Needham Select Board, 10/13/26

Thank you.

Recording in progress.

All right, calling to order the select board meeting For Tuesday, October 13th and we'll pause while we sort the audio. All sorted? Okay, great. Alright so this meeting is being broadcast by the Needham Channel, The Town's YouTube channel and by Zoom and it's being recorded for publication and later viewing in accordance with the open meeting law if anyone else in attendance wishes to record they are required to notify the chair first so that the chair may inform our other attendees. Is anyone besides the local and the observer in the room recording? No, okay great moving on We're going to start with public comments tonight. We have three who, three comments that let us know in advance. So I'm going to call up Tina Burgos, our first.

And I'll just remind you and everyone else that we do about three minutes. You're gonna say your name and address for the record please. We're just listening.

Okie dokie. Hi, my name is Tina Burgos and I live at 31 Fairview Road. I am the chair of the Needham Human Rights Committee. I have been in contact with Select Board Levy regarding committee appointments and I would like to thank him for his efforts. While I understand the appointment process is undergoing an overhaul, our committee faces a fundamental obstacle of the lack of quorum. Our full complement consists of 12 voting members. With the departure of four members this past June, we have seven remaining, exactly the minimum required for a quorum. This means every remaining member must be present for us to conduct business. Due to scheduling conflicts, we have not been able to meet the session. Our committee has a robust agenda for the upcoming year but our inability to meet has stalled the work. Most frustrating, however, is that we have received a citizens discrimination complaint that should have been addressed immediately. Our discussion of that complaint is still pending.

This reflects poorly not only on our committee, but more significantly on a community that has committed itself to being welcoming and inclusive for all. I urge the select board to resolve this crisis as soon as possible. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we cannot move forward without the appointments needed to conduct committee business. Thank you for your attention and collaboration on this matter.

Okay, next public comment is from Mary Ann Cooley. Welcome back. Nice to see you. Thank you.

Mary Ann Cooley, 85 High Street. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. The board had a lengthy discussion of the appointment process back in June At that time, there were some recommendations provided to the vice chair with respect to the process and the vice chairs proceeded through appointments for three committees so far. I would like to take stock of what's working or not with this fully transparent everything in public approach that is currently preferred. As a note of disclosure, my son was a candidate for one of the applicant pools In researching surrounding communities, I found much not to emulate. Making committee appointments in public has clearly been chilled in many places. I saw zero public discussion in other communities on recorded videos. From what I can see, Needham is fortunate to have a significant number of applicants. I observe far fewer in other communities. The book process had some bumps. Candidates were caught by surprise with public discussion of their candidacy while they were in the room. Some left, at least one vocalized before leaving that such discussion felt extremely awkward.

Where there were multiple candidates, later candidates had the benefit of hearing all other prior candidate's responses before their interview since all interview questions were identical. This creates an uneven playing field. Subcommittee members were caught by surprise that candidate discussion would take place in public. They asked, having not been informed of this requirement when they agreed to the proposed process if the discussion might be had an executive session and they were told no. Then members reflected that they would believe they would be unable to have a discussion with candor. One asked and was granted a reprieve to at least think about the candidates and have their discussion at a separate time. That additional time in meeting gave this committee chair the opportunity to consider how to structure her comments given they would be in public. Candidate discussions were limited to 5-10 minutes. This did not permit committee members to ask questions, they understood discussion to be cut off at 10 minutes for each applicant. It also meant that the questions asked were generic.

Mr. Levy always asks the same two questions, what interests an applicant about the committee and what expertise did they bring? Questions related to an understanding of the committee's work or an understanding any hot topics before the committee did not occur. Nor was there any discussion with the Committee Chair about how they viewed the functioning of their committee, any gaps of expertise that they were searching for or other needs the committee might have. In one case, the committee chair was able to make the need for certain expertise evident in her questions. Mr. Levy encouraged the bringing forward of multiple candidates for discussion at the Select Board, and he indicated that was the Select Boards preference. I don't think that was what I heard in June. So, how to improve without devolving as I saw in other communities? I hope the board will continue to respect and value the work of committees and not demean that work by trivializing appointments. I found two policies, I believe could be helpful to our process. One is a general policy in Dedham regarding attendance for appointed committee members

Our board has on occasion struggled without a mechanism for removing someone appointed to committee who elects not to attend the committee regularly. I recommend consideration of such a policy. Secondly, Wellesley has a policy related to which meetings get recorded. Although not specifically covered, one provision is deemed to cover appointment interviews. Most Wellesley appointment interviews are conducted in person that is their preference was also mine the meetings are posted and generally candidates wait outside the room until their appointment they're not required to but generally do on occasion that an interview or interviews are conducted via zoom the zoom is posted and is not recorded The Zoom time is posted and not recorded. There's some spacing between candidates by design, and candidates are given a time to join the meeting. Again they could join earlier but generally do not. I've shared both these policies with Miles so he can send them to you for consideration. Lastly, I saw other policies that indicated no members were to be reappointed who were not current in their ethics training.

That's also reasonable. I anticipate people would have an opportunity to cure such a problem as long as their attendance and participation was in good standing. All of these measures would strengthen and improve the appointments process in its current incarnation. I hope that town citizens will continue to feel valued for their contributions toward democracy, and I hope the board will support a process which aids community members in feeling comfortable to volunteer their service for the town. Thank you.

OK. And our last public comment that we heard from in advance is Holly Clark. Hey, Holly.

How's everybody? I'm Holly Clark. I live at 1652 Central Avenue, and maybe I should record that, Katie, and then I could just replay it anyway. So I wanted to make a comment about the Pollard tax calculator and I went to the FinCom and made a similar comment then. And first, I want to credit Katie and Dave and Joe Abruzzi for all the work they did to put it out there. It was really a step forward towards transparency and opency if that's a word, and being open and letting people see the impact of this project on their property. A comment that had been made at the FinCon before was that the missing piece was what was the full impact, like in 2034 which is the peak year what's the full bill really going to look like? How much higher will taxes be and that's not included. and there were decisions to not include that.

And a suggestion was just to make that more clear, Not a warning box, but just saying this is one piece alone. I did hear that on Friday at the Council of Economic Advisors, I think it's Jim Wilcox from Bullfinch said that they had worked through some of the numbers. And in 2034, the property tax increase altogether would be like 30% over today. That's a really big number, and it's important that people hear it and understand it. Okay, I heard it. I had to look and try to do it myself because I'm me. I was looking at 35 and I did two or three different properties so So that's just important, and it's a piece that's missing. And I get the decisions are made.

But at that meeting, a comment was made that we weren't just doing the average, and other towns did the average and the chair of the FinCon, Barry is here made a comment. It just said well he thought this was helpful because you could look, you could see your house, you can see this is what the numbers actually are projected to be and then I saw on the tax calculator that it's been amended, and now there is a column that says average. And it just simply takes the total amount that a person, a residence or a property would owe and it divides it by 35. And I have to say, I feel like that's a little bit of hide the ball. Because the way this project goes, the first couple years there is really no tax impact until the project gets going. But then it jumps and stays high for a long time So, the average

it just doesn't feel as transparent as I would hope that we would be. I think people in town are smart, I think they can understand and I don't think you know Good projects don't require this. They don't required this kind of spin that somehow it's less than it is. I mean, it is what it is we don't get to pay the average We don't get to say, we're not doing it on layaway. We can't say okay I'm going to send you $90 each month. We get your bill and the first couple years it's low and then it goes up and people should know that. If that's the project, that's information and everyone should know it. And I'm seeing things like well if folks have to move out of town at least your property value will be up or you could take a reverse mortgage Those... You're not seeing that from the town, let's just clarify.

No I'm not and I'm hoping that you all as town leaders would say that's not the goal here Right? Like everyone is valued. We want to have good schools, we want to do what's right, we WANT to be an inclusive town, we Want to be affordable and this is all really hard work to get there but spinning like just I really think it is important that we be open and transparent. And I mentioned the other Time, I really appreciated Katie saying when she looked at the and Kathy you had commented this on a passed meeting about the poll done of town residents or this survey and saying, what do you think? And the trust in town government had dropped. and I don't think it's only what's going on in other places. And so, I just think we really need to be conscious of that

open and transparent, and not being afraid. And just being respectful I think can work. And I understand about appointments too I think that the amount of time that the committee has put into that feels like If you need to do more work on that, go ahead. I think it shouldn't look like suddenly Frankly, if people don't like the candidates who are coming forward. There's five of you. Okay? There's a reason there's five. Everybody is going to be a little bit different. The process should work. But I would say that this, the biggest financial project facing this town and the ability to try to finance it, this board has work to do to help on that. So thank you very much.

Thank you. I do just want to clarify that the recent addition to the tax calculator was made in response and many, many requests for that particular stat. So that's why that was done. It is not an effort to obscure any information.

If there are any documents with those requests can I get a copy of them?

Let's talk about that afterwards. Right now, we're in public comment and we're going to keep moving on but we can certainly discuss it. um okay so we're going to move on to our first item of business which is a public hearing an Eversource grant of location for 84 Wildwood Drive and I assume that Joanne will be joining us Good evening. Hi, Joanne. How are you? Can you say hello again so we can... Good evening! There we go, we can hear you. Okay, fantastic.

Okay, wonderful. Eversource is seeking a ground location to install approximately 44 feet of conduit into Wildwood Drive and this is to upgrade the service at 84 Wildwood drive

Okay, great. Thank you. Madam Town Manager is everything in order? It is. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or thoughts about this one? Okay, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on this matter or anyone online?

no hands okay um if that is the case then i would move that the select board vote to approve and sign a petition from ever source energy to install approximately 44 feet of conduit in wildwood drive

second okay all those in favor say aye aye opposed okay motion passes great and we have another grant of location which is for 47 Robinwood Avenue. Joanne?

