, or that might even, it's not gonna fund the system, Everybody helps. Right, everybody helps, right? Yes, absolutely. And just, you know, an exercise class that would feel comfortable going to things like that. Right, right. It would be great.

I know that, like I said, you have a lot, and you've done so much, and I thank you for all of that, but in your spare time, if you ever could.

Right. We have grown so much from traditions, that one room in traditions with no bathroom, might I add. And we have a great space downstairs. but we are open till seven on Wednesdays. We do shut down at seven so it is tough if someone does work, say in Newton, get out at 4.30, do you go straight to the senior center? It's kind of a domino effect of, Howley, we can stay open, especially we have union members that are the staff. We have had cooking classes at nighttime. It is more towards the... 515 so we can kind of stretch out till 7 o'clock and we had a couple Zumba classes which weren't as popular but I think we always are on a circle of trying the same thing over again because you know we always have New people coming in, retiring, part-time. So we're always on a rotating circle of that. So I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments or questions? No, just one question about, you mentioned that you have a focus as well on homebound seniors. Yes. Because I see all the activity in the center is great. It's so nice to know that when I come into town hall, the chances are I'm going to, and bump into a lifelong family friend or my mother-in-law or someone else. But could you tell us a little bit about the services that you have available for homebound seniors?

Yeah, of course. Both our outreach coordinator and social worker they do make home visits if they do need, if TMAR outreach coordinator needs to help with paperwork, filing for housing applications. Danielle will pop by if they know that someone hasn't had a visitor in a while. so connecting with the seniors at home. Hopefully the pen pal program will open that up and if they are able to come out and they maybe just aren't able to drive, they'll learn more about our transportation. and maybe our drivers can go pick them up and bring them to the center throughout the week. So making sure that they're aware that we are there and if they do need anything, we're a phone call away.

That's great. And so if someone is either a homebound senior or a loved one of a homebound senior, how should they reach out to you?

So all of our information is on the town website. We also have a Facebook page. Any email to myself or our social worker, Danielle Gilson, Tammy Allen, our outreach coordinator. and any type of conversation started, we can go from there. So thank you. Great. Thank you.

I just want to say thank you for all you guys do for the seniors. Really wonderful. What an amazing country we live in, right? Where you can have things like this that are available to people and we take care of our older people. Also, thank you to our taxpayers for supporting this, right? Because as we go through challenging financial times, it's great that we're able to preserve some of these services and provide this to senior citizens. I will tell you that now that my mother's going through a big life transition, I'm going to give her this. There's a lot in here, just looking through it, that I think would really benefit her. And there's a lot of people. in this community that are just like her. So thank you for the work.

We're very lucky here in Dedham to have the budget that we have at the Council on Aging, and the seniors are very well respected, and we have a lot to offer them.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Up next we have the health department, Sam.

Did you get a bill to the house?

Yeah. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Thank you. If you could introduce yourself.

Absolutely. Hello, nice to meet you all. I am Sam Menard. I am the new Dedham Health Director. I started in the department in June of last year.

Great, welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Chair and members of the select board. Oh, actually, hold on. Let me test this out first. I had a slight issue on Saturday. Okay, sorry.

Trauma.

Okay.

Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. The Dedham Health Department works to protect and promote the health, safety, and well-being of our community through environmental health services, Public Health Nursing, Substance Use Prevention and Regional Collaboration. Our mission is to support community wellness, health equity and overall quality of life through transparent and collaborative public health practice. First, I'd like to highlight some of the wonderful programs and resources we offer to the community. The department operates a medical sharps disposal program, which allows residents to safely dispose of used syringes and needles. Hygiene kits were put together and distributed to key partners to reach individuals experiencing homelessness or unmet basic needs. Our office manager assists residents with fuel assistance applications and also provides Spanish translation services when needed.

Our Care Cab program continues to provide free transportation for residents seeking mental health or substance use treatment. helping remove barriers to accessing care. Through our DOSA program, the department works to reduce substance use through youth prevention programs and community partnerships. are public health nurse, became certified Narcan trainer last year and now provides public distribution and training. The department is also working closely with town leadership to ensure that opioid abatement funds are used in a way that directly supports residents. This includes a mini-grant program for Dedham-based organizations organizations working in substance use prevention, treatment, recovery support, education, making a free recovery coach available through Riverside Community Care, and committing to providing sober living scholarships for Dedham residents.

