Needham Select Board, 8/11/26

Thank you for watching!

Okay, hello everyone. Welcome to the Select Board meeting for August 11th. we are going to start our meeting with this notice about this meeting being broadcast by the Needham channel for the town's youtube channel and recorded uh for later viewing I think the Needham observer and the need local are with us recording is anybody else in the room recording time to tell the chairs now Okay, then apologies for the late start. Just working out some technical difficulties and now we will move to our first agenda item which is public comment and I will ask Avery Newton to join us here at the table for our first public comment Just introduce yourself, remind us of your address and we're going to ask you to wrap up in about three minutes.

I can do and apologies for the noise outside. I had thought this was seven, I set up childcare accordingly so The noise is delightful Good good Good evening and good to see you members of the select board. My name is Avery Newton, and I live at 69 Howland Street for those of you in this room who may not be aware, Basala Art in the heart of Needham Center and staffed by my next door neighbors will soon become home to the town's 18th bank branch. I know I'm not alone in feeling frustrated and a little defeated by this news. But before I go further, I want to be clear my concern is not with Village Bank specifically. My concern is what the systems and structures that allowed us to get to number 18 in the first place, not who number 18 happens to be. Restaurants, cafes, small businesses, markets and third spaces are destinations. They bring people downtown encourage them to stay longer and support neighboring businesses Banks provide an important service, but they are not destinations. They're institutions. They generate far less foot traffic and far fewer opportunities for people to shop, dine or linger.

In other words, it's not just a destination we're losing but also a meaningful portion of the customer base that neighboring businesses rely on. The supporting research is remarkably consistent and available here if anyone's interested. Independent local businesses recirculate substantially more of their revenue within the local economy than national chains in large institutions, up to 2-4x. as we approach the critically important Pollard vote this is the type of revenue that we all depend on to sustain our schools, our parks, our tax base and ultimately the community itself. Finally, and perhaps most significantly there is a profound irony here. Landlords generally view corporate banks as safe low-risk tenants but in chasing that short term safety they actually risk hollowing out the very foot traffic in business diversity that makes Needham commercial real estate so valuable in the first place With all that said, I want to look to the future and encourage the select board and other town leaders to consider some solutions knowing that no one can control who a landlord decides to rent to. First, zoning and land use.

I'd ask the Select Board and Planning Board to explore ground floor use restrictions or conditional use permits for banks and other large financial institutions in our commercial core. Cambridge did exactly this in Central Square back in 2017 after realizing that bank oversaturation specifically was negatively impacting both the retail diversity and the overall economic health of the area. Second, financial incentives for commercial properties. I'd encourage the town to explore vacancy fees for storefronts sitting empty and unleased paired with a split rate to market commercial tax exemption for landlords who lease to local merchants. I understand that a small business pop-up program may already be in the works for this space, and I'm eager to see if that arrangement could be scaled as well. Third and finally, policies supportive of small local businesses to help lower the cost of doing business in Needham. This could include establishing a buy right approval process for independent shops or cafes under a certain size or raving first year permitting fees for local entrepreneurs. My overall point is this, we don't need 18 different places to store our money.

We need more places that make this wonderful town a community. I humbly ask that town leadership consider exploring one or several of these policies to help promote some of the vitality that we have continued to lose under these current practices. Thank you.

Thanks, Avery.

I appreciate it and hopefully within three minutes.

Perfect.

Yeah, perfect. All right so we're going to invite Corey Wilk

come on up hi Corey nice to see you nice to thank you members of the board my name is Corey Wilk I live at 6 Wayne Road in Needham I have two children in the school system, and I am speaking as a member of the Needham Baseball and Softball Board as both the Director of RSB which is one of our baseball programs and as the Vice President of Baseball Operations having assumed that position when Chris Gerstle resigned from the board a year ago. I submitted a letter today to you guys on top of a couple of emails. But I'd like to just touch briefly within three minutes or less upon the urgent need that we have, which is the renovation repair memorial field. with a turf infield, grass outfield. Needham currently has only three big diamond baseball fields down from four several years ago when McLeod Field was converted to softball

A decision never presented to the MBS board for input, despite Chris Gerstle then simultaneously being the Parks and Rec Commissioner and the VP of Baseball Ops. And being involved in that project from inception to completion Most members of the board did not find out about it until it was done. We face a similar problem at a greater scale because Warner Field, one of the three remaining big diamonds is slated to serve as a staging area for the Pollard Middle School project We could go offline within 12 to 24 months leaving only two big diamonds, one of which Walker Gordon doesn't meet dimensional requirements for varsity baseball. and Memorial is typically unusable as it cannot handle adverse weather. As an example, varsity was only able to practice on that field approximately 25% of the days this past year. So we desperately need assistance from the town with respect to field maintenance costs. MBS spends significant amounts of money on outside contractors to maintain our fields. This was an arrangement initiated seven years ago by Mr. Gerstle,

We surveyed 15 peer communities. Only Weston's youth baseball board contributed in any meaningful way, and them at a significantly lower scale than us. We have paid on average $70,000 a year towards fields over the past five years plus user fees. We've only been able to find one town that contributed more than 5,000 on average We also pay a higher user fee than most or almost all other towns and we receive significantly fewer services in terms of town raking, lining game prep or wet field prep. Currently, our middle school team does not have a diamond. Our freshmen are often canceled because varsity needs to go to Warner and JV then to Walker Gordon. Without Warner we'll have four teams competing for two and without a memorial rehab off in one diamond That's not taking into account the 10 or so Little League, Big Diamond teams. The two Legion teams are the four Rocket Selects teams that all play on the big diamonds This is an urgent need and we really hope that the town can complete the memorial field project in 2027.

We're also hoping to find a short-term third diamond while Warner is offline, maybe through Town Connections of Babson or St. Seb's Ensure that Warner will actually be brought back online as soon as possible when staging is done, and identify a location for a fourth diamond in the long term because three hasn't been sustainable for us. The letter today includes more detail than I can express in these three minutes, which I think just ended. So I'm happy to do anything further that would help. Thank you.

Thanks Corey and we'll be reaching out to you again to put some discussion together. All right. And the last public comment that we're aware of tonight is Bill Looney. Come on up. Thanks for being here tonight.

Thank you. Good evening, my name is Bill Looney. I live at 213 Garden Street in Needham. I'm joined by many neighbors here tonight and we ask that the Select Board not endorse a 193 Garden Street project as it is proposed. We attended the April 28th Select Board meeting with the same request, and with the very same concerns. We've had communication with Mr. Todaldi since the last Select Board meeting, but there have been no changes to the proposed project and there have be no other actions taken to address the neighborhood concerns since this process began. It's been frustrating to say the least. I believe the neighborhood is supportive of a sensibly sized, friendly 40B project at the site. But the developer proposes to build 10 five-bedroom homes on a single family lot in a single-family neighborhood.