Yes, so this is part two at the last hearing I attended we did the pole relocation And we, as I said, have neglected to petition for the conduit that we need for this new home. So we are seeking a grant location to install approximately eight feet of conduit into Robinwood Ave., and that is to provide the electric service to new home at 47 Robinwood.

Okay, thank you. Everything is in order in order. Okay. Anyone have any questions? All right. This is also a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak on this matter? No hands-on. Okay, great. Well in that case, Bill...

I move that the select board vote to approve and sign a petition from Eversource Energy to install approximately eight feet of conduit in Robbenwood

second all right all those in favor say aye aye opposed all right the motion passes great thank you thank you have a good evening Okay, the next item on our agenda is about the appointment process. And as we know, we heard a couple of comments today, but we've also received a number of emails regarding the length of time that appointments are taking. We have 52 standing boards and committees in town, many of which are appointed by the select board. And we have been delayed in filling those appointments partly because of our reassessment of our appointment policy it's now October and town meeting is next week.

It's time, I believe to fill these appointments so the vice chair has a number of these already begun which is fine and he will move through that process but I would ask all of my colleagues to pitch in so that we can get these appointments done and filled. And so, have taken the initiative to assign them out. So I just wanted to make everyone aware of that and ask if there were any discussion, conflicts that we need to consider when moving forward with this new strategy, to get this taken care of.

I've received emails from the Human Rights Committee, which as she alluded to we communicated about that, from the Chair of the Board of Health Council on Aging. We again communicated with that and we set a timeline. And I think everything's in agreement about how to move forward with that. And then there were communications Chair of the Council of Arts and Culture. The appointments are on the consent calendar this evening, so if there are other emails that you're referring to I'd appreciate it if you could forward those to the rest of the board I would also just say, I think we spoke about this after the agenda was put on the... This topic was put in the agenda. I guess I would have appreciated to have that conversation in advance because other than those three emails which I think have been addressed, I have not heard other concerns.

Sure. Well, that's fair. We decided to post this early because of the holiday so I had reached out to you earlier but we hadn't connected. But fair comment. You know, I think we have received some emails. A lot of people have reached out to me as a as a select board member that didn't necessarily come in writing. I know that, Kevin you have mentioned that people mentioned this to you. So nonspecifically, we didn't discuss which or whatever but I think that regardless It's October. At the pace that we're on, I mean, you know, we're getting into the holidays and then all of a sudden it's election season and we've got Pollard going on. We've got committees that are waiting to do their work

Yeah, I'm not objecting to this proposal. I guess I'm just observing that there seems to be a bit of a communication failure among the board members and so we need to be better with that.

Yes, we do. So does anybody have any issues with any of the committees that they've been assigned?

I have no issue but when we coordinate with Miles is that the best first step?

That is yeah absolutely all right fantastic everyone can uh run their process the way you know according to the policy that we have at BC FIT um whether that's in public as the vice chair does it, or in consultation but not together. So no subcommittees that is up to you so long as it complies with the policy and we'll get this taken care of I think it's our responsibility to make sure that the boards and committees in this town who count on us to get this done can do their work.

And Madam Chair, I would just request. So according to policy 3.9 or section 3.1 of the policy It says that people who are making appointments should generally endeavor to recommend an applicant that they believe to be so well suited to the position, that they're likely to command unanimous support of the board. So I just want to communicate to my fellow board members For me, I have a preference for people who are not serving in other boards to get new people into the process. So that's—I just want to let everyone know that.

Sure, it's a preference but it's also stated that it's not a requirement.

Right, so I'm just saying it's going to be a high bar. Like if we already have someone who is on the board and they're being recommended to be appointed to another board that's a hard part for me to vote to recommend them. And so I'm just letting everyone know, because I know it's difficult for people to try to guess what other people's intentions are. So I'm letting everyone in advance. And then the other one specific to the Water Resource Authority bill, we have a conversation about the stormwater control measures that are proposed. I do think it's very important that whoever is in that seat or is able to represent the board's position on that very clearly. So I think that is a very particularly important position right now.

Anybody else? Well, I guess I would just like to comment that for many committees, there is expertise that is valued. And in the case of the Town Finance Community Housing Oversight Committee, it really is valuable to have expertise on housing issues sometimes that expertise can be gained outside of committee work and we've seen that but sometimes it is best gained by being on other committees in town so I would just observe that sometimes having experience on another town committee actually is something that gives you expertise and makes you a better candidate sure it depends on the committee it depends

I agree with that, case by case. It's who we pick and who we can pick and whose available.

Bill, anything?

No.

Okay so this was just discussion only so we'll just move right along the next item on our agenda is the fiscal year 2025 financial audit come on down, Dave Davison and Celia Simchak. And are we having actual auditors join us?

Very good. Madam Chair, we are here to inform the board that the fiscal 2025 audit is completed and the auditors have conducted their work in recommendations Delivery of this audit is much delayed and those causes are many, but some of them also is the turnover in staff. key processes in order to get an op done completely were very much delayed because of the vacancies that we had and some very key staff positions. The audit findings, we are in complete agreement with the recommendations of CBIS and And there was no disagreement from our part, their findings and recommendations.

and to that I would ask Ms. Gainsby to address the board thank you David make sure you can hear me yeah

Ken. Great, so again my name is Rebecca Gamsby I'm a shareholder with CBiz CPAs thank you very much for having me tonight I would like to note, I am now the shareholder in charge of the town's audit since Scott McIntyre's retirement which happened in September of 2026. He started inviting me to meetings with the town in roughly July of 26 So I'll go over a little bit of our audit process first and then some key results from the town's financial statements. As your auditors, our objective is to express an opinion on the town financial statements and again we're referring to the fiscal year 25 financial statements as of June 30, 2025. We do perform our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States and standards for financial statement audits contained in government auditing standard.

It is our responsibility to plan and perform our audit to obtain reasonable but not absolute assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement, and that they're presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles also referred to as GAAP. It is management's responsibility for the preparation of these financial statements and the fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with GAAP. As part of the audit process, We do assist the Town with preparation of the financial statements. However, the only pages that we own within the financial statement are our opinion pages. So during our audit, we do complete a risk assessment of the town's internal controls and we design our testing procedures to address any risks that we have identified. We review for compliance with laws and regulations

We test year-end account balances and reconciliations, significant balances including cash investments, receivables, accounts payable, capital assets, long term liabilities such as debt, pension liabilities, net OPEB liability. We review the financial statements for compliance with GASB and GAAP. We also, as part of this process, assist the town with the implementation of new accounting standards. So during the year there was a new GASB statement, GASBI 101 related to compensated absences The standard addresses the update of the original estimate for the sick and vacation accruals for town employees at year-end. Now, the change from the prior accruals that were completed by the Town were not material to our audit and therefore this new standard was able to be implemented prospectively within the Town's FY25 financial statements.

So for June 30, 2025 we were able to issue unmodified opinions on all of the town's activities also referred to as a clean opinion. This means that there are no significant instances that would cause a modification to our audit opinion. There were no difficulties encountered during the audit process, and there were no disagreements with management during this process. as Dave referred to, we did note one material weakness. This was a repeat finding from the fiscal year 24 audit and it did relate to the cash and receivable reconciliations performed by the town. Again, due to some staffing within some of the departments The reconciliations were a little delayed. We received the final cash reconciliation in September 2026 for the June 30, 2025 audit So a little over one year later, that finding is included in the back of the financial statements with our report on internal controls.

It also includes a corrective action plan that was provided by the Director of Finance in response to the audit findings. So now just to go over a few key results of the audit at the town's financial statements. So within the financial statements, the government-wide financial statements both rural statements. The town reported governmental activities net position of 280.5 million an increase of 26.7 million Business type activities reported net position of 67.8 million, an increase of 3.6 million over the prior year. So again these statements include all the full accrual items including capital assets long-term debt net pension and that will have liability Within the governmental fund statements, the town reported a few major funds. First being the general fund. Fund balance was 70.6 million at year end, a decrease of 1.8 million from the prior year.

The unassigned fund balance at year end was $31.5 million, which also includes the General Stabilization Fund, which reported a balance of $5.1 million. That leaves $26.4 million available for appropriation as of June 30, 2025. The second major governmental fund that was reported by the town is the Community Preservation Fund, which recorded a year-end balance of $17 million an increase of $2.6 million over the prior year The remainder of the town's governmental funds are classified as non-major funds. In total, the fund balance was $23.5 million which includes an increase of $9.7 million from the prior year The town also reports the two enterprise funds. So, the sewer net position was $29.9 million at year end and water fund net position of $27.8 million. Both increased over the prior year.

and then there's just a few significant items to note that are included in the government-wide statements. So, the first being the net pension liability the town reported a total sorry, the net pension liability of 63.7 million that's a decrease of 11.1 million from the prior year as of December 31st, 2024. The system was 80% funded and the town represents 98.8% of the system. Additionally there's the net OPEB liability that's reported The net OPEB liability was 59.3 million at year end, again a decrease of 1.3 from the prior year. The trust was 62% funded at year-end Both of these items are significant estimates for the town. They're calculated by actuaries, and as part of the audit we review the assumptions. We make sure that they are reasonable. We recalculate various line items within the report

and we test the census data that is used to estimate the total liability for both of these items. Lastly, I would just like to cover the town's federal grant audit. So the single audit is still ongoing for June 30th 2025 There are three major programs that were identified and require an audit for the year Overall, the town's federal expenditures for fiscal 2025 were roughly $11.1 million These three programs that will be audited represent $8.2 million, or about 74% of the total federal expenditures. So once those audits are complete of those major programs, we will also issue that report for the town. And that would include any potential non-compliance or findings if that was to occur related to those programs as they're still underway at this point in time there is nothing that we need to essentially report to management.

and that covers the financial highlights. So if there's any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them.