Regionally, Dedham participates in the NC8 Public Health Coalition, which strengthens local public health capacity through shared services training opportunities and collaboration across communities. The coalition is currently hiring a regional public health nurse who will be hosted by our town and will focus on launching a maternal and child health care initiative across participating communities. A significant portion of Dedham's workforce of our department's work focuses on environmental health and inspections. In 2025, staff conducted 830 food inspections at restaurants, schools, farmers markets, convenience stores, nursing homes, and temporary events. Staff also conducted inspections of rec camps, pools, spas, housing, septic systems, and domestic animal

facilities while reviewing plans for new and renovated establishments and responding to 184 public health complaints related to housing, food safety, rodents, and other environmental health concerns. The department also issued a wide range of permits to ensure safe operation throughout the community, including 156 food establishment permits, more than 100 temporary food permits, and other permits for things like dumpsters, farmers markets, tobacco retailers, pools, domestic animals and other regulated activities. Our public health nurse continues to lead important community health programs. In 2025, 471 immunizations were administered through public clinics, senior clinics, school clinics, and home visits, including 400 flu vaccinations. through the Vaccine for Children program.

The department also provides essential immunizations for children who may otherwise face barriers to accessing care. Looking ahead, the department's goals include expanding evidence-based health education programs, increasing prevention programs through DOSA, transitioning all permit applications to the OpenGov online platform, and continuing to strengthen public health services for Dedham residents. Thank you all for your time today. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you so much. Do we have questions from board members?

First, just welcome. I'm glad to finally meet you. We've been here several months, so it's good to meet you. One question is about the rodents. I'm just curious if you're aware of how rodents this level of complaint might compare or if in how it might be changing over time that you've been here because I know we received a lot of emails about the rodents that from the disturbance around the Endicott rotary and I that's at least what we're hearing from the public and if this seems unusual or what the trend is right now.

Yes. So much to say about. in particular, as someone who I'm slowly working my way down. But as of a few years ago, I was working in Brookline, where during the pandemic, that seemed to be like ground zero for the rags. It just seems to be slowly working its way out there. I don't think anyone would argue that the rat population in and around the Boston area is not exploding. I think it's probably taken a little bit longer to get to the Dedham area. As far as our actual complaint numbers, I did take a look. From 2024 to 2025, we actually had the exact same number of RAC complaints. I will say though, we're taking a closer look this year about how we're recording them because a lot of times if multiple neighbors are calling about rats, but one neighbor is calling us the community representative, we might just lump those all together for for logistical reasons.

Really, we might want to start thinking about, as other communities I work for have, do we have maybe GIS capabilities here or somewhere to actually start pinpointing exactly how many addresses and where are all the hotspots and things like that. maybe we'll get it under control before we get to that point, but I think it's really gonna be a community effort. I think a lot of things, climate change, longer rat breeding seasons, Outdoor dining isn't as big of a thing here, but in other communities I've worked for seem to contribute to it. People working from home more and more. There are so many reasons why this might be happening. I do think, maybe, fingers crossed, we had a nice, cold... Snowy Winter that might help us out for the coming year but we're gonna take a closer look at the numbers and try to make sure we're tracking it accurately to see if things are getting worse or are the public calling more because people are more aware of it.

But sorry, that was a very long explanation.

I'm glad you had so much to say about it. And my other question was maybe to hear a little bit more about the regional position that's being hired for.

Yes, so that is all funded through our regional coalition. So we have a fairly large grant called the Public Health Excellence Grant that is given to us with in conjunction with six other communities. Let me try to list them off. But essentially Norwood, Westwood, Wellesley, Walpole, Canton, Milton, might have gotten them all. It's over a half million dollar grant, essentially, that allows us to hire some staff, a lot of it goes towards educational purposes. it's meant to make sure all of the health departments across the state are meeting minimum standards and providing equitable public health resources to their communities. What our communities are using that for is we're funding a regional epidemiologist who was recently hired, and we are hiring a regional public health nurse who

is going to be specifically focusing on launching a welcome baby program where they're going to be doing home visits for new Mothers and Babies to do an actual check-in on them. So that's the idea. We're right in the middle of the hiring process, so hopefully we'll get some good candidates and get someone started on that program really soon. That's an incredible grant. We have that through FY27. Obviously, due to the large amount to cuts in a lot of places due to just the political climate out there. I think that is one of the grants that could potentially go. That would have a massive impact on the public health world. and make a whole lot of things harder for us moving forward. So it's something we're really paying attention to and really trying to advocate to keep.