Simply put, the size and scale of this proposed project is grossly oversized for the lot and out-of-scale for the neighborhood. This unreasonable scale raises numerous environmental, zoning, safety and neighborhood deficiencies. Late last week, a number of neighbors submitted letters to the Town Manager and to the Select Board outlining our serious concerns about the project. These concerns include the following Numerous building and zoning issues focused on density, building height, parking adequacy in circulation, and lack of disability access. Safety issues including first responder access and fire safety accessibility. Serious environmental concerns. The property is adjacent to conservation areas and wetlands. The project will require substantial grading Vegetation Removal, Expanded Impervious Areas Intensive Habitat Disturbance into the Wetlands Area and its Buffer Zones

And in order to expand the lot's buildable area, the developer proposes to construct a massive retaining wall adjacent to the wetlands to fill in the gully that drops down into the wetland area. And fourth, there's a lack of detail in review. We ask that the Select Board be cautious in considering a project with so many concerns and very little information to address those concerns. We know Mr. Todaldi builds nice homes, and we ask that the development at 193 Garden Street be appropriate for the neighborhood. The neighborhood asks that the Select Board please not endorse a project as it is proposed. There are so many serious deficiencies, that it's not possible to come up with a list of conditions that could remedy this proposal. We believe the developer should go back to the drawing board and submit a project that's suitable for the lot, for the neighborhood, and for the town. Thank you.

Okay, is there anyone else in the room who came with the intent of making public comment? All right. Anyone online? I don't see any hands. Okay, thanks everyone. All right so the first item on our agenda is the 2026 International Overdose Awareness Day Proclamation and for that we'll turn to the vice chair certainly

Whereas International Overdose Awareness Day aims to bring communities together to remember without stigma those who have died from overdose and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind, and whereas observance of this day is an opportunity to raise awareness about the risk of overdose, promote discussion about prevention and share information about support services. And whereas addiction is a disease that touches families in every community, the epidemic has claimed the lives of thousands of Massachusetts residents and affected countless other family members. and whereas those affected by overdose are our children, our parents, our siblings, and deserve our compassion and support. And whereas the town of Needham Massachusetts does affirm and acknowledge the pain and hardship caused by drug overdose Now therefore be it resolved that August 27th, 2026 be declared International Overdose Awareness Day in the Town of Needham.

Madam Chair, I would move that the Board vote to approve and sign the 2026 International Overdose Awareness Day Proclamation. Second.

All right. Any discussion? OK, all of our votes will be roll call because we have a member remote. So Kathy, I'm going to start with you.

Oh wait, just one thought. There is overdose awareness night coming up

on August 27th at Memorial Park.

Thank you

So we have a motion on the table and we'll go to a vote. Kathy? Yes. Bill?

Yes. Josh?

Yes Kevin? Aye And I vote yes as well so the motion passes thank you all right next we have a public hearing an eversource grant of location for 77 wellesley avenue i imagine we're going to be joined by joanne calendar and is mike bakari in the room or online. Okay, fantastic. Thank you. Mike Bakari from Precision Contracting. Hi Joanne. Joanne, just say hello. I'm not sure we can hear you. Oh no, we're not hearing you. Hang on one sec. Try again.

Nothing yet. Well, everyone.

Oh, there we go. OK, fantastic. Hi, Joanne. You can hear me now? Yes, we can hear you now. Thank you. Can you tell us about this grant of location?

Sure. So let's see, try that again. We actually sent an updated package yesterday because there was some changes to the poll that Eversource will be providing service from.

Okay.

and I noticed in the packet that the clerk sent out she did not include the newest plan. I sent it over minutes ago, I don't know if you received it but so at this point Eversource is seeking to grant a location to install approximately 17 feet of conduit into Wellesley Avenue, and that's from poll 61 over 11, and that is to provide underground service to the new home at 77 Wellesley Avenue. OK. Thank you.

All right, thank you, Joanne. So yeah, it looks like quite a few changes Madam Town Manager, is everything in order here?

Unfortunately the work was completed well initial work was done before the grant of location and that's why we have Mr. Bakari here and just to know for the board in your packet you do have the most updated that Ms. Callender just referenced so you're looking at the updated requests I think the poll is not a different poll in the packet

Yeah, I think when the clerk sent it over yesterday she sent the engineer's sketch not the actual plan. So I don't know if you have the plan in your packet that shows the 17 feet of conduit coming from 61 over 11. yeah i see a sketch i think yeah so you didn't get i emailed it like i said around 5 30 but i wasn't convinced she would receive it i can pull it up on my screen if if you can see that i yeah can you can you see it i think

I mean, for me the sketch is adequate personally. But I guess I do have a question so if we've changed polls but some of the work was already done can you help us understand Where work was done and if it has to be undone or redone?

No. So the customer did install the conduit from the correct pole, from 61 over 11. The 17 feet of conduits are already present We just had it wrong on our sketch. We were coming all the way down the street from a different pole and we were looking for over 100 feet of conduit, which was not correct.

So I'm glad that the work was done correctly. However, Mr. Bakari perhaps you can help us understand how the work was done ahead of the grant of location that's required.

Truthfully, it was an oversight on my end and the... the electricians end as well. We were under the impression that we were supposed to lay the conduit down, bring it through the handhold before the pole The handle is just basically a box before the poll. Get it inspected and then get in touch with Eversource to come out, do this survey and have this grant of right. Now, obviously we understand that is the wrong order.

Have you done work in Needham before?

I've done plenty of work in Needham before, but truthfully this is my first underground service that i'm doing. Typically it's always overhead.

Okay thank you

I think we were about five feet short, so it was kind of last minute that we had to decide to do an underground service as opposed to an overhead.

Okay, thank you for that explanation. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments?

So Joanne, the 115 feet that was originally proposed, none of that was ever done right? That was not.

they only, they came from the private property if you will over to the poll 61 over 11.

Okay thank you. The poll is right at the end of our property I don't know if you have Watt land in front of you.

Yeah, OK. I'm going to open this. This is a public hearing so I'm gonna open this up the public comment if there's anyone in the room who came here in order to discuss this matter OK, it appears not. Is there anyone online who's here for this matter? No, there's not. OK. All right so Mr. Bakari What? I thought I saw something. Mr. Bakari, we need to ensure that you are that the grant of location is taken care of prior to the work being done in all cases? Yes. it ensures safety, it ensures that the work is going to be done properly. It ensures that there's no property issues. So I just mistakes happen.

And I hear your explanation that this was your first underground one, but I just want to make sure that you understand that in the future, this is the first stop and the work has to come second.

Yes, definitely. And just to reiterate a little bit too is we did have the electrical inspector come out and inspect it as well you know, solidify that all the work was done properly. I think the biggest mistake for me was the process coming to you first and then

we just always want to make sure that you know the neighbors have an opportunity to weigh in if there's anything that they're concerned about etc it's just public access and engagement absolutely is required so All right. So I guess the work has been done and then done on the correct poll, so we can all be glad for that. Does anyone have any comments they'd like to make?

It seems like we've seen this a couple times now. And do we publicize well? I don't understand why it keeps happening, I guess. So that's my question. Then the other question is you know do we keep track of people who do the work before they come here because if they ever come back a second time I really would not be that favorable yes but i don't know what we can do that's a good question

thanks for the question so maybe three years ago we had a whole slew of work being done before granted location and so the board at that time had asked us to make operational improvements, to figure out how we can better educate all of the parties. I'd say part of the issue is that each party is losing sight of the other piece of the puzzle. So a contractor has a building permit through the town, sometimes an electrical permit they have to request from an Eversource field agent to go out on the scene if they want to do underground. The Eversources team goes out, does the initial sketch and a lot of times what we're hearing from contractors was, well, Eversource came out and they gave me this sketch. And so that's the work that I'm going to do. instituted a lot of process improvements understanding that that was maybe giving contractors and not a clear understanding that then the grant of location comes to the select board actually through Eversource

not through the contractor themselves, and that then the work should continue from there. So some of the improvements that we made from that time was we met with Eversource. We became fast friends with Ms. Callender and one of the things that we requested is when the Eversource team goes out on site, that they let us know that they've been out in the field with someone so that we could just give a call to the contractor and say hey, we know you met with Eversources but you should know. that there's more steps to come. But the other piece is making sure we educate on our own materials, so when you apply for a building permit now you have to indicate whether you're going overhead or underground. And on our building permit page, there's language on there that says if you're going underground here's the grant of location requirement um so it's built into our permitting system and you know the obligation at the end of the day really is on the permit puller.