Thank you.

it's related to the OPEB so on page 84 I notice that in the last two years, the contributions have been decreasing. So historically over the past 10 years they've been increasing from 5.5 in 2017 up to 8.8 million in 2023, then for the past two years they've been 4.9 and 5.2 million, and the contribution deficiency is 4.8 millions each year How should I interpret those numbers? Because, I don't want to be alarmist but that draws my attention.

It's a change in methodology that the actuary uses. I mean, the fact is those two numbers together is comparable to what the town actually appropriated to the fund The Actuarial Service does an analysis of what the The assumed liability would be for the future benefits of the health insurance. The town has not changed anything. There's still funding according to the schedule prepared by the actuaries, but it's a presentation change that's been made.

But it looks like we're contributing less. Is that true?

That is not true. We're contributing more every year, it increases.

sorry, I know we're contributing more every year but the amount every year seems to have decreased it has not, it's increasing every year We are on this spreadsheet.

That's what I'm saying is the presentation change that the actuary did, which I do not have a role in. Okay. So it's methodology change that was done by that firm.

and then on OPEB, what year are we expected to be fully funded?

It's 2042 but I will get back to you with the exact year. Thank you.

I understand the reconciliation took a little longer this year because of staffing and so on. Do we have this big ERP change coming up? Do we anticipate any issues?

Those are contributing and because we're behind in the 25, 26 will also be behind. Because ideally I would have preferred It would have been our practice to be presenting the 26th audit in December. That's not going to happen until the spring. The 27th audit, after fiscal year 27 will be back on our regular course. in terms of the goal is to have the audit completed and presented to the board within 180 days after the close of fiscal year.

Okay. So when does the switchover happen for Munoz?

The switch over, it starts with fiscal 28. Fiscal 27 closes out in our current financial system and the financials will be recorded in the new software starting July 1st, 2027. We will still be operating in old software for payroll for another six months and we'll still be using the other legacy products until fiscal 2019.

Okay, so we'll get back on track for a regular schedule. But then we're going to start a new adventure and hope that everything... We're on the adventure now.

Great. Anybody else?

There's a ton of information here, Bill.

I mean just at the end though you find or you think the plan corrective action you're okay with what that

It is already in being implemented and has contributed to getting the information to the auditors and working through 26. As noted, this is a repeat comment from 24. The problem actually began starting with the fiscal 24 process.

Can I ask, does this audit form the basis for any of our bond rating agency conversations?

This audit was already reviewed by Standard & Poor's because we had a conversation with them last week and there is no concern from their standpoint.

What do they tend to look at in this report? Like what do they focus on?

They look at ratios, your year-end results in terms of your fund balance. Whether there's any unexpected drawdowns on reserves They certainly look at long-term liabilities, which they always pointed in the prior reports has been a strength because the town is funding OPEB according to the actuarial schedule. whereas many communities don't. They look at pension liabilities, again we're ahead of the curve in terms of meeting those obligations having one of the better funded ratios compared to many communities of our side.

Does debt debt liability. Does that factor into the rating?

Well, that's the very first thing they look at is of course your debt and debt ratios What's debt service as a percentage of valuation, total valuation of the town? What is total debt service has a percentage Our policies have been geared based on revenue. They look at it as a percentage of expenditures. That's another thing that tends to work better from a rating standpoint because that those ratios usually look better than going on a revenue basis.

Thank you

Thank you. And thank you as well, Rebecca. A huge amount of work obviously every year. Much appreciated.

Thank you very much for having me tonight. I appreciate it.

The next item on our agenda is Townwide Mailers. We have Amy Haleson here, our Director of Communications and Community Engagement to talk about it. Good evening.

Hi. Thank you for having me. So the conversation about when to send information out to all Needham residents has come up numerous times over the last couple of years. We've had several instances where depending on a departmental budget or grant funds the town has been able to send out postcards whether it was for the RTS study, the MBTA communities and Vision Needham Center, public input sessions etc. And so what was happening is there was sort of an expectation on the part I think the community that if something sort of checked a box of a major initiative, that the town would send out a postcard.

But it really, like I said, depended on what the availability was in the budgeting of the particular initiative or project. And so we temporarily or the town manager temporarily said, let's put a pause and take a look at what's going on and see how we might better address this. and so I did some exploring at what other communities are doing, and also seeing what the needs of Needham are. And would like to propose that the town do two annual mailings per year. So they would take place in the fall and in the spring. So the fall mailing would go out, it would go

you know around thanksgiving time and the spring one would go out in may and so it would the mailing um and i'll get to what it's gonna would look like in a moment I knew you got the mock-up that I put together We go out to every street address, every post box and every commercial address in Needham. Okay, and we felt really that it was important to include our commercial stakeholders because certainly you know a lot of what's going on in the town obviously impacts them so it was The cost for a mailing the size that I'm proposing to all of these addresses, which is approximately $13,750 would be in the ballpark of about $7,500 per mailing. So about $15,000 a year. And just for context when we've

Dunn mailings prior for the RTS study or MBTA communities, that was the cost per mailing every single time a postcard went out. So this would consolidate some important messaging and also I think allow stakeholders to anticipate a mailing from the town during certain times of year. So these are not obviously to scale, but I put together some little mockups if you want to. I know that you've got them in your packets, take one and pass it down but just so we're clear that the size would actually be sort of 11 by 17 this is something that Wellesley did and I just happen to have a copy of it but it would be It would be folded in half and then fold it in half again. And it would be a self mailer, okay?

This is something that Watertown did as well so just to give you an idea of what the size would be, okay. We could have extra copies in the library, at all the public buildings, at the CAF, at The Rosemary Recreation Complex, et cetera. While it looks like a lot of space, it actually can get taken up pretty quickly. So I gave some thought to what kind of information we would include. my suggestion would be a welcome message from the town manager as we don't have any other communication that comes out with a message from A good place for this. And then sort of a preview of what's in the issue. So a recap on October Special Town Meeting.

On the front page, certainly we've got some warrant articles that are garnering a lot of attention so there would be a recap of what happened at October Now, this would also go out after the November 3rd election. So obviously everybody would know by the time this goes out in late November what the results were of that election but it would be sort of a recap of all Scott. And so when we move into the inside, it would then be a look ahead to May 2027 annual town meeting and so there's some other large initiatives that are coming down the pike as well. Zoning bylaw changes, major capital projects, et cetera. to give a quick overview on the public engagement opportunities and public input opportunities. We won't have exact dates of when these would happen but the point would be to encourage

Recipients of this to sign up for the town's communications and let them know where they can find those dates. And certainly we push out information through the other channels, you know, through The News You Needham, the weekly digital newsletter through social media, through News Flash that people can sign up on the website and through Notify Me. So by letting them know that these are the issues that are going to be discussed but to try to plan dates out for public hearings this far in advance would be really challenging. So instead, we're letting people know that these will be happening but to check into these town communication channels to get the specifics on when and where and how to participate. I think it's really important to also emphasize in this communication is how people can participate, right? It I think that it's a continued I'm challenged to let folks know, here's a way that you can share your feedback.

So a public hearing, I often say the public hearing for folks who aren't really involved or are new to our form of government, they don't understand necessarily what a public hearing is and how do I participate in? How do I get involved? So trying to demystify that and saying public hearing really is an opportunity for you to share your feedback with the board or committee that is seeking to make this zoning change or bylaw change, that sort of thing. So really putting it in very simple terms for folks to understand that it's easy to participate and we welcome and encourage their participation. So, it's not just about saying here's what's going on but it's here's how you can get involved. Here you can be an active citizen in our community. So on the bottom of the inside page, my suggestion would be to have sort of an overview on the budget process as well.

I think a lot of folks may not be aware of sort of the number of hours and the great effort that the Finance Committee goes through to put the budget together. But even before then, the work that has gone on Town Staff to put a budget together that the town manager presents to the select board and the finance committee. So just sort of giving folks an overview on that and how that works. I also thought it would be an opportunity to highlight a couple of the town departments. I chose for this time as examples youth and family services, as well as veteran services to let folks know that there are resources available through the town, and here's how to access them. So putting a highlight on those. And then as I talked about participating in a public hearing, putting the steps in there. and then a plug for the town's communications how folks can get information,

Be informed and be engaged through the website, the town newsletter. Notify me alert Needham, you know, the emergency alerts continue to let folks know that that's important for them to sign up through and then also through social media. And then flipping over to the back side would be sort of an update on a town initiative, for example Needham Power Choice as The contract is going to be soon coming up for a bid in early 2027, letting folks know what's going on with that. And then perhaps a sprinkling of sort of a did you know kind of things access to the town, different kinds of resources and then save the dates with major town events coming up. So That's sort of a broad overview. I haven't actually started writing any of this because I wanted to share this with you and get your thoughts and feedback on this.

and I look to hear from you what your thoughts are, and whether you think this is a worthwhile endeavor. support this and I think you can't communicate with your stakeholders too much, right? And also it's a continued challenge to identify how to necessarily find every single constituent in town. When we've had major initiatives, we've done things like between the towns communication channels that I've mentioned but also have done things like you know i've gone over and brought flyers over to Needham housing authority into the cath and um you know tried to post some things in local businesses and at the post office and places where I feel people will frequent but inevitably trying to reach 33,000 people you know 100% of 33, 000 people is challenging so

sending something to people's homes I feel twice a year to sort of let them know what's going on and how they can participate and continue to be informed, I think is well worth the effort but I defer to you.