Thank you so much. Other questions?

Thanks for coming in and two great presentations tonight, so appreciate the effort that goes into putting something together and then coming in front of us. in speaking, but by the way, you both did very relaxed in front there, so that's good. I know when you're told you're coming in front of the select board, it's like, oh my God, what are they going to do? Them we're going to talk to? So thank you.

You are the mysterious board who we all know about.

Well now you can go and you can dispel the rumors. Or maybe not, because you know. Anyway, so first I'm glad on the slide you mentioned the implementation of the opioid abatement funds. there was a news story tonight on one of the TV stations about cities and towns in Massachusetts not spending the money in that there's a hundred plus million dollars in that the percentages of of money being spent is really, really low. So it's good to see that we have a program and maybe at some point just get maybe, Leon, an accounting of where we stand because if it comes, unless you know.

I have those numbers with me.

Okay.

I will just say here, let me just get you some numbers. So...

This is projected to be dispersed over, let's see here.

So Dedham is anticipated to receive about $1.2 million, and that will be over...

about the next decade and a half. So currently we have in hand,

I think you're right. Sorry, I'm looking at my screen.

About there.

I'm not going on the spot, sorry.

Sorry.

meant to come with all those numbers top of head. To say of that money, so about 45,000 has been towards mini grants. We've committed to spending about $17,000 a year to provide the free recovery coaching services through Riverside. which I think is an awesome program. The sober living scholarships have actually not been taken advantage of yet. by that organization, but they're available. We also did just commit to partially funding the social worker position at the police department for the coming fiscal year. I think another big plan for that funding that we would love to see from the health department perspective is we have the drug-free communities grant right now funding our substance use team positions. and thinking about that long term, that grant expires in two years for us. And then we'll no longer have funding for those positions.

So also seeing how we can incorporate some of this funding long term into actually keeping substance would be great. In addition to that, we really want to make sure we're getting input from the community and folks with lived experiences on how they want to see this money spent. One thing that is happening through the Norfolk County 8 Coalition money right now is we have a Community Health Assessment. It's not a super robust one, but it's something we had some extra funds to use this year. There are some substance use questions being asked and some resource questions being asked. So by the end of this fiscal year, we should hopefully have some input from some focus groups and interviews and a community survey about resources people might want in the communities and their experiences with substance use that we can build into that. But you're totally right. A lot of the communities are overwhelmed.

They might have a task force. They might not. They don't know what to do with this money. It's a lot of money over a long period of time. But I think Dedham, prior to me joining, has been really thoughtful about this, has a wonderful task force, and has a lot of great initiatives going on.

Thank you for the answer. It was good to hear when you mentioned the partial funding for the mental health worker in the police department. I know that was an initiative Dr. Teehan talked about for a long time and pushed to get that to assist the police department. And some of us have met with the mental health worker and the and the response that they have to some of the crisis. And it's very, very well received. Thank you.

We're overjoyed to have them at the police department too. This wasn't substance use related, but the social worker came out with me and our

I'm so glad to hear that's been such a successful program because I mean that's part of what it means to support our police and to fund our police. to give them the tools they need to function in a job that is a totally different job than it was 50 years ago. And their expectations are totally different and the challenges. are so much greater. So I thought that was, I was glad that we did that when we did it, and it really makes me happy to hear that it's been a successful program.

Yeah, and could never overstate how much even more social work is needed in the town. So it's a great first step to have them there.

Madam Chair, if I may, I just want to also, oh, geez, who's calling me? I just want to say thank you for everything you guys do with the public health side of things. You know, that is really important work. I have to tell you that I strongly believe in support and even though I'll be leaving the board in a month I'm always here to help if anything comes up and I should mention I was going to mention this I will happily stay on to be the medical director Oh, wonderful. So don't worry about that. I know you guys need my signature or something. Great. We're happy to have your signature. But I'm also happy just like when things come up, if you need help, I'm always available.

That's so appreciated. Thank you.

Keeping the people of this town healthy is something I believe in. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? I'll just reiterate, thank you for the programming, the work, the thought going into your next years and next upcoming years goals. I'd love to see that we have this regional work happening and sharing of positions. I would love to see what the epidemiologists is working on and interested and hearing how the new programming around evidence-based education is going. So welcome, glad you're here. Thank you for the update and I look forward to hearing more. on the programming in the future.