So I'll note that on the the plans that we have, I mean it is highlighted in bright yellow that says the electrician to wait for grant of location before completing work to pull.

So I want to acknowledge Eversource made that change in our request from a few years back.

They added that text, which is great but maybe I mean, it seems pretty is this what they're giving to the OK, so then I guess the folks aren't reading. Because it's on both pages highlighted.

I mean it's actually outlined in red and highlighted in yellow. It's hard to imagine

how someone could kind of miss it, honestly.

Well in this situation when Eversource went out there the work had already been done so we didn't have the sketch to hand to the customer because the work has already been

Good point. Could I say one thing just as the... Sure, help us. Yeah, just to kind of get real life scenario.

Please.

I do think that there is a disconnect from the contractor slash electrician to the permit pulling process where when we pull the permit, there isn't anything that really is not in your face but showing you hey, you have to go through this step. when we go to pull a permit, we have to upload a bunch of requirements. We have to up load the site plan and the architectural drawings and there's nothing that really says hey you need This plan from Eversource to move forward. So it was, I will say like for me doing the as this being my first time doing a underground service, I was a little

confused, taken back I guess with the process because it wasn't really straightforward for us on our end. Once I spoke with Eversource, it was very easy and very straightforward but i did not know that process beforehand

Okay, well I appreciate that perspective. We'll have to discuss this internally to see if there's any

I hate to belabor it Madam Chair, but I'm wondering if we have on the permit we say are you going overground and underground? I don't know if it says on that permit if it's next to underground. If you're going underground you need to get a grant of location

I believe it does, but I'm going to triple check now. And if not we can definitely update it.

Yeah. No, no. We want to figure this out so I appreciate it. Okay.

With all that said, I would move sign a petition from Eversource Energy to install approximately 17 feet of conduit in Wellesley Ave. Second.

Okay, great.

Can I just reconfirm with the town manager? So we have that documentation, the correct the correct work that has been done in the correct location because I'm fine with approving it now but in 10, 15 however many years from now we want to make sure that we know where the work is under our sidewalks

Yes, based on the plans, the updated plans of the 17 feet. Is that where you're asking? And from the correct pole. Yes. Yes, engineering's fully in the loop. Yes thank you.

All right, so we have the motion on the table then and I will start with Kathy. Yes. Bill?

Yes.

Josh? Yes Kevin?

Yes

And the chair votes yes, so. I already, we already did that. Didn't forget. Thanks though. All right so the motion passes and we can move along thank you both.

Thank you have a good night well have a great night thank you thank you

Okay, the next item on our agenda is Stephen Palmer Jurisdiction Update and for that we'll turn to our Town Manager.

Thank you Madam Chair At your last meeting, we discussed a recent vote of the school committee regarding their interest in retaining jurisdiction over the Stephen Palmer property and building. and the copy of their exact vote is in your packet. But from there, based on the board's discussion at your July meeting I drafted an initial MOA to try to kind of codify some of the responsibilities that were articulated or requested in the school committee vote. I won't review the whereases, which tries to just put the history and the facts down clearly. But the commitments in the MOA for the board's consideration I'd be looking for your feedback is an agreement that the select board would agree to assume responsibility for supporting existing Stephen Palmer tenants in relocating winding down the current residential use and managing the Stephen Palmer building and parcel until the building is vacant.

Item 2, the school committee through the superintendent will prepare and submit capital requests for the property for FY28-32 Capital Improvement Plan. based on the anticipated use of the building. Item three, the town manager I would request funding in the fiscal year 2028 operating budget that whatever is needed to maintain operate and ensure the building and I would say a lot of that will also be driven by if the select board is making decisions under item one about the wind down of the residential use, and how we're doing that. That would inform that operating budget request and item four, if town meeting appropriates funding for a townwide facilities master plan which I've expressed to the board. I would ask that be priority for the board in the coming year that the school committee and select board would agree to include Stephen Palmer in that along with all the other town-owned assets so that we can take a look at our assets holistically.

um so this is for your discussion feedback and happy to make any edits the board sees fit

okay i'm going to open it up for discussion does anyone any of my colleagues want to yeah so manager thank you uh the town manager for putting this together I think this reflects the discussion and I think in my mind, will help us manage the property in uncertain circumstances. I guess we can say it that way. On the fourth one with the facility master plan, I agree with this as well. I've heard talk of potentially demolishing the building. If it's going to be in the facility master plan, I think that would be a decision that's held off until that occurs. That's my understanding at least.

a request for funds to demolish the building would come under item two from the schools uh as a through the capital process i believe um and I'll discuss that further with our deputy time manager director of finance and the superintendent of schools but I think the timing of when the school committee wants to submit that request um i think that would be a conversation with them if we do move forward with the Townwide Facilities Master Plan, would that impact which year they'd be looking for funds to demolish? But again, that's for further discussion.

Yeah, I guess we have to discuss it more because if it's going to be demolished then why have it in the master plan?

Yeah, but either way if it was demolished that would be after the period specified in the MO Act. Right? So I think intrinsically sort of putting it off. Any other?

To me, it just seems too... It's going to be hard to work with two and four because the schools all of a sudden say we wanted the blank but they were putting in a facility study mastery. Are we going to say, okay, we're giving them what they're blank or are we gonna make a suggestion based on the facility study? So it's just something that I think we need to look at. Just like if you were to tear down almost, you know, if they had made a decision I'm not saying that it's terrible. I'm just saying it's something we need to think about.

agreed agreed okay and Kevin yeah okay this is fine um it's great I appreciate that considering that circumstances have changed considerably this code codifies it well so thank you Kathy

Yeah, just Katie confirming here that what this agreement does is that we will handle the building until it is empty and then we will turn over an empty building to the school committee?

Yes. That's correct.

and then the second question is in terms of the Town 1 Facilities Master Plan, I'm assuming other school buildings are also in that plan right?

that would be my intention and it's something I've discussed with the superintendent as well so we haven't scoped anything you know this would be a budget request submission through the FY28 budget process and we could scope it but i would recommend that

all town and school facilities be included yeah okay so then it's nothing special about this right if every single facility in building whether school town whatever is all included then just wouldn't that would make sense i guess but understand that that has not yet been scoped.

All right okay um All right. Yeah, I'm glad that this MOA will help us settle this issue of governance. You know who's making decisions here for the short term so that it will allow us to explore what our plan should be. So there's no vote on this, this evening we're just considering and we'll take this up presumably at our next meeting. Thanks. Okay, all right so we'll move on to our next agenda item this is the MWRA the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority project updates and we're going to welcome a whole whole team up so come on up I'm just gonna ask you join us here we want to make sure that when you're speaking you're

A microphone doesn't have to be right up against it, but we want to make sure that everyone on TV can hear you. And I'll ask you to start with some introductions.