Well, we've talked about this before. I think this is a great idea. And I think the decline of print journalism has been really detrimental to making sure that everybody has sort of the base knowledge, the same shared knowledge base. So I think sending something to people's homes twice a year would be great. I guess I would have one ask and one caution one would be especially in the first mailer it would be great if there could be like an introduction to the website like where people can find the services that they might use most where they can find the meeting schedule that's probably not one of the things that people use most but the hours of the RTS and all those things that people are wanting to know how to pay a bill online, things like that.

because it can be busy and you can be hard to find all that stuff so sort of a how-to for the website would be great okay but at the same time This is a very small piece of paper, and I can see already that the print is going to be very small. So I guess just...

It will be larger size right?

Well, yes. It'll be this size. So that's just... I can only print that out from Needham and Levy.

You're right. But it'll be pretty busy. So I guess just being choosy about what we send at any given time so that we don't I think it's a great idea and i hope that people will take it in the with the intent that we're just trying to reach everyone because everyone is listening to a million different channels at once and so it's good to have direct communication. So I'll open it up to colleagues.

Madam Chair, I would just echo that. I think this is wonderful and there's a number of things I like about it. First of all most of our communication by necessity is opt-in But this is just going to be pushed out to everyone, which I think is great. And I think twice a year is great because I think if you have too many things we've talked about this, you get kind of fatigue and people won't pay attention. So I think that's good. I really appreciate that you looked at what other towns are doing you know to inform us and I like the choice of things. I think it's a good mix of kind of how-to with substantive information and maybe getting people interested in some of the new things so they can follow them or participate. And I'm assuming that the May would be after Maytown meeting? That would be the plan, yes. but I think it's great. So, I look forward to it. Great.

Madam Chair, I share some of your comments like the font size is actually really important if it's too busy I think people can easily just throw in the trash. And also, if someone's relying upon this rather than going on the website, font size might be a physical impediment. I would prioritize font size even if it means removing a couple things. In addition to reporting on what's happened, like at town meeting, perspective information is helpful. It's tricky because you don't want to get political or things like that, but if this is going out in November we can say what offices are up for election in April. We used to do that, it was actually in our bylaws to send out a postcard every year to residents with the offices that were up for election.

And we took that out of the bylaw because we said the costs were too much, but I think people missed something in that. So it's good that we're going back to that. and then I guess, I kind of alluded to this before. The content everyone's gonna look at it and think why was this included? Why was this not included? We have to somehow be very sensitive about that I don't know, maybe just have multiple eyes and review it. We're not going to please everyone but it is a valid concern.

I just think the website is the key because everything flows off the website and like when looking at this right now, and I don't know the website it's hard to find. When you say stay up to connect with town in need of communication, I would put it right underneath that needhamma.gov in bold I know you say the town of Needham website and then at the bottom of that blurb it's there I think that is so key and the other thought I have, and I don't know whether this is going to be a space question if you could somehow put a QR code so people could just scan the QR code to go to the town website because they can get to everything from there, you know. But I know space is a limitation and the final thought is I think everyone in town, a lot of people in town are very interested in the schools. So I know you can get to them through the website, but I don't know whether you just want to put one bullet point to find out school information. Put what their website is. We'll leave the sports out for now.

It's not a newspaper. I think this has been a hue and cry for something like this. and I like that you keep to the big themes, future initiatives. And I really liked that it's gonna be print because we get so many communications in the town is all digital and you know at around the dinner table I never got my children say come on let me tell you about the emails i deleted today but having a print piece that's on the coffee table and kicks around in like, Oh put it on the fridge. And we'll be there till the 4th of July.

Fridge magnets.

Yeah. But it's like, there is something about having something present. I love the idea of the QR code that Bill said in a demystifying town government to make it accessible. Yeah, pace yourself. Find your voice. You do great with the news you need, Ham.

Thank you.

So I expect to have more like that.

Terrific.

Good luck.

I just add, you know, I do want to just note for people who are watching this that we have a lot of other mailers that are going to continue. So if you're a resident, you're getting mailings, your water sewer bills, your property tax bills, you re getting election and annual census information from the town clerk, you maybe the compass from the center of the Heights. So this is additive, you know all those things will continue it really this was trying to address the kind of project-based Postcards of community engagement initiatives we were undertaking and trying to kind of morph that need into a more holistic solution. So just so folks can expect what they see.

we're undertaking this new initiative, a committee has been formed or being formed expect to hear about public forums to come and express you know check here to see what the updates are or whatever yeah

one other thought has occurred to me that it would and probably this is part of your plan but like committee chairs who are thinking about surveys or whatever probably need to factor this in and plan that they get November, May. They may not get a chance to have a mailer at some other time and they need to think ahead and plan. and maybe they get a QR code.

I don't know how you want to do that. So this is both notification and consolidation, right? Yeah. Agreed. Fantastic. Looking forward to it. All right. Thanks so much. All right.

I move to consent.

That's great.

Any appointments?

Yes, please. Second. All right, any discussion? all those in favor say aye those opposed motion passes great um so next we're going to talk about the quiet zone update and we have uh our town manager Katie King and I think The Director of DPW Online, Harris Lustig.

Kearis Estreñas. I'm so happy to provide an update on the Quiet Zone. This is obviously a big priority for the Select Board. We talk about the Quiet zone as if it's one thing, it's actually three different projects or and other strands of work. So we'll take them in turn. The first one is our efforts to have a seasonal closure at the golf club crossing, so really as a reminder to folks this conversation has been you know the MBTA expressed a willingness to if the crossing at that the golf club was secured safely with a fence or gate that during the off season for the golf club, we've been discussing December one to March one. If the gate is installed and secured, the MBTA would be willing to stop the regular sounding of the train horn noises when they go through that crossing.

So we've been working with the tee, with the golf club closely both on the logistics for the gate and fence but also an agreement that needs to be put into place for all three parties before there would be any change in reduction and train horn noise. So the update on this project is that we had gone back and forth across the three parties on an agreement, and I had a note today from the golf club that the one remaining item in the agreement, which is around indemnification. The golf club indemnifying the tee as part of this agreement that the golf Club is an agreement with that and so We had previously, on the town side, reviewed the agreement and were comfortable with it as drafted. So happy to answer questions of the board but I think otherwise we have agreement across all three parties and can move forward with the seasonal closure.

And in addition to the agreement on the gate installation, we are scheduled... The town will be installing the gate in early November it's scheduled their contractor and the MBTA has been very helpful. And they are providing flaggers for us, which is a requirement when you're working within the T's right of way for safety. So they've been very hopeful on that front So we're all coordinated for early November for that installation. So that's the update on a seasonal closure, but happy to answer questions on that before we move

sure so once the fence is in place early november does that have to be signed off by the do you have to like inspect it or do

I anticipate that the T will want to inspect it. But in the agreement, it's going to be a locked Gate where the tee would hold one set of keys and the golf course, the other. So we'll have to just coordinate kind of the handoff of that in advance of December 1. OK.

I'd just like to express appreciation to the golf course because they've been a really good partner on this and they've I'd also like to express appreciation for our town manager who has been working like a dog on this thing. It is not as easy as it looks, It doesn't just roll along by itself. She pushes it every inch of the way and I just want everyone to understand what a Herculean task this has been, so thank you. Thank you.

And who would be installed for the town?

We have a fence contractor.

And I was in contact with the town manager earlier today, I guess had two comments. One was just on the indemnification but that's up to the golf club but if the town were ever a successor, that would put us in a position of I guess indemnifying the tea as well and we never really had that conversation so i just like that clarified. I personally would not feel comfortable with that identification for the town um the second uh question was just should we put the dates in the agreement because there's nothing in here that says December 1st to March 1st, and it just seems like it might clarify things.

So on the dates I feel comfortable either way, but I'm happy to go back if to put it trying to find the language. I think right now it's up to the golf club seasonality we've only discussed December one to March one

um so i think we can um that may be something that we can do just between us and the golf course doesn't sound like we would necessarily need to include the t in that I mean, if the gates are locked that's the condition that the T cares about?

Right.

We could keep it locked all year long and...

The reason why I suggest putting in an agreement is because the T sometimes like formal notification and things can fall through the cracks. Like if the golf club ever forgot to notify the tee, then things might

I think my only concern in that would be that it would delay things.

I guess what we can wait. What I'd suggest is, I can certainly go back and ask everyone should be added in but if it is a deal breaker for some reason i think i'm comfortable moving forward with the agreement as it is with the understanding that um we need to coordinate the handoff of the keys and dates each year, whether it's in the agreement or not. Is that reasonable?

I guess, Madam Chair, I would just say that I would like us to stick onto this timeline because December 1st is hurtling towards us So let's stick with this timeline because people were disappointed not to have it last year. The last thing we want to do is be late this year. I'd really like to be able to commit and hold to the commitment of December 1st.

Yeah, I didn't get a sense that adding that would delay anything, would it?

I haven't asked anyone. That's why I guess I'm positing that I'm happy to ask the question, but if it were to delay the agreement, I think it would be reasonable to let that request fall away.

and related and not related. With the regular quiet zone, once that gets in place I don't mean to hurt myself but does it mention the MBTA needs a certain number of days to sort of acclimate? is that the case here today? Once we say December 1st, keys are locked, gate is locked. Are they like okay, no quiet sound or no horns?

for this agreement at the golf club and i think we should just separate it entirely because that's right yeah the quiet zone is so uh regulated to a different extent under the fra but for this um as soon as we meet the terms of the agreement that it's the date you know december one that we've been discussing if the gate is secured and they have the keys um then my understanding from the t is that there's nothing additional that they would need to do okay they would notify their conductors

Great.