I'm happy to come back anytime with an update. Thank you all so much.

All right, thank you. Up next, we have update and discussion on the Facilities Master Plan.

I just wanted to spend a few minutes to give you a quick update on the Facilities Master Plan. as you know as my role as a select board representative to the steering committee. We met publicly on March 9th where we approved the guiding principles that will help frame the work moving forward and I will discuss that a little bit later on as well too. And those principles focus on transparent data, informed decision making, meaningful community engagement, and thoughtful long-term planning. So the goal of the Facilities Master Plan is to provide a comprehensive assessment of Dedham's facilities, including both municipal and school buildings. The work will look at building conditions, Long Term Needs and Community Input to guide future decisions.

A key part of this process is really for us to step back and take a fresh look at both the school and municipal buildings. so that we can understand the entire town's facility needs and develop a thoughtful long-term plan that benefits the entire community. And that's really what we are working towards doing as this committee. The town has executed a contract with Arrow Street as we know. The contract value is approximately $288,000. The project officially kicked off in, I believe it was January. and the school facility sites visits have already been completed and they did those the week of the February vacation because there were obviously no students in there so it worked out to have them to go in there then. Town building site visits are now underway and will continue over the next several weeks.

I believe that they have five half-day site visits to visit all of those buildings. The assessment will help establish the baseline information that will guide us on our recommendations to the community. So about the community engagement, we created a steering committee that will help shape what our output is going to be. We all felt that it was extremely important that we learn from other groups that have come before us. How did they communicate? What could they have done better? What did they do that was really well that really brought in the community? Because let's face it, we not only have a school side, we have a municipal side. How do we reach all the people? And I don't know if any of us have the best ideas, but I think collectively in working with Arrowhead, I think that they're going to come up with some really good ideas to get the word out there. And it's also going to take us as well. I don't know if you remember when we did the local safety road plan.

We had a QR code. We had little cards. that got a lot of traction. We went to farmer markets. We went everywhere and just said, hi, are you a Dedham resident? And handed out the cards. So we're thinking about doing all those kinds of things. We will continue to update information. We have a website or the webpage so residents can stay informed about everything that we are doing. Oh, look at that. Let me go back, sorry. All right, first time with a clicker. Coordination of the educational model, which is extremely important to this as well too. This work is being coordinated with the Educational Model Review, which is being conducted by the Reni Center. Both teams are working together to coordinate outreach and avoid duplicating engagement efforts. because we don't want to have the same meetings over and over again.

We want to really try to bring people together and give them those opportunities. So the goal is to maximize participation while keeping the process clear and manageable for residents. We understand that sometimes we may say, well, no one was at the meeting. And we've got to try to figure out to meet people where they're at. More meetings isn't necessarily the best way to do it as well, but meaningful is. So I have a lot of faith in our outreach committee as well, too. Upcoming dates for you. Here we go. Okay. Reilly Center will introduce the educational model review at the school committee meeting on March 18th at 6.30. That's going to be held at the Public Safety Building. Arrows Street will attend and they are going to be listening, but they are not going to be participating.

The next facility master plan committee meeting will take place on March 23rd at 6.30, and that is a hybrid format. We're also planning a community listening session with Arrow Street on Tuesday, March 31st, and we will have more details for that and get that out as soon as possible. In closing, steering committee will continue to provide regular updates to the select board, the planning board, park and rec. I love the slides that were created. Thank you. for everyone that worked on those, for Amanda who worked on those. I know that you had input as well to these, so appreciate it. And we want to have that unified message going to all the committees. So they'll be giving the same presentations as well too. As I mentioned, March 23rd is our next meeting. On March 31st, we should be having a public meeting and I will continue to keep the board updated as the process moves forward.

That is where we are right now. If anybody has any questions or... Thank you. Thank you, Dimitria. Okay.

Any questions from board members? Nope. I just will say that I appreciate your leadership on this work group and also the collaboration with staff. We've talked about this before about how important this This type of strategic thinking is in order for us to have a really clear vision for how we move forward as a town. and look forward to the community engagement opportunities and others. One question I'll just ask you to speak to a bit. This work group, we formed it very intentionally and thoughtfully with representatives from across boards and committees.

and so what is that, in the formation phase, what has that experience been like in terms of coming together as a work group, figuring out one another's roles, bringing one another's perspectives into the planning process. What has that been like?