So I think we have two items on the agenda. The first one that we'll talk to is a Needham dewatering drain line, and then we have another set of people who will speak to the CSO. Great. All right? So my name is Paul Savard. I'm the acting director for the Tunnel Program. We appreciate the Select Board meeting with us today. We've met here a few times in the past on the Tunnell Program with some updates. Today it's about one specific piece of Construction for a drain line that we need to start before tunnel construction starts, but it's going to help us get the tunnel construction so that when the tunnel contractor is on board he's ready to go right away. So that's the first point and I think we had some slides?

Yes, but before you get started, just guys, do you want to introduce yourselves?

And I'm David Abt. I'm the design manager for the tunnel department.

Great.

Kahn, Mindy Murray. I'm the community relations coordinator.

Excellent thank you okay so we are starting our slides

Super.

All right, so next slide So I'm just going to give a quick update of the tunnel program, just in context that leads us up to the drain line that we're here really to talk about. And then Dave's gonna walk us through some specifics about the drain lines so you'll be aware what the work is and then we'll just cover some additional questions at the very end So the next slide. We've shown this figure a number of times, but within that black circle is most of the metropolitan area that Miamdari serves water to We need to provide redundancy for what you can see listed there, which is our city tunnel extension and Dorchester Tunnel. That's what we call our Metropolitan Water Tunnel System. There are a couple incidences that happened in the past back in May of 2010 and more recently, in 2024. That brought us to the need for redundancy to the city tunnel system. We had a boil water order back in 2010 because there's a water main break on the city tunnel or just upstream of that, and that led us to the Tunnel Program.

So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the Tunnell Program but it's about providing redundancy to that metropolitan tunnel system that we have.

Can I ask why is break in quotes?

Oh, we just it was a water main break. So it was significant break for us. It wasn't a run of the mill type thing. There's no real reason to putting into quotes other than just to draw some attention to it.

Okay?

I think we've talked about before some of the purposes for the tunnel program and the main point here is that we want to make sure we provide uninterrupted delivery of our high quality water to all the communities that we serve at any time of the year without any service interruptions so that's why we need the tunnel program in order to be able to do that so that those similar incidences that have occurred in the past if they happen again, we have ways to direct water around them to continue the service that we need to do. next slide so this is really a slide showing the overall tunnel program and we've shown this one to the board before um we have two tunnel systems ones in green that's called that north tunnel that's going to go from the mass pike and head up north five miles The one for today that we're really concerned about is the south tunnel. And it's been shown there are two colors, blue and a red stretch, and it's going to also start at the Mass Pike in Route 128 on I-95 interchange area. That's where our Holtman Aqueduct supplies the water into these tunnel systems and will deliver it all the way down to Mattapan.

But, to construct that tunnel we'll be using a tunnel boring machine and the tunnel boring machines will be starting at the I-95 Highland Avenue interchange right here in Needham and then it's gonna go construct in two different directions, one along that red path and one along the blue path. When that tunnel gets constructed there is all the material that comes out, comes out past those launch shafts, gets taken up and loaded onto trucks and taken away but during construction there'll be water groundwater that infiltrates into the tunnel and that water needs to also be brought back to the shaft so it can be pumped up to the surface treated to meet permit discharge requirements. And then, so the purpose of today is what we need as a pipeline to get from that interchange area over to the Charles River. So we call it a Needham Dewatering Drain Line. It's what we call an early enabling work, so it's a piece of construction that we need to do ahead of the large tunnel construction contract, so when the tunnel contractor comes on board there is a place for that water to go to and get discharged.

and so for the next slide we're still on just so we're aware that tunnel construction is still unscheduled to start in 2028. And this is a piece of work that we need to do essentially next year, so that we're ready for that 2028 timeframe. and now I'm going to pass it off to Dave and he's gonna talk more specifically about what the Needham drain line will do.

yes so the Needham to watering drainage line consists of approximately 1 250 linear feet of 36 inch diameter pipeline It starts at our Highland Avenue I-95 Northeast Cloverleaf shaft site and crosses underneath the I- 95 highway ramps. and then follows along Brook Road, Arlington Road makes a turn on Charles Street and then turns into the 163 Highland Avenue private property to where our outfall location will be at the bank of the Charles River.

When you say follows along, do you mean underground?

Underground. Yes The purpose is to discharge treated construction water during south tunnel construction. It will also be the point where we discharge the water used for disinfection, flushing and commissioning at the completion of South Tunnel Construction and it's the low point for the south tunnel system so in the future if we need to take the tunnel offline for maintenance inspection or repair, we would unwater the tunnel at this location. So on the next two slides, I'm gonna walk you through the alignment and go over the construction methods and our work hours.

Let me just ask a quick question before we go on. You said 163 Highland Ave is a private... Yes. So have you already had discussion, I'm guessing, with them?

Yes, we're finalizing our permanent easement through their parking lot. Thank you. So we start at the Highland Avenue Northeast Cloverleaf, where we'll do about 150 feet of trenchless construction underneath the I-95 ramp. this is to not impact the traffic on the ramp we're anticipating constructing this through pipe jacking it's a figure on the bottom left hand of the slide we are anticipating this work will be done during the day Moving on to the next slide, please. This is our alignment within the Needham right-of-way so there's about 850 linear feet of cut and cover construction in Brook Road, Arlington and Charles Street. We will construct the work in stages to reduce our footprint and our impact on the surrounding area with discussions between DPW, engineering and the police.

And given it's a dense commercial area we think night work would be the least impactful to Butters and there are Needham sewer mains running parallel to our proposed drainage line in Brook Road and Charles Street, so we will rehabilitate or replace those. Next slide please.

so just um can i just ask this is going to be in place throughout the entirety of the project so this is all going to fixed to standard like regular Needham standard after the tunnel's in place

Yes.

Timeline, how long will the trenching take Brook Road to Tintin? Our target is to start construction in the spring of 2027 and reaching substantial completion by Spring of 2028. That recognizes Needham Street moratorium in the winter So we're targeting one construction season. Okay, nice. We got a slide coming up on that? Yeah. Next slide please. and when we turn on to the private property 163 Highland Avenue, we have about 250 feet of cut-and-cover construction installing our drain line. leading up to our outfall that will be on the bank of Charles River. We'll have a temporary cofferdam for construction, and then the excavation will be conducted from the riverbank. The work on the private property will be during daytime hours Next slide, please.

At the 163 Highland Avenue alignment we cross below a Needham 12-inch sewer main We will remove and replace the portion of this sewer main from the manhole at 163 Highland Avenue to the next manhole downstream at 60 Charles Street. It's about 300 linear feet of sewer This work will take place within the town sewer easement and the work hours will be during the day. Next slide, please. Upon completion of our work in the right-of-way, we will pave throughout the limits of disturbance curve to curb. You can see it on the figure and the green shading. Next slide please. So coordination with Needham. We've met with Needam DPW and engineering to review our 60% and 90%. contract packages.

And then in April, we met with DPW engineering police and fire to go over our construction zone safety plans and are proposed hours and then for outreach, we held the public information session for Butters to The Alignment. Our designer distributed notices door-to-door and then we had a session on July 16th and then we are presenting at the Conservation Commission hearing for our notice of intent on Thursday. Next slide, please. So here's our schedule. We are targeting going to bid this fall with the goal of onboarding a contractor in late fall, early winter and starting construction in the 2027 construction season with the target of having the drain line ready for use for South Tunnel contractor when they come on board in the spring or summer of 2028. And with that, next slide please. I'll hand it over to Carmine.