Exciting. Great! Pivoting on to second initiative, which is the covert feasibility. I'm actually going to turn it over to Karis if she can give the high points on this one.

Thank you. So we're currently underway on the feasibility study. We actually met last week with a golf course and tie in bond in order to finalized the three sites that we would be selecting to look at for the culvert. It was very helpful to meet with the golf course and talk with them about their play and how they currently have the layout. And so effectively, we'll have three different options One is closest to the train station itself, which may be the most conducive to their play but might be more challenging in order to implement. One is where the current relative crossing is, and then one is down by the lower portion of a culvert. that is on the other side of the property. So we have three very different options, all of which have different trade-offs.

We'll be looking at an eight foot culvert for all three of these locations and we are anticipating having the feasibility recommendations to us by the very beginning of 2027. Just factors that we're looking at are going to include cost, ease of construction and integration in the change to the course overall.

And I would just add, um, the feasibility study is being funded by the town right now through our contractors time bond. They're also the ones designing the quiet zone and we've had, Karis and I have had conversations. I've asked the Department of Public Works there is nothing in our capital plan right now related to funding the design or the construction of a culvert and I've asked DPW to submit a placeholder in our CAPA process for design funding in fiscal year 2029. Again, that's not a commitment. That's just to put it as a place holder putting that in fiscal year 2029 aligns with the expiration of the golf course lease. And so I have wanted to make sure that we're having that conversation kind of holistically, so that is the timing. So I just didn't want anybody surprised by that.

Madam Chair, I'm concerned about the funding. So we'll have this study. It will be good. I don't see exact, let me say it differently. We're going through the exercise to see what is feasible for construction but given all of the large capital projects on our capital plan already, I guess I don't see a path forward for the town to bear the full burden of the cost. And so I want to be upfront with people that will have this study but there's no current path forward to construction. We have to figure that out still.

Yes, and I would add as well, when the board is reviewing the five year capital plan and you're making decisions about funding your you're. Making decisions about fiscal year 2028 appropriations only so it's in an out year as a placeholder. I do worry that people think that that means there's been a commitment there, but it's just to make sure that we are keeping it in the consideration so that those kind of conversations can continue.

Great. Thank you.

Yes, and then the quiet zone itself which is the five at grade roadway crossings I'm going to have Kara start with the update on that

So we're meeting every other week right now with Heinvon and Banesh, which is the subcontractor on this project. They are getting close to 75% design where we are right now with the MBTA and Keolis is that we have submitted to them our 30% design, but I have not received any formal recommendations. Banesh felt comfortable moving forward towards the 75% design without receiving those recommendations, but that's basically where they would stop until we can have those conversations with Keolis and the MBTA. We're still working on the project initiation work with Kealis in the MBT and we're hoping to have that clarified so we can move underway. I'd say one of the

challenges that we've had is that when initially looking at this project, there was hope that we could have some service disruption as part of the construction process. and the MBTA has been clear with us that they would like to limit service disruption as much as possible. And that means that we have to effectively run two different control systems simultaneously, and have a very strategic cutover process and so that has taken a little bit longer than our initial estimation for the design work. One other item that's come up is we're mostly finalized on the civil design. So, that's everything that's above grade. That's road changes, sidewalk changes in the location of the signal systems themselves. We have identified a few properties along the corridor where the signal system or the sidewalk abutting it will need to go onto private property

We have talked to those property owners and we will likely see an acquisition article in the Maytown meeting in order to resolve those. So I know we had provided a timeline at the beginning of the project, but with some clarity that it assumed that everything went perfectly and according to plan. And we have had a few strategic delays in the process, but all of which are easily resolvable. So that is to say, I don't believe you'll see a bid process in the spring. I think the earliest you would see something once we are able to resolve all the private property issues. I think an advantage is it's giving us more time to work with our business community, particularly that along Great Plain Ave because there will be and some construction disruption as part of this project, as likely we'll be doing construction not only

you know continuously in this corridor but also we'll be doing some night construction sidewalk construction and in that corridor the building right of way goes right up to the sidewalk so we'll have to coordinate heavily with those business owners So I think that's sort of where we are at the moment. And like I said, we're meeting with them every other week to ensure that the design continues on.

And I just will add, you know, I think we all are clear that this project is in complete partnership with the MBTA. It is their asset. So the MBTA works with Keolis, who is their contractor to run the line. They will review our designs really at two points. Karis mentioned in her update but I think want provide a finer point on it. The QLAs and MBTA get back to us on our current design that Karis articulated before we get to 100%. And they give us a cost estimate back of what they're estimating the cost would be to Keolis. That would be part of the town's requirement to pay, and Keolis' role is really review of the 100% design before we go out to bid, flagging support to make sure that we're constructing safely. And that final cut over, that tie in that Karis articulated. So they will give us an estimate

for those three services. If we are in agreement and say, yes, we agree with those costs let's move forward to the next step then we would advance to 100% design and Kielos and MBTA would then review the 100% design. There's kind of like this multi-step phase we have not heard back from them, Kielas and MBT on that first step Review. So I guess I would articulate it as slow and steady, we're going to stay the course. It takes some time. When we hear back, we are ready to then move on to the next step but just ask for patience.

But in the meantime, it's important also to say that in the past there have been times when we were waiting for things but we were also not in communication. That's not the case now. We are waiting for things, but we are also in communication. The relationship remains good and stable, and it's just taking longer as we sort of had said that it might. When we brought this project forward, you said here's a perfect timeline perfect doesn't happen often so you know understanding like this is what we were shooting for it's going to take longer it is taking longer but it doesn't indicate that there's a problem except of course that we all want it done yesterday

Karis, are the takings at all the five crossings or I know there's some on Oak Street but is that the main one?

So it's Oak Street, Great Plain Ave and then May. They're mostly sidewalks so it's like areas currently that are either small berm areas or really driveways that would have to become formally incorporated as part of a sidewalk. We're not looking at installing any equipment on private property.

I'm Chair. Just wanted to know whether the ending of Keolis' contract and going out to bid for commuter rail service has any impact on our project?

we have asked that question. So the bidding process is underway, the MBTA's actively procuring for their operator, and I believe the current key list contract goes through June 30th of 2027. The MBTA has communicated to us thus far that we should not be concerned about that. And when changes have occurred in the past with operators, any agreements in place carry forward to the future companies, but also what happens in reality is that staff tend to keep working on the same projects. They just work for a different company if the winning bid ends up being somebody other than Keolis. So I have asked that question even as recently as last week, again just to make sure and I get the same answer every time.

OK. Kevin, you got any questions?

I can't. You took my question.

OK. Josh, it looks like you have another. I think this is my first. When the MBTA or Keolis does come back to us with their cost estimates are we or our consultants going to go over that with a fine-tooth comb, to make sure they're all related to the quiet zone and there's nothing routine that the MBTA might be asking us to pay for?

we will review the cost estimates and crosswalk it with ours so those costs are part of what our team has estimated within the appropriation that we went to quiet zone they had to make some assumptions of what they thought keyless would Cost Out. So we will have to fully understand Keolis' cost estimate and reconcile anything that needs to be reconciled.

Okay, thank you.

Bill? Anything?

No, nothing else.

Alright, super. Thank you. Okay, so the next item on our agenda is our chapter 90 update. And we're going to keep Karis and keep Katie and welcome Tyler as well. Tyler Gabrielski director of streets transportation

Hello. I love a good show and tell. So in your packet is a memo from me outlining a recommendation for a new process related to Chapter 90 funds. And my recommendation is really coming from and two places, which is, you know. Let me take a pause for those who don't know Chapter 90 as a program whereby state money comes to the town to help us maintain our roadway infrastructure and it's distributed on a formula to cities and towns based on road mileage, population employment. And there are allowable uses that dictate what we can and cannot spend these funds on broadly speaking it's construction activities consulting services equipment and other and other items related largely to sidewalks, roadways curbs etc.

So these funds, we go to town meeting every year and request appropriation of the funds that's required of us to use the money. But that appropriation requests can be a broad authorization for any of the and historically, we have in the article information of the warrant tried to indicate the big projects that we anticipate the funds to go towards. But the choosing of some of the projects, I think in the past has been based on the team manager sense of the board's priorities. or in practice, I think one thing that's happened over the years is if Department of Public Works has submitted through our operating capital budget process each year, funds requested for public work infrastructure in those years where the town did not have enough free cash to fully support the full request.

The town manager had used Chapter 90 as an opportunity to fully fund that request using both free cash and some amount of Chapter 90. So we can talk about some of the projects where that applies. But in having conversations with the team and just thinking about my experience over the last six years with Needham, I think one of the things that has become very apparent is these projects take three, five, 10 years. and over that time, if you think about even the last six years that I've been here this entire table has changed in that amount of time. In six years barring Karis who's on Zoom. So I think, you know in a process for tracking and approving Chapter 90 funds, I think it was in my mind time to take a pause, zoom out and think should we formalize this a little bit? How can we make sure that this is More readily available information clearer for the board, clear for staff.

And so what is being recommended is modeled after how we process the ARPA money. So, the federal funds that came through during COVID where the discussion about how to utilize funds is kind of on a rolling basis. So not a structured timeline like our operating capital budgets, but as the needs arise that I could come to you and identify anything that Department of Public Works has identified as a new need, or if something has changed in terms of a project that's already prioritized. If something's changed in the scope or the budget that I would come to you at any regular board meeting and we can talk through it and make a recommendation to you. So I think the second benefit of doing it this way also is, in the past we've done chapter 90 tracking. all of our financial controls are in place for spending any amount of funds.