So it's interesting that you said that because I was actually going to comment on that. I think that the working group is starting to kind of get into their groove right now. I've noticed the progression of more conversation, getting getting to know each other a little bit more and working more cohesively. And I think sitting around the table, you have someone from FinCon that's on there, select board, school committee. You have planning board. Library. We were very selective. I shouldn't say selective. We were very intentional on all the different perspectives that we wanted brought to the table. And we are seeing that. We all have our views. There isn't a shy one sitting at the table. So the conversations, I'm sure, are going to get even better. So I do think we're starting to really mesh.

I very much like working with my co-chair, Anthony, and the school committee. I think we balance each other very well too, so it's good. I think everybody did a great job in who they appointed.

That's great. Thank you. I had one other thought that has completely left my mind, so I won't circle back to that. But oh, I just wanted to mention that I know that there's a real frequency of meeting dates that you've been having, so I just wanted, to emphasize I appreciate your engagement and commitment and the level of commitment that it's taking to guide this process. So thank you. Very good. Thank you. And thank you to the committee.

Madam Chair, just one thing on the facilities master plan group. I don't know whether the planning board appointed their associate member last night, but the associate member, potential, Eli, is our representative on the facilities master plan. and my recommendation would be that would make two members of the planning board on the committee and we should, once we confirm that that did happen, that we should post for a position to represent and our board on the committee as well with Dimitria. So if we can just get confirmation that if that appointment happened then we post and my recommendation would be we post for 10 days and then wherever our next meeting is. So not the normal 30 days, but the 10 days. So we can get it in and see what we have. We had some great candidates last time, I'm sure.

there's still some interest. And it's not, I don't believe it's too late in the process to put somebody on.

Great, thank you for bringing that up too. Okay, any other questions? No. All right, great, moving along. We have, do we have Hilton here?

What was that?

Oh, we're issuing. We have sanctions for the failed compliance for Hilton.

Oh, I skipped that.

Yeah, no, I do want to do that. I skipped ahead too quickly. Okay, excellent. Great.

Do you want to introduce it, or would you like me, Madam Chair?

I'm happy to introduce, although I haven't used the clicker yet. Okay, yes. So, back in January, the Select Board met in a Saturday meeting to have a discussion about how it is that we work together and what our priorities for working together are. for the future. And we had a really meaningful discussion about that. And through that discussion, We aligned around some goals for how the Select Board moves forward as a body amongst one another.

and as an important board within the town and identified that we really wanted to make sure that we were building a positive civic ecosystem that improved trust, engagement, and coordination between town boards and committees. Let me advance this. and community members and stakeholders. And through this priority setting process, we really focused on leadership roles and actionable steps. and through that discussion we identified three big buckets or categories for us that rose to the top as significant priorities.

One is looking at the annual budget and the goal planning process that we undergo and go through as a town. the contributions to that are across town wide and across boards. And how can the select board help facilitate those discussions, the creation of the town budget, alignment with the school committee and other committees, and what does that process look like? The next bucket was public engagement and trust building. So how can we, as we've have done a great job of in this town over the years and can continue to enhance and move forward. We're so lucky in Dedham that we have a really engaged residents. We've really engaged residents.

But we also know that there are times when we have big issues coming up in town and some residents may not know the process is happening or know who's making decisions or understanding where in the process a big project is. And that can cross multiple projects that we have now or in the future. And so another big bucket was around public engagement and trust building. and the last is how we coordinate with other boards and committees across town. And remind me the number of boards and committees that we have across town if someone remembers it.

It's anywhere from the high 20s to the mid 30s.

Yeah, I was going to say 35 or something. So we... Yeah, and so we have, we're so lucky to have such a strong foundation of staff in town, but layered around that is up to 35 boards and committees of volunteers who help us as a town work towards certain goals and objectives. And that is a really important process and level of engagement. but how can the select board help facilitate communication and engagement across all of those boards and committees. And so these are some of the things that we talked about. So for annual budget, let me just advance.

here, for annual budget, can we create a unified budget process and timeline that aligns with the town and school stakeholders? and that there's transparency in standardized formats. And there's several action steps that we identified that we could review and see what makes sense for us to move forward with. In addition, around public engagement and trust building, again, how can we build direct communication with the public to create community champions and advocates? are there digital tools or traditional outreach activities can we implement or better implement with the public to help build trust?