All right, so this is our contact page. We have a robust web page for the tunnel program. Once you get on that tunnel... you'll see that it has table of contents, introduction about the program community updates frequently asked questions resources contact us this will navigate in there answer many questions As you can see, the community update. That's where we find the Needham. I'll notice if there is any work that's particular to Needham and then other communities have the same setup. It's pretty user-friendly. and then we have ways to contact us through the tunnel info at MWA.com or you can contact myself at Carmine DiMaria at MWRA.com and tell us how wonderful job we're doing.

Excellent.

and that's it.

All right, what questions or thoughts for discussion points do we have? Kevin you can start.

Sure. Okay. You talked about this is the lowest site, so you would dewater from the Needham site? and this would be used not just for construction but if you ever had to.

If we ever have to maintain the tunnel in the future, yeah it gives us a way to release some water if we need to. So the tunnel, like our existing tunnels they've been in service since the 1950s and we haven't been able to take them out of line. Sometimes you want to be able to go inside and inspect them to make sure that there's no cracks or something that you need to fix So it's for that purpose. It's very, very rarely that we'd have to do it but we're constructing the pipeline for construction. The idea would be to leave it in place so that when in the future if we needed to we could use it for that purposes if we ever had to release some water to do some future inspection. We'd all be permitted every time we used it. We'd have to get the right kind of permits and notify the town, all sorts of notices like that. Can you explain a cofferdam to me? Sure. Yeah, so to construct in the river, you know, the water's flowing by. So a copper dam basically creates a little bit of a dam so that they can construct inside there. So it'd be constructing within the dry.

So they can get that outlet, outfall pipe and then they can backfill that properly and restore the slope so that all can be done in the dry. And they'll pull the copper dam out and then the water will be restored.

Best guess. During construction, how much water do you imagine is going through this pipe? And the Charles River is basically a plume going across the river of like thousands of cubic feet of water.

No, I think we have during construction the flow rate that's coming from construction. Dave you got the number? I think it's 5 million gallons a day.

Yes, so we need to permit this through DEP and EPA through their NPDES permits. So what we did for the Metro West water supply tunnel was 5 million gallons per day. That's what will target permitting for are a tunnel that would be unmitigated. So the target would be to mitigate the water inflow into the tunnels, so you're discharging less than that rate.

By mitigation we mean grouting and probing, grouting inside the tunnel.

Okay how much is that? And what's it look like? Five million gallons

What would you even compare that to?

I don't know.

Inside the tunnel, 5 million gallons inside of the tunnel you'd be able to walk through it, down at the surface. The contractor will pick that up into a pipe. The pipes probably on the order of 6-12 inch diameter or something like that. and then this pipe is a storm drain essentially, so it's flowing by gravity. So the pipe itself here is 36 inch but it could be flowing by like its open channel flow. Okay. And then finally? I'm sorry.

The section of sewer to be replaced along Charles Street. Thank you.

Along the Charles Riverbank, so that's vitrified clay pipe? So that was constructed well over 50 years ago and it's a very brittle pipe. So just by crossing underneath it, we are going to impact that place.

On that note, can I just follow up? I think you said 300 feet. 300 feet That sounds like a lot at once. How's that going to impact the sewer service for the area?

So we would work, well, we've been working with DPW. We would have to bypass the sewer from manhole to manhole but that 300 feet is dictated by the nearest manhole upstream which is at 163 Highland and the next one downstream, which is that 60 Charles Street. So if we tried to do a connection closer than that 300 feet, we might not be able to get a good connection to that brittle clay pipe

Sure, I guess I'm just wondering what the interruption will be for those commercial and residential customers downstream from that.

There won't be any interruption during the bypass they'll pump out of the upstream manhole discharging in the downstream manhole so they won't notice any interuption flow

Excellent. Did you have more?

I thought that's enough. OK, Josh? Just one question. It sounded like so this water pipe is going to be very close to the Needham sewer pipe and is that the reason, the 300 feet that the Needam sewer pipe will have to be replaced?

Well, we're crossing that 300 feet. We're crossing. So that's the braille pipe that Dave is talking about. That's along the bank? That's along the bank. The other ones are close within the trench, you have to create a trench to create the 36-inch pipe. There's other sewers that are close by so we're expecting that we might have to impact those when we're installing Trench Box to get through that.

So if the town ever has to maintain our own sewer pipe, would it impact this MWRA pipe?

No. That's why we're providing the space and then restoring it so that the pipes will have sufficient separation distances so they can be maintained. Thank you

I'm good, thanks. Very interesting and detailed. Thank you.

Kathy, anything? No questions. Okay, I just have one question and it's about noise. I can see that you've thought through the daytime versus nighttime work But this is a reasonably small area, both with commercial customers and residential neighborhoods just outside the perimeter. And so I guess I'm just wondering I'm not really clear on the scale of the disruption that these machines will cause. So I guess I just want to check in if it's going to be a disruption for those folks.

No, it won't be. It's typical pipeline construction in the streets so you'll see it many times. They'll have a trench that they have to excavate The pipe is 36-inch diameter, so that's three feet. But it will be up to 10 to 15 feet when they bury the pipe and then they backfill the pipe. And they move along. So they'll be excavating a section and moving their way along the 1,200 feet. Most of the areas are industrial, commercial kind of area. The specific streets we're going through. There's no residential homes or anything along that route and that's when we talked to this the town and the police and the feeling of doing that work at night. Probably better because then the industry, the commercials are open during the day so it won't impact them during the daytime will be there at nighttime when they're not working

Okay. All right, great. Well appreciated. It sounds like you've answered all of our questions, which is great. I'm sure you will get more from the public. So with that maybe we'll swap teams or add teams?

all right thank you thank you all right welcome

Thank you.

Just two? Okay. All right, so we'll start with introductions.

I'm Steve Estes-Borgoste. I am interim executive director at the MWRA.

Colleen Vizzi, Director of Environmental and Regulatory Affairs for MWA.

and we're here this evening there's been a lot of publicity about our combined sewer overflow plan update um you've probably heard from various folks over the many months. We thought we're offering an opportunity to chat with communities about the plan, provide some clear information from our perspective about what the plan does and doesn't do We are in the middle of a comment period. Colleen, I'll talk a little bit more about that in the Middle and we're looking for folks to provide sort of fact based comments from your perspective to the DEP and EPA so that they make a good decision coming out. It's a very expensive plan, community share is pretty large and the delta between the plan that's on the table, and what some are recommending is very substantial. substantial increment for each of the towns that are paying those SOAR bills.

So we wanted to be careful to make sure that folks are aware of this while there's an opportunity to comment, so that we don't have a situation after the DEP has locked us down and then folks realize the expense and disruption. And there are that's sort of the wrong way to do public policy, best to have him put early.

Yeah we appreciate that and so before you begin because I know you have slides can you just remind us of how long the comment period lasts and then what's the decision-making time line absolutely because i think people will be wondering about that at the outset and I want them to be able to pay attention

So actually we are in the middle of the comment period, so we submitted in April 30th and comments were due September 30th. We actually just got an extension from DEP in response to some requests from the Watershed Associations So October 30th is the deadline for comments. And we are, and I'll share the website for the program There are multiple ways to comment. We can accept, we have a portal that's online. We have email, regular snail mail to the MWA address as well as two public hearings that will be held in September where people could come and give verbal public comment as well.