So internally, we do a lot of tracking of chapter 90 funds but the report out to you and the public has I think in the last couple of years been a memo right before town meeting Town Meeting members always want to know about Chapter 90 because it's always an article on the annual warrant. But doing this kind of on a more regular cadence throughout the year, I think is another opportunity for us to just track it in a more formal way and have it be publicly out there more than once a year. So that was the impetus for bringing this to you. So I will pause for questions and then say we do, though, have a project specific request to ask the board about support for utilizing Chapter 90 funds. related to sidewalks. But let me pause on the process and then we can, I think, then turn to Tyler to talk about the request that we're bringing to you tonight.

I love this idea. This is great. Keeping track of where the money has gone, what's encumbered and yet to be used has been really challenging. and I think that was very helpful with regard to the ARPA funds and will be extremely helpful here, and just much more transparent and visible. So what's been allocated? What's been spent? what is allocated, none spent. I mean this is going to be great information that everyone will be I think very happy to see without having to go hunting for it or only getting it just before town meeting, as you say. So having it more frequently and sort of more present will be an excellent upgrade. Thank you.

Manchur, I appreciate the process as well. And I think it's something that I've been asking for and so I appreciate that the responsiveness. Just a clarification. So like with the Envision, there's a paragraph about Envision in the memo there were multiple contracts so do you envision that excuse me do you anticipate that if there were um you know project and then a need for a scope expansion who would come before us and make a request for that how would that work

So there are times where there's multiple contracts, but there's also times that it's change orders. Technical Difference, but I think my intent is if there's a change in the dollar amount in terms of the number of dollars we're using for Chapter 90 that I would come back to the board to discuss that.

Thank you.

Anyone else? I'll just say there have been a lot of questions about Chapter 90, so I think this is very welcome.

Absolutely.

As a long-time town meeting member, I know that town meeting was going to love this because it always says oh what's chapter 90? What are we doing and they'll be able to see more frequently and though I know

So tell us about your side box.

So since I've started in this role, one of the main objectives that I want to tackle is Sidewalk Prioritization, the Mobility Planning Coordination Committee. It's been one of their main charges that I've been helping them with in the course of discussions with them, but also internally. It's good practice to have an updated inventory of your infrastructure from a condition perspective, but ADA, and AAB accessibility standards. So previously we did do a inventory on all of our sidewalk for condition and compliance in separate contracts or sort of separate reports 10 years ago.

Although sidewalk deteriorates less quickly than pavement, so you don't need to do the same as frequent of a cadence with your inspection. 10 years is still, we're at that recommended amount of time. There's been a lot of new build impacts to the sidewalks or other work or projects that have impacted the sidewalk as well as obviously work that we've done as well So the data that was collected previously in of itself is less useful, but also we did not have a way previously to view that on a database that is contains all that information viewable from the same interface. So you could click on a sidewalk segment and get the condition, you'd get the compliance of any of the ramps in the area.

You can select those individually and that can also be overlaid with our pavement condition information we already have from that inspection under this with this consultant. So the idea is that everything's going to be part of one system, it'll help us with capital planning, it will help us determining what areas are going to have the best bang for our buck with improvements. And then also part of this work is the production that is above and beyond what was done in the previous contract newly established sidewalk policy that has yet to be kind of completely fleshed out and brought to you all. But

a more objective measure of how we can prioritize sidewalk investments going forward, rather than just focusing them solely on our school walking routes as we have been doing for the last several years. That's pretty much the main idea.

I think this is a great idea. I think we do need to find a way to prioritize because there's just so much sidewalk, you know? And this sounds like a good way to do it. I have a question and this is going to make me unpopular maybe but new sidewalks I know we don't want to have net new sidewalks. We want to kind of take away sidewalk before we have new, but I'm wondering how those fit into this, if they fit in at all.

So we will be in the course of this work identifying network gaps. So that information will be part of the project either way, I think it's a policy decision as to how those gaps get ultimately filled. We do have that pretty significant backlog of maintenance on existing sidewalks and this is one of the ways that we can figure out a concrete plan for how to objectively target that investment. And if filling sidewalk gaps is ultimately determined a built-in priority for our policy, then this will allow us to do that as well.

I just want to speak to the, Tyler mentioned the maintenance deferral. And so one of the issues with sidewalk is there's sort of a structural imbalance in the amount of funding that we receive on an annual basis and the cost to maintain the inventory of sidewalk we presently have and the deterioration of a sidewalk you figure is 20, 25 years. But the funding mechanism we have at over $1 million is more like a 50, 60 year lifespan of a sidewalk. So we just have this incongruity and one of the things we've talked about and I know the MPCC has talked about is simply requesting additional funds until meeting to do more sidewalk work. The problem with that is it's not just getting through a hump of a backlog, it's doubling or tripling our current request in order to meet sidewalk inventory. That does not include any additional sidewalk we could be adding to that inventory, so we're trying to figure out this structural problem that I think is really a challenge.

I guess I would just add on that. I understand that it's very difficult, but there are certain places in town where we may have a new amenity that didn't exist, you know when the sidewalks were planned and now people yeah Sunita Williams or Volante Farms which existed but it wasn't like a huge destination when it was three month a year, you know farm stand only. You know we have a few of these new things that may occasion the need for a new sidewalk well I understand the expense and how we would have to be very careful about it but

yeah part of the prioritization score it's determined by a weighted formula that includes spatial analysis for points of you know pedestrian usage generators like the schools town buildings and those are customizable to however we would like to identify those points of interest in so the way that we generate that score can kind of be tailored to what the town wants um from and then weighted even further depending on what is the relative priority. Is it solely the condition that we really want to focus on regardless of how much volume it's getting or, you know, we can slide those scales in any direction.

Tyler, can you talk about what the timeline is for all of this?

So the inspection itself is this. The scope that was provided as part of an amendment to our pavement management contract stipulated that it would be a four month process from inspection to from inspection to analysis, to ultimate the report and access to the platform. So the inspection itself probably take about all in less than a month of that time. There's a lot of sidewalk to cover, but it is technology assisted inspection so

the process yeah it'll be so that's for the report though, that's not for reassessing the policy or any of the decision making that we need to go into, then what? Like the doing of whatever the report tells us.

yeah so the policy is on a parallel track that this would be support that policy

I guess i'm just trying to make it clear to folks who are listening that just having the report we're not waiting for isn't like a doesn't mean we leap into action necessarily. I think there's there's a lot of

Right, because we still have to really have that policy brought to you all and looked over.

Is there a plan not to get too far ahead of ourselves but to decommission sidewalks?

That's an idea that's been proposed. That's also part of the policy discussion we're having for recommendations at the MPCC. I think that we've decided that we're going to do some public engagement to get some feedback on that idea. We're doing a host card twice a year, maybe. Yeah, well there's only so many locations that it makes sense to do. So we have identified potential locations for that um sort of program so we're going to start with getting a temperature check on one of those and lay out the proposition explain everything that we just went over see what the feedback is, bring that to the committee and then ultimately inform the recommendation that's brought to the board.

Who actually does this? We have a third party or we hire a third-party company, or is it actually your staff? The inspection?

Yeah. It's a subcontractor for the... from the engineers that do the reporting and analysis. There's a company that we tested. So, we did five miles of the pilot on this sort of framework already and brought that to the committee to take a look at then it's where we went with this amendment So it's this company called Deep Walk that has technology that they actually use the phone camera to identify like what deficiencies in ramps or sidewalk condition rather than just previous methods where you look out the window. Yeah, literally. So sort of that windshield inventory and that really only gives you so much granularity And the five miles they did, you found it very...

It was a good report.

Yeah, so we had a... brought us case studies from other municipalities that use similar methodology, and then we asked for them to apply it to that five mile pilot. And because that five-mile was contiguous there's not a lot of variation in the prioritization score between it but it gave a good model for what it might look like for the entire list of locations.

Madam Chair, I see the value in this. That's why I voted for a very similar study in 2015 at town meeting. My understanding is that study hasn't been used very much or the results of it When I was on the finance committee, I was liaison to the DPW. And the only report we got was a label draft about the exact conditions of like crossings and curb cuts, things like that. And then I think the town manager is looking for two additional reports that can't be located yet but I hope will soon. Would there be value maybe in deferring this until we can see if the data that we collected previously is useful and valuable? Because we may already have a lot of this, you know changes in those 10 years but we have not done many sidewalk upgrades the ones that we have done i think we keep good track of them and then I think it's fair to assume everything else probably is the same or worse

I'm just wondering in trying to be a bit judicious with our reserves, are there ways to use the data that we already have to answer questions?

Yeah, so the two of the deliverables you're talking about are right here on the table. I don't have them in electronic format but essentially The deliverables resulted in these style reports where you have a list of many different locations and then the the data for each of them. We had that data transposed onto maps, big maps which is helpful to a point when you're doing capital planning and then we have ownership GIS data that is sort of segregated into different buckets. We were never able to with the beta contract integrate everything together, especially when it comes to the compliance and the condition. They weren't able to build us an environment that we could actually look at all that information together.

So we do have data sets from that previous inspection, but they have not been compiled into the same kind of The beta was able to do it with the pavement condition where we could see it on the map and use that for planning. But as it stands now, we have to kind of look at each location on the list sort of, it's not user friendly data. It's not all in one place we have to kind of look at each thing individually and a lot of the time we're still pulling up street google street view and seeing oh this is you know that ramp there needs to be upgraded because um we don't have that where we can click on the map it pulls up the photo of the inspection. And then we can look at the streets surrounding it and see what the relative condition of those are basically have a pretty

rudimentary color coded point dots on a map and 10 years old data. So it's not useless data, but not formatted in a way that's as useful for our capital planning.

and I would just add on to that. That again, I think it goes back to the continued investigation so PCI on roads you conduct every three years So 10 years for a sidewalk condition seems, you know, a fairly long period of time to go. And you're correct like we have our inventory of what's been upgraded but I'll give a good example private developers will upgrade their sidewalk and they don't necessarily communicate that to the town. And then also, the degradation is unequal so sometimes you'll have like trees, for example that will degrade a sidewalk in one neighborhood or one area much faster than a sidewalk that isn't impeded by root systems. So you don't necessarily have equal degradation. And then the study that we did in 2017 was used to help influence the capital plan till now, but we haven't gotten into neighborhoods. We really have been focusing on businesses and school walking routes, and now we have upgraded most of those.