and again, with the board and committee engagement, how can we help facilitate coordination among boards? either by looking at are there common policies around certain universal themes that we could all work toward supporting together. and likewise. So I appreciated the opportunity for us to come together and look at these priorities and look forward to taking the next step of seeing how do we and so forth, how can we implement this strategic planning process together and how can we partner across the town to make sure that we're having all collectively the the best and most effective impact across the town as we possibly can.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And just to add on to that, so we will be working with the chair over the next couple of weeks to put together an implementation plan to bring back to the board so that you all can see how we can implement these steps over the next several months through the agendas to try to make sure that we're keeping this in the fore and not getting caught up with the the business of the day because we always get busy to make sure that we're sticking with it and implementing these good ideas.

Any other any comments or questions?

I'll just say thank you to the chair and the staff for arranging that day I went into it really not knowing what to expect but I thought it generated some really good conversations and that these are you know there's a lot of different goals we could focus on but these are three important ones and look forward to seeing how we can make sure we move forward with them.

Again, it was a good meeting. It's sort of, I'm seeing this stuff for the first time right now, so it's really hard to comment. The report, I assume it's from the consultant, I don't know. I'm seeing this for the first time. So it's really kind of, I feel that I can't engage in a meaningful conversation right now about it, but I think your plan about having something going forward and sort of maybe attacking one of these areas at a time is probably a good methodology in order to implement what was discussed and put it into action. So thank you.

So I enjoyed the session. thought there was good points brought up by everyone to kind of try to get to these, I guess, three categories of goals. We haven't voted on anything, right? So there's a lot more that actually has to be done by us before we can really start implementing things. But I think that this is a, it was a really great idea to have what we had and then to bring this forward. I think the concepts are there. I did have, when I was looking at this quickly before I received it, the lingo of Rapper, create a wrapper around the budget, right? I just need a little bit more clarification on things like that. I know, and I've said it before, we have all these buzzwords that we use. but if we can kind of explain that a little bit more, it would be most helpful. And when it is the implementation, when you're gonna work together,

It's a lot of us that has to get done. And sometimes it's written that it becomes the town manager's office, which has a lot to do with it as well, too. So that's something to take into consideration. The management of it is going to be you know like you said through the agendas things like that to make sure that we are continuously moving forward with these goals right when we decide to do them so yeah no I appreciate all the work on this and I think we're we're heading in the right direction here thank you thank you

Thank you everyone for participating. It was a worthwhile day.

Thank you. Okay, up next we have sanctions fulfilled compliance, Hilton.

Madam Chair, I would move to find the licensee Hilton at Dedham Place, 25 Allied Drive, did violate Mass General Law Chapter 138, Section 34, sale or delivery of alcohol to a person under 21 years of age, 204 CMR 2.05. permitting any decided disturbance or illegality of any kind to take place in or on the licensed premises and other rules and regulations. for the holders of alcoholic beverage licenses in the town of Dedham and Rule 10, the licensee shall keep a current and accurate list of the names of employees that engage in the sale or service of alcohol, including names, addresses, date of birth, date of hire, position as a copy of their server certification in Shell. make such lists available for inspection upon request by the authorized agents of the Dedham Police Department. And number 21, sale or delivery of alcohol to persons under 21.

All right, hearing a motion and a second.

Just one brief point of discussion, Madam Chair. I should have mentioned this earlier, but respectfully, I'm just going to abstain from this vote just because I planned a big event at the Hilton this week. I don't want to vote. on this particular matter. So parents may provide. So I'll be abstaining from both.

and on the motion, all those in favor say aye.

Maybe do a roll call since Dennis isn't there.

All right, Michelle? Yes. Jim?

Yes.

Dimitria? Yes. And the chair votes yes.

Madam Chair, I move as a result of the AFSAID findings, I move that the all-alcoholic restaurant license issued to Hilton at Dedham Place, 25 Allied Drive, be suspended for a period of three days, two days to held in abeyance for a period of one year, said one year, to expire March 12th, 27, and one day to be served on Monday, March 23rd, 26. Second.

Hearing motion to second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. And we'll do roll call. Roll call. Michelle? Yes. Jim? Yes. Dimitria? Yes. And the chair votes yes. Okay. Moving to old and new business. All right, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Madam Chair, I would move to adjourn our select board meeting in honor and the memory of Chief Dennis Teehan.

Second. Second. I can hear a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Thank you. Thank you.