Okay great, and then so the Deadline for comments is October 30th, but then there's some period when decision-making occurs.

So we will have a final plan that'll be due in spring of 2027 so we will be accepting comments from the public. We will also get comments from DEP and EPA which will inform the final plan that gets submitted. And then when that gets submit to EPA and DEP in the spring, It will simultaneously be going through the MEPA process of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, which will offer another opportunity for public comment. okay great all right thank you of course um and so actually before we get into the formal presentation but certainly please bring the slides up if you can just taking a step back in making sure people are on the same page with what a CSO is, for those that might not be familiar either here or in the public. Many older cities in the U.S. have a single pipe that takes both storm water, so runoff from streets and fields and all that as well as sanitary flows into one pipe

it was put in place to offer kind of a relief mechanism so that there were no backups into homes businesses the flip side of that is in larger storm events, you can have that discharge into the receiving water body which will be and I do want to stress but this is a combination of stormwater and sanitary flows. It is not just straight raw sewage going into the receiveing water body just to make sure So as I talk through this presentation tonight about the combined sewer overflows, use the acronym CSO. Just keep in mind that is a combination of both stormwater as well as sanitary flows Like many decisions in infrastructure and land use planning made decades ago, we are living with the consequences of that. And looking to improve

those situations so the plan that we lay out tonight um that's currently in for public comment does just that it improves water quality reduces the discharges of CSOs So if we can go to the next slide, please. So just starting with a review of what's been accomplished for CSO control to date and where we are today. MWA is for CSOs member communities, so Boston, Chelsea, Cambridge and Somerville have been working to reduce CSOs in the region for decades. Under the Boston Harbor Project, which most of you are probably familiar with, the first long-term control plan was implemented 35 separate projects, CSO control projects highlighted in the figure to the right. A little tough to see at this scale These are all completed by 2015, but the work really hasn't stopped.

MWRA along with the CSO communities continue to implement CSO reduction projects overall investment to date on CSO control is over one and a half billion dollars next slide please So over the past 35 plus years, CSOs have been reduced by approximately 88% from the late 80s and 94% of what is still Discharge of CSO is actually treated prior to discharge. It gets disinfection and then dechlorination before it gets discharged to a water body, so there is a bacteria removal for that. As shown on the bar chart on the right, the volume of CSOs has dramatically decreased resulting in significant improvements to water quality in the Metro Boston area. Next slide please. So the next piece of the kind of CSO story, we've been operating under approved variances since 2004.

The Alewife Brook Park, Mystic River and Charles River water bodies. These variances are issued by DEP and EPA and they allow CSO discharges to continue while the work to address those and reduce the volumes also continues. The most recent variance requires an updated CSO control plan, which is what we're presenting tonight. those that requirement was alternatives to evaluate alternatives up to and including full elimination of CSO discharges to the three water bodies here next slide please So as I mentioned, a lot of work has been done. A significant number of outfalls have been closed. Those are indicated by the orange dot with the X through it. Those were CSOs that had been closed The updated CSO control plan is really focused on the yellow dots on this plan, which are the outfalls that can continue to discharge to the three water bodies.

So again, a lot of progress has been made to date but still some work to be done. So MWA is partnered with the City of Somerville and the City on this initiative, we submitted a joint plan to DEP and EPA. So that was coming from the three partners in one plan. Next slide please So looking at the draft plan, the plan as it currently stands in its draft form. It does account for climate change, more specifically the impact of future increases and precipitation. We know we're going to get higher annual rainfall totals, more intense storms This plan is the first in the nation that we know of to estimate the future rainfall events. Most CSOs plans look to the past when they're estimating their rainfall events. We are looking into the future to mitigate those. This plan eliminates CSOs in the 2050 typical year

which I will note does include a sizable over three inch storm in the 24 hour event. So it does have some larger storms in it and it does reduce the volumes in the larger storm events over that. It also incorporates green stormwater infrastructure, or GSI. Next slide please. So the partners evaluated 39 alternatives across the three water bodies, across different levels of control. And that included a combination of tools at the different outfalls. And I'll note that the evaluation really focused on Balancing the important and sometimes competing considerations like the ones listed on this slide. I'll note though that the resulting water quality benefits from the work in the protection of existing open and recreational space which we already know is really limited in these areas were key considerations through the evaluation so next slide please

So looking at the Alewife Brook. And you can go to the next, thank you. So this is the recommended alternative in the Alewife Brook. There's a total of six outfalls owned by Cambridge, Somerville and MWA that currently discharge to the alewife The draft plan that was submitted includes a combination of CSO control tools at those different outfalls, including storage tanks, storage conduits and sewer separation. I will note as you look at the durations on these plans, these are really kind of high level planning estimates of what it would take to construct these different projects. they're not intended to be timelines from today. There's still a bit of work to do before we get to that point, but I will note because these plans do include a series of smaller projects there is the opportunity that we can get some interim benefits, so as individual projects come online we're seeing some of that reduction in the CSOs while other projects are still in the works. Next slide, please.

So looking at the Mystic River... Thank you. So there's actually only one outfall to the upper Mystic river and it's jointly controlled by Mbebere in the city of Somerville The draft plan here includes a combination of sewer separation and a really large storage tank that would be located in the parking lot of the Assembly Row shopping center for those that are familiar with that location. Next slide, please. And you can actually skip to the alternative. And so this is lastly looking at the Charles River. Again, this is a combination of multiple outfalls The CSO controls here are a combination of sewer separation and storage tanks. Both Mdebere and the City of Cambridge control outfalls discharging to the Charles River

It's probably noting that all of those CSO Outlaw Falls are downstream of the Watertown Dam for a sense of geography.

Thank you, that's right. Next slide. So this is just a high level summary of the three alternatives that we just looked at, total cost estimated to be about $1.3 billion. and I will note before we go to the next slide, as noted earlier with the implementation of these projects as currently proposed in the draft plan We do see that elimination of the CSOs in the 2050 typical year, the reduction in the larger events. And as compared to the projects or looking at kind of the higher levels of control those five-year 25-year storm events this plan offers some additional benefits in the earlier reductions in the CSOs, right? Bringing those smaller projects online. So we're starting to see those kind of interim benefits less disruptive construction impacts including construction noise, less truck traffic as compared to some of the higher alternatives.

and then the reduced loss of the open space. I mentioned this earlier, including parkland both during construction but also for the new permanent infrastructure that's going in which is a high priority trying to preserve some of that open space Next slide, please. So looking at the costs, this slide focuses on just the MWRA share of that $1.3 billion. So the MWA share is right now estimated at $763 million the remainder would be allocated to the City of Cambridge and the City Somerville. note that the costs that we've been talking about going through the presentation are in today's dollars not in future but when we escalate those costs by the two and a half percent annually which is our standard for the next 15 years or so, that $763 million today becomes just over a billion dollars in future spending.