We are looking more at neighborhoods and the initial analysis we have sort of says that a significant backlog of inventory that's in poor condition, but it doesn't prioritize that poor condition when we know it will take quite a bit of time in order to address all those sidewalks. So this will help us prioritize better as well.

No, thank you for that. I recollect the estimate before was 40-year backlog on maintenance for sidewalks.

Yeah, that's based on current appropriation, like the last few appropriations for our infrastructure article. And we have doubled that, but more now.

So the value add is a GUI, an interface?

That and that in the prioritization analysis which we kind of had to do de facto on our own in a less qualitative or less quantitative method. This is like chicken and generate a list of scores that we can then say, okay this is our budget. Find us a two mile contiguous area of sidewalk that can fit within this budget and then we can generate you know, what is going to be the most cost effective investment from that. So that's something that we had kind of the raw information but we didn't have that methodology on top of that

but the updated data alone, it's also a value. So not just the interface, but it's 10 years later so just having the current status

Yeah, but I guess I'm saying after 10 years the sidewalks that have been improved since 10 years have gotten better since that 10 years ago and the ones that haven't, haven't.

Yeah, there's also changes in material depending on work orders or private work, utility work. So even if the sidewalk's not touched, that's true. The deterioration is slower than pavement but there's so much inventory that would be subject to being deteriorated based on construction trucks driving over it from private builds or other things, utility projects. There could be sidewalks in here that were concrete at the time and they've been overlaid with asphalt or vice versa. They've been replaced with asphalt from concrete so... it's

No, I think for me the biggest value of Chapter 90 funds is construction. Reconstruction actually improving the roadways and studies are helpful in some circumstances but given that we have a lot of this data already I'd prefer to maximized the value of the old data before doing a refresh.

I think those states have yielded all the information you can get out of them, but I'd like to see if you could move forward in the pedestrian usage score do you use cell phone data for that? Do you use Strava?

How are we finding out? So it's more of a trip generation calculation than what we would find in Placer AI, where it actually is monitoring travel patterns. So it's not collecting raw data. It's doing a spatial analysis based on how close is a particular area to the train station or to place of worship, or what have you. And rather than doing it in a radius because obviously you can't walk through wooded area or whatever else. It's doing it based on what is a trip that could be taken from that particular location, so that's how it's doing that now. Like waves? Yeah.

Madam Chair, I move that the Board approve the request of Chapter 90 funds for a sidewalk inventory condition assessment and analysis.

Second.

Yeah, I guess I just really appreciate this. I think we hear about sidewalks a lot and while I hear the Vice Chair's point about making the most of the data we have in my experience but a lot of times ultimate is just incredibly hard to work with. If we know that there's a 10 year gap anyway, it seems prudent to collect up-to-date data go along with the prioritization, the condition analysis and have it all in one package so that we can make a good start at understanding where we are and really what needs... Where the gaps are. I think we have a motion and a second. Anybody else have anything? No. OK, in that case all those in favor say aye. Aye. Are those opposed? Commission Passes. Thank you, Tyler. Thank You.

Thanks Karis All right, next on our agenda is the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority Draft Combined Sewer Overflow Control Plan with our Deputy Town Manager Liz LaRozzi. Hi.

So I am here as a follow-up from your August 11th meeting when you had the MWRA present on their draft plan. And in your packet, there are several letters based on your responses to that presentation. I will give kind of a brief review if folks don't remember. So the project is the MWRA, Cambridge and Somerville have developed a regional plan to reduce combined sewer overflows which occur when heavy rainfall overwhelms older sewer systems and causes a mixture of stormwater and sewage to discharge into waterways. The recommended $1.29 billion plan would eliminate these overflows into Alewife Brook, the Upper Mystic River and the Charles River during the modeled climate adjusted 2015 typical year. So why was this option selected? The recommended plan balances environmental improvements with cost. For example, the proposed Charles River improvements cost approximately $690 million compared with 2 billion for the next higher level of control.

The additional 1.31 billion would provide limited additional water quality benefits because stormwater and other pollution sources would continue to affect the river. So in supporting these letters, basically you'd be supporting the recommended plan that the MWA presented because it achieves substantial environmental benefits without the significantly higher costs of more aggressive alternatives. At the same time, there are letters to local legislators asking them to pursue state and federal grant subsidies and favorable financing to help reduce the burden on local sewer ratepayers.

Excellent. I think that's just what we had asked you for. So thank you.

Can I ask, I was reading through these and The gist, that core part of supporting the 763 million as opposed to the other higher alternatives, it was a bit varied in the letters. Is there a way to make that at the front? That's the main message.

Do you mean maybe just bring it up in the letter?

Yeah, basically. Because I don't want people to miss it. But it was really good. Thank you for doing this.

I'd welcome a motion.

that the board vote to approve the public comment letters regarding the MWRA Draft Combined Service Overflow Control Plan.

Second.

Without a small addition or change?

I like it the way it is because I think it still comes out.

I mean, I guess I read it and didn't see an issue. But if you decide that there's some minor tweaking

I mean, if it's still the same gist, I don't think that paragraph moves up.

So long as it's the same just if you can make it more prominent, that's fine. I don' t think that it needs to necessarily be part of the motion.

Putting a different location, I do not think that really changes the letter. Thank you.

All right, so all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Okay the motion passes. all right next we have purchase and sale of secondhand goods policy with Miles Tucker our support services manager good evening

So thank you for having me again. As is practice, if you in the audience will recall this was discussed before you last week or last meeting with the Chief and Deputy Chief of Police there were no requested edits, so there are no requested edit but I'm here to answer any other questions. We didn't receive anything in the ORC boxes from anyone in the public about this document.

On board, it seems very well thought out. And I'd like that you've done in conjunction with the police. So I don't have any concerns. Anybody else?

I know Kathy stole one from me. That the board voted to approve SB-LIC-017 dealing in secondhand merchandise. Second.

all right all those in favor say aye aye that's opposed the motion passes thanks this is well covered territory i think All right, town manager tell us all the things.

Great! All the things are that we have special town meeting coming up on less than a week Monday October 19th and I have one update but related just to Article 3. I just want to keep the board posted, not a definitive update. Sorry, I saw your face but I just wanted to keep you posted on the conversation. So Article 3 is the home rule petition related to Article 97 at Warner Fields, related to the geothermal wells at Pollard. As the board is aware Our original guidance from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs was that we should go through the Article 97 process related to Warner Field. had a follow-up call with them where they shared with us that there had been a case that came out of the State Judicial Court that made them change their guidance to us.

And because of that decision, they verbally said Article 97 is no longer needed. We have asked for them to put that to us in writing. We are still waiting to get that response back in writing. The other component of this is that the Mass School Building Authority's vote on the Pollard project was contingent on a satisfying all state permit requirements, including Article 97 and the associated MEPA process. So we are also in touch with the MSBA to keep them notified about the conversations on the EEA side. We're talking with the MSBA tomorrow and they have, Mass School Building Authority has asked that we provide to the MSBA something in writing from EEA certifying that we have satisfied the condition since their board voted the project contingent on it.

So we're going kind of between the state agencies to try make sure we're all on the same page and moving forward together with full clarity and documentation. So my recommendation tonight is to do nothing with the warrant If we will revisit this, you meet before a special time meeting on Monday night. And if I have anything in writing and prepared to make a recommendation to you about whether to withdraw the article or move forward, I will bring that to that night. Excellent, thank you. So that was the update and then in terms of town meeting also in discussions with the chair maybe I will turn it over to you to talk through the proposed amendment on Article 11, the Tree By-law. I'm happy to also walk through it.

Sure. So in consultation with some of our developers, it became clear that under One of our sections in the back and forth about the wording of the bylaw, we inadvertently deleted some language that is and others clarifying. So in this case, in Section 8.3 applicability we have four conditions under which the Tree By-law would be triggered. Opening of a demolition permit, opening of a new construction permit, Opening of an addition or alteration building permit or application for any other local permit for a project that results in the increase of impervious surfaces by 25% or more, including without limitation street opening permit.

In previous iterations C, the opening of an addition or alteration building permit also said that results in increase of impervious surface of 25% or more. it's clear that the intention here was not to say i'm redoing my kitchen and then you have to submit a tree plan but that wasn't never the case um so we just want to make it clear that a tiny addition, like you're putting on a mudroom or porch or what have you that doesn't meet the 25% threshold wouldn't trigger this bylaw. and certainly any alteration or addition, those within your home that don't affect a building envelope clearly should not trigger this. So the proposed amendment would simply add that language back in to

make the threshold an increase of impervious surfaces of 25% or more. So this is really for clarity.

Madam Chair, I agree with the substance of that proposal. I'm concerned about the timing it is substantive and it's going to have to be a motion to amend on the floor I'm concerned that it will invite, and it already has invited other amendments on the floor. And this is going to be a really big I'm kind of at the point now with all the amendments, I think it would benefit the article to take a little extra time and bring it in May.

There isn't, I mean this is not related to any other amendment. I'm only aware of one other amendment which has nothing

So it doesn't have to do with that clause, but we've received emails from two town meeting members offering amendments so far. and I think for the proponents to be offering an amendment, it gives the impression that is not fully baked at this point. and I'm not sure I agree with that honestly. I mean, I think we did put in a lot of really good work on it but it gives that impression so I do think it would benefit the article to give it just a little extra time.

Okay. Anyone else?

I'm just confused. What, I'm looking at the recommended motion that just says that we'll vote off the motion to amend as presented to Article 11 but it doesn't actually say what it is right?

I just am not there in my warrant.

I'm just looking at the recommended motion tonight and i'm not making it but it says so vote off the most tremendous presented to article 11 amend general bylaw yeah the recommended amendment would narrow this it's just below the

and the lettered choices it says the recommended amendment would narrow the scope of C making the tree bylaw only apply in the opening of an addition or alteration building permit for a project that results in an increase of impervious surface by 25% or more.

So I guess, and I would just recommend that we make that motion that it goes into the actual motion, that piece of it. Yeah.

Sure. Thank you. Yes.

Sorry, I'm not understanding.

He wants the motion to read what the change is.

Your motion tonight?

It's my motion. A motion that someone might make has that wording in it.

Okay, I think that's fine and fair.

And you know, I still feel it does need more work and that's why i originally voted not to go forward and then i thought would be better served in may but i mean if this motion i think it's something so i could vote in favor of the motion

I think you can vote in favor of the motion and still maintain your feeling.

But I do, the Vice Chair does make a good point when we see this and then other people are probably going to have This may be a big discussion and it may end up getting referred back.

The effect of this motion is to limit the applicability of the bylaw, so we're reducing the scope which should be pleasing I think to everyone.

It will be pleasing but I don't know whether they'll take care of everything

Well, I don't think we can worry about taking care of everything. Yeah, no, I hear you. I mean, I think the other amendment that has been offered by a town meeting member is doesn't address the applicability of the bylaw except to include the town. So that seems like not an issue, but that sounds like a fundamental philosophical difference as opposed to a clerical change. That's my opinion.

I don't think it, just to clarify my position. It's not important to me that they're related. I think in the past when the proponents have made amendments from the floor that weren't related to anything that happened recently. It wasn't like an emergent change, it was just a change in substance at the last minute It has led to prolonged discussion and often a referral back to the board.

well if that's the case then it will be no different than where you would see it anyway going back in May but I don't think that this is a This is a clerical error. And given that it reduces and doesn't increase the scope of the bylaw, I think this will be a very palatable change.

I maybe could I offer a motion that the board withdraw article 11 without prejudice with the aim of bringing it to the annual town meeting in May you can certainly offer them so i do that

Do we have a second? Do we have a different motion?

OK. I make a motion that the board vote to offer the motion as amended, presented in Article 11, amend general bylaw tree protection and preservation referencing Bill's point about C. I don't think you can put those words in there. I think it was part of the motion.

OK, so with this whole text narrowing the scope of C, making the tree bylaw only apply to the opening of an addition or alteration building permit for a project that results in the increase in impervious service by 25% or more.

I would second that motion. Thank you, thank you.

All right so we have a motion on the table it's seconded let's vote on that motion all those in favor say aye aye and those opposed okay great

Nothing further on town meeting from me. Town Manager Report, just a couple of updates. Wanted to try to provide more updates on your goals generally so just to say that there's a lot of your goals that are going to the October special town meeting, which is stating the obvious. But I thought maybe I'd be explicit about it. So Pollard, the tree bylaw property tax relief preservation of the YF house and large house all on your goals you know we're all working towards town meeting Monday night other updates for select board goals in terms of things that will be coming your way in November and December to your future board meetings will be reconvening the Affordable Housing Trust in November, resetting on that. The deputy town manager's preparing research and options to get that conversation going again

We have a scheduled update for the board on the Highland Ave. tip project, so the infrastructure improvement project coming to DPW, and our design consultant TEC coming to you in November. And we're also putting together Educational Information and Baseline information to start the conversation around a complete streets policy, and the committees for transportation committees. How our current committee structure kind of evolved and came to be. And just to start with some foundational information so that you have that information as a starting point for your discussions, which is also one of your goals. and a couple of notes for events. I was looking at Saturday, October 17th, and I felt like if you wanted to civically engage on October 17 it is your day because early

Early voting starts on October 17th, leading all the way from the 17th through October 30th. for the November 3rd election. Also on October 17th, there's a school committee open house at The Pollard at 9am and then police and fire have their open house public safety from 11 to 2. So Banner Day in Needham. So please come out and engage with us on schools, public safety, and voting.

Could I ask, would it be possible to add an agenda item on one of our November meetings about the debt stabilization policy and whether we would want to allocate some new growth to that

Sure, it's a conversation that we've been having with our finance committee chair. and I think we've discussed potential changes to the policy. Our director of finance is working on some analysis that would help us determine what an appropriate trigger might be. I don't think that's ready yet, and it's unlikely to be ready at our November meeting. I think what was determined was in our conversations is that as of yet, while it remains select board policy to allocate extraordinary new growth from new projects to our debt stabilization fund, nothing like that has occurred. So we had discussed potentially a trigger of some sort, but we don't have the information yet to discuss really what an appropriate trigger would be. So let's say that we'll put it on our

Outlook. And when that information is available, we should have that conversation for sure.

The reason I was hoping for November's because as I think we discussed on September 8th, the tax rate is set in December and that's dependent upon our anticipated revenues into the general fund. And so if we're going to divert any monies from the general fund to the debt stabilization fund, that decision should happen before the tax rates are set in December. So if we delay it... No?

I don't think that's quite how it works.

No, but in terms of the planning for the budget we anticipate currently a certain amount of revenue to base our budget on for expense purposes. 28. Yes.

You're not missing the window with the tax classification. The whole process for fiscal 28 will be during the winter and spring months of 2020, County or 27. And that's certainly what we are working to do, to work with the Finance Committee for those triggers for which the board can have There's something substantial in front of them to make a decision.

So during the budgeting process, you assume a certain amount of revenue available for expenditure?

which is refined all during the winter. The decision's not known in December because things that affect new growth still come after that point. The new growth will have a better picture in the spring of County at 27 that will impact the fiscal year 2028 revenue estimates.

Okay, so that's good to know that it won't disrupt the budgeting process and that there can be an article at town meeting

Thank you.

So we can certainly schedule that conversation when the time is right. Committee reports.

Kevin and I were lucky enough to go the Needham History Centre Museum annual meeting last Wednesday evening. Heard a great speaker Janice Robinson Daly who is an 1980 graduate of Needham High School and also we're looking for more things to do on Saturday there is a girls and boys soccer doubleheader The boys play at 4.30 and the girls will play right after so if you want a full day feel free to go up to Memorial Park Are you announcing the game? No, one of them then I have another event to go to You're a busy man Bill Josh

Just on the appointment. So I've spoken with the chairs of the Needham Council for Arts and Culture, members of the Commissioners of Trust Funds and the chair of the Park and Rec Commission and the feedback is positive. I mean, they really are happy with the process. And I think it's a new process so there's some kinks to be worked out. I acknowledge that. but I have not heard negative comments from anyone I've interacted with so Hope, if there are any objections that people voice them to me because I haven't heard them yet except from you and we've had that conversation. So hopefully we can work through it and make sure that everyone's comfortable with it.

Kevin?

This is a long one. Bill and I with the Wingate ribbon cutting. We were at the Olin College inauguration, with Katie as well. Heidi and Bill and i were at The Claxton Field Ribbon Cutting The Needham High School Tennis Court's ribbon cutting. There is so much cut ribbon in this town. I was at the committee member orientation with Heidi that one of two and then there's a second one the week later those were excellent it was really useful um uh it was the harvest fair I think I got like 15,000 steps walking around um at Greensfield. And then on Sunday I actually went to the 375th anniversary of the Needham, the Natick Prang Indians. They were really helpful with the town seal

and they did a dedication at the Elliott church itself native which was the original site of John, Reverend John Elliot praying in the community. and it is interesting to hear the Lord's Prayer in native Algonquin. Historically, they were connecting a lot of dots.

T. Chuck met since our last meeting and it was our quarterly update from the Needham Housing Authority, and also from the Charles River Center and as you all know the Needham Housing Authority now has state funding for both its projects, Seabeds and Linden Street. There's still a lot of steps in the process that they have to go through. I will say one of them that is, is a little difficult as they do have to get a check off from the federal government at this point which is is a from Housing and Urban Development. But it is going, but it appears to be slowing things down because some of the funding obviously is federal. but otherwise it's going great. The Charles River Center is going to submit for funding from the state in this round, so this fall and they will hear in the summer, if they get funding. They can start in the fall of 2028

they are hopeful, they got some positive feedback the last time. They didn't make it the last one but they really were too early in there in the process last time they didn't have all their approvals and everything and now they have those so that was very positive I also went the, there was a presentation on The Pollard Project for town meeting members. I believe it was last week and I went to that and that was very interesting Not a giant turnout, but some turnout and a lot of good questions. So I think it was an opportunity for town meeting members to really dig in and get those questions answered.

Excellent. Well, I just want to echo Kevin on the volunteer sessions put together, I think primarily by Miles and Katie that also involve Louise Miller and Chris Heap. They talked about de-escalation in various situations, also ethics and conflict of interest. Fascinating, really helpful. Barry was there as well. So I just want to say thank you to that group for making that happen. And then also went on the GPA walk audit with Safe Streets Needham and Walk Massachusetts, which is an organization looks at what it feels like to walk and the relative comforts of various walking environments. So it sounds like a very productive couple of weeks. All right, I think that's it, folks.

Move we adjourn?

We have a second? Second. All right then all in favor? Aye. We are adjourned thank you