And I'll note, MWRA borrows for almost all of our construction projects and we would do the same for the work associated with this. So we're issuing long-term debt for these construction projects. The total end temporary rate payer costs then, that's 763 turned into 1 billion goes into $2 billion when you incorporate the interest on the long term debt. that $2 billion is what's shown as the green line on this chart. So, that's the draft plan as currently submitted. As you move up in levels of control, the cost of course increase that top level at the 5.6 billion is that 25 year storm event it's the largest event that we looked at so using the same methodology that two billion is five point six billion in the larger storms These costs will be paid for by the MWRA sewer communities, including Needham and including Chelsea, Quincy. All of the 43 MWR sewer communities would partake in these costs

and we recognize that these sewer rate increases will be in addition to other financial pressures that communities I'm sure including Needham are already facing the households that pay these bills. So, the MWA Advisory Board who represents our member communities They created a dashboard that allows individual communities to see what the impacts, what those increased costs are for each of the levels of control that we looked at. the three plans looking out to 2072 which is the tail end of the projected debt service using that dashboard I'll give you guys kind of a bottom line of it tonight or the punchline using the head dashboard Needham's cost for the draft plan that is currently under review is about 28 million dollars over between FY 29 and 2072 so that's for just the plan that's currently on the table to go to the highest level of control, which is that 25-year storm event. That is about $85 million for Needham.

So adults are about $57 million from that zero CSOs in the typical year up to that 25-year storm event.

And do you know, sorry may I ask a couple questions. Do you know in the peak year or the average year what the impact would be to a typical rate payer?

So that one's a little bit harder. And I don't know, Steve, if you...

There's a couple different ways of thinking about that. Each community needs to take their piece and so the advisory boards Hart, shows how much the incremental cost would be to Needham for example in each year. Each community needs to take that and assume how that's going move from their rate structure to their rate payers, including any other costs. It's a fairly substantial sum of money. The hard thing on all these things is you can always find a way make it a tiny little number, but one way or the other, it's a large number. It's a couple billion dollars across the region on top of all of the other projects we're working on. One of the things that we've heard some of the advocates say is well, Deer Island's being paid off. So of course you have a lot of money. Well that would be true if in fact what you built in the late 1990s could go forever without being maintained?

We're in the midst right now of beginning to make major renovation projects on Deer Island. We have a $300 million project looking at the clarifiers, the treatment vessels. There's a series of projects that are between two and three hundred million dollars on Deer Island over the next few years so basically Bills that we paid back to build the Boston Harbor project have been mostly paid off, but we're spending actually pretty much the same amount of money over the next decade or so keeping that facility running, keeping Boston Harbor clean. The same thing is true for facilities upstream of that. And at your level, and each individual community has continued investments in the wastewater pipes to keep them from degrading and bringing more clean water into those pipes, sending it to Dryland and raising your local share of the total cost. So there's a lot of money on the table. Yeah.

Can I ask another question? I guess I see this as a public benefit project like it doesn't benefit only the communities within the MWRA system so I mean I almost see Needham as a much of a beneficiary Worcester, but because they're not part of the MWR system. They don't bear any of the costs.

Yeah, I mean it would be wonderful in a world in which the Commonwealth or the US government felt that this was a high enough priority for them to not just require it but to, the reason we're doing the project is it's required by the state and federal government. But it was a high enough priority for them to not just require that the 43 communities do it but contribute to the cost. Most of Deer Island was paid for by the cities and towns that fund the MWRA sewer district, the same thing is likely to be true here. I would say if you could send us a letter on this plan, you might also want to send a letter to your senators and representatives and suggest that they do that. The state provides us a token payment each year, a few hundred thousand dollars towards our almost $1 billion water and sewer budget.

You've got a couple of more comprehensive plans here on the table. Can you help us understand the qualitative difference between the plan and costs? well will cost Needham 28 million dollars versus the plan that will cost need them 85 million dollars like what are we getting for those

We should do the technical one.

Yes, so those larger Because we have had folks come in to advocate for the larger plan. So I want to understand what are we giving up?

yeah or what are we purchasing if we yep no that's absolutely right so the larger so that 85 million dollar plan is for the upper limit that's a 25-year level of control rate so in a 25 year event you would have no CSO discharges to any of the three water bodies. To do that, we are looking at a large deep tunnel that would collect the flows and kind of carry it so that's where some of that large cost comes from right? building extremely large infrastructure to do this. But I will say even with that, I know because one of the talking points which is the fishable swimmable days in the Charles for example that doesn't change as you go up in the levels of control because until and I may have heard sewer separation is one of the kind of gold standards as well, is until the stormwater Peace is really taken care of and treated.

You aren't going to see any additional days of swimming in the Charles because every storm event, stormwater which has pollutants in it right? It's not clean that goes in every stormevent whereas the CSO is discharged periodically depending on how large a storm was. So I think from taking this step back, what do you get from it? You may see less CSO discharges in the ongoing events, but you aren't going to see that increase to water quality to make that swimable fishable the entire year until you really start treating the stormwater. Balloons that go into it so that was the kind of technical part.

One of the difficulties in being the folks who have to engineer the projects is you're required to actually look in great detail at all of the issues and think of it comprehensively so as I think about it if over the next 30 years the communities in the 35 communities that feed into say the Charles River, all spent many tens of billions of dollars to completely treat the thousands of stormwater outfalls that go into the Charles. at that point, then not having the CSO volume in a larger storm would yield benefit. But until all of those dirty stormwater discharges into the river are cleaned up you're still on every single storm going to have pollution in the river, which results in it not being meeting the fish and the swimmable standards. Now, river does meet swimmables standards on quite a few days in the year

but it doesn't meet at all for any significant rainfall, primarily in most cases because of flows that are coming down upstream of the Watertown Dam which is dirtier upstream. causing a lower portion of the river to not meet those standards. The river doesn't meet standards after rainfall, even on days when the CSOs are all combined sewers, all heading to Deer Island and none of it's making to the river. The river is not swimmable. This is a... I think that it's a long, long-term issue. Nothing we're doing in this plan prohibits us from being able to come back at a point when the river's cleaner because of all the stormwater and deal with this, but it seems like a reasonable effort to reduce the impact that CSOs have on the river even without necessarily making it swimmable.

one of my things I've said at all the meetings is folks are saying it's going to be swimmable they're gonna be in an awkward spot when we build whatever project we build and it's not. It ought to be something more than a bumper sticker as you're doing these kind of investments.

Okay. Bill, any questions?

No, I'm good. Thank you.

All right. Kathy?

Yes, thank you. This has been really helpful and interesting. I'm just looking at the list of all the different communities and I'm wondering how is the cost allocated amongst those 35 communities?

So the MWRA sewer charges are based primarily on flow. It's a complicated formula that includes monthly flow, averaged over three years. Peak month flow averaged to over three year, some factors for population in each community. And all the communities, we sum all the costs and we divide it up by your share of flow, your share population in essence so it's essentially a flow based or impact-based charge each community pays their share based on those numbers.

So in that case, does Needham benefit from having some of our water come from our town wealth?

No. It's wastewater flow. Your water bill is lower, your water charge from us is lower because you buy less water. Yeah but the sewer is based on waste water flow we do meter that flow of course okay We would be happy to, over the next couple months, provide any input your staff needs as they're thinking about trafficking this and getting a letter to you to send off. Any additional information we can provide, we'd be happy Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Certainly and I will just note there are two more slides in there, I don't think they need to be pulled up but you have them in your packet it's just shows the next steps which we've already touched on um and then the projects So yes, the next slide steps. The comment period now is extended to end of October so this is a little bit outdated that was fresh off the presses this afternoon and then project implementation going between the you know say 2027 to the 2050s but noting during that time frame some of the smaller projects will be coming online um and then the next slide if you could is just the has the link to the joint CSO planning site that we share with between the three partners and folks that are interested in this program can look. The draft plan is there past public meetings are all recorded, the slideshows are there So if anybody needs more information, and certainly we're always happy to answer questions.

And that's for any citizen who wants to comment the portal to provide comments electronically is on that site?

All the ways to comment are there.

Okay, well we appreciate your time. This is a very significant project so thank you. Give everyone a little extra time to jot it down.

Madam Chair, can I move the consent agenda?

Please do.

All right, I move

all right um so we'll vote on the consent Kathy will go to you yes bill yes josh yes kevin yes and i vote yes as well thank you Okay, the next item on our agenda tonight is the Local Initiative Program at 193 Garden Street proposal. Gardener's Nest Condominium Project Hello. We're going to welcome Mrs. Tadoldy, George Junta and Mary Trudeau as well. Okay come on up. so it's good to see you all back thank you Thank you. So I will turn it over to you guys to present on the project as it stands currently.

Great, thank you very much. George Shunter, Jr., attorney representing Mr. Todoli and his entity that owns the property is proposing this 40B project and as the board knows because we've been here a couple of times before this is an ongoing process. And one of the aspects of a local initiative project is that it is a cooperative project. It essentially is a form almost of a partnership between the town and the developer, so here we are at the next check-in if you will on this project So we last met and discussed this back in April, so it's been a little bit of time since we last talked about this. Since then there has been a couple things that have taken place that directly address some of the comments and concerns that had been raised. First off probably most important is the survey has been completed of the land survey of the property which we hadn't had before. We only had sort of preliminary plans and so on but

Now the survey has actually been done, so we now know the exact dimensions of the property. The boundaries have been fixed and most importantly, the topography has been surveyed. So we now have the typography of the properties set. And with that, I'll just mention basically it's roughly what we thought that the property is relatively flat for about three quarters of the way back-ish. And then there's a slope basically from there. Now, in addition there was a wetlands delineation that was completed so Mary Trudeau who's here with us this evening went out and flagged the wetlands. The surveyor went and located where those flags were and that's on one of the plans that I think you have in your packets so we now know with a reasonable degree of certainty where the wetlands line is and that therefore informs us where the buffer zone is uh the two buffer zones the 50 foot and 100 foot We also have advanced our design. So the design is still not final, it's still a bit preliminary

but it's been advanced and is still in keeping with what you have seen previously um but basically the location of the houses we're still proposing 10 units in five Duplexes, but the exact location has changed a bit. The shape has changed abit if you remember one of the earlier versions There were these little sort of cutouts where the garages were, and those have now been disposed with. And it's just a flat kind of garage face instead of having cars have to come in and negotiate these little cutout areas. we've had discussions with the fire department and they have given us feedback that they're looking for a 16 to 18 foot clear space to be able to get in with their vehicles and equipment. And so we've taken that into account when we when we located the houses and then we basically just tweak the design a little bit to sort of take into account the information that we now have.

uh we still they're still sprinklers uh there's still oh and most recently on the fire department uh they have advised us that they would like to see the building sprinkled and we're perfectly fine with that and so that's something that will be incorporating it's not in any of your materials yet because we just that was just learned that recently so we'll incorporate that in and that will be a part going forward So as I indicated the project remains ten total units in five duplexes and while it is not a Kasten, Stone Standard. It has generally been the rule of thumb for the Board of Appeals when they evaluate 40B projects as well as in a general zoning context that you look for roughly 16 units per acre as your sort of target maximum density. If you do the math based on that, then you wind up with this site would support roughly 12 units. and we are at 10 units below that. So, we still think this is an appropriate size development based on that.

As I said it's not a cast in stone thing but it has been a standard that has been used to evaluate and I think pretty much every 40B that has gone through the Board of Appeals, and certainly a lot of other projects that have come through the town as well. 30% of the units will be affordable. This is something we have now defined and that is in excess of the 25% that is required by Chapter 40B, so we're going over and above on that. Now, with the wetlands having been delineated as I said we now know where the 50-foot and 100 foot buffer is for any board members that aren't aware of the way the Wetlands Bylaw works in the way The Wetland Protection Act works. generally speaking towns have discretion over how much they want to regulate and condition work that's done within a hundred feet of a wetlands some towns are sort of lenient and they let you basically go right up to the line, and other towns are more strict. Needham is on the stricter side of the scale.

Generally speaking, they certainly don't want you touching anything within the first 25 feet. They really don't like anything in the first 50 feet But then once you get further out, basically sort of 70-75 feet plus, you can do certain work but you have to go through a process to get an order of conditions from them. and so that is something we do anticipate that we will need to do. And we're comfortable doing that, and working within the ordinary wetlands program. So nothing, so we don't expect anything sort of beyond the scope of what any other project would necessarily require. But we will be going into the buffer zone a bit up to about 70 feet from the Wellands. So there's about 30 feet of the buffer we'll be doing some work in. and we now know that because of the wetlands elimination survey. We also now know based on the information from the fire department that they want 16 to 18 feet clear. We've located the buildings so that the separation between the wall of the building and

property line generally is at least 18 feet, but it's really functionally 20 feet. So we've got adequate space there so we now know that previously we didn't have a set number on that At 20 feet, it is well in excess of the 14-foot minimum side yard setback that applies in the district.

So it says 18 feet here? Are you saying that that's changed to 20?

So it's 18 feet at certain points but like at the garage portions, it's 20 feet. uh with that and and with the survey having been complete although we don't have a finished drainage design that's still a bit off we do now have a good idea of the topography and the likely grading of the site so we are confident and we don't expect needing any waivers or any extraordinary relief when it comes to stormwater control. We think that we'll be able to manage that on site. we can't say that for absolute thousand percent certain just yet because we do have to do some test pits on the site but as the board is aware I think Mr. Toley did do the project next door which was are substantially similar, so he has some working knowledge of what the underground conditions likely will be based on that. And if they do turn out to be what we expect then we should be able to meet and comply with the applicable stormwater bylaw

not have to get any special relief on that front and then we also now that the survey's been done and we know the grades and the slope and we have our sort of first preliminary projected grading done We know that we likely, we won't need to bring any fill to the site. And in fact, you probably have to remove some material from the site and take it off because there's probably going to be too much there All right. Now that we've got all this done, we also have a better idea of what sort of waivers we might need and this was one of the questions that the board had for us last time. and now that we've gone through this, we know we can cite the buildings to comply with setback requirements. We know they will comply with a number of things but there are a few waivers that we definitely will need three of the waivers are sort of part and parcel with the nature of a project like this. This is just what you get when you have a multi-unit, dense or somewhat dense project so first off

Well, we are going to be needing a waiver on use because this is a single family residential zoning district. So obviously will need a waiver with respect to use in connection with that we'll also need a waivers for percentage of lot coverage because in the SRB district you're limited to only 25 and we are over that. We'll also, need a waiver from floor area ratio and both of those sort of are tied part in parcel with the nature because obviously you're doing multiple units, multiple buildings. You're going to be over the single family threshold and then we expect, we think that there's a reasonable possibility that we might need a waiver on height. We don't know that for sure yet because we're still working with the design on the buildings and also on the final, sort of the fine points of the grading. And the way height is calculated in the bylaw you know it's based on there's a couple different ways you can do it We need to do final calculations based on the final design of the houses to know whether we're above the height or not.

If we are above, we don't think we're going to be above by a huge amount but we may need a waiver on the height. We just don't know yet So I'm putting that out there just so if we do need it, you can't say we didn't tell you. But other than those waivers, we don't expect to need any other zoning related waivers. all right so unlike other projects that need a laundry list uh so chestnut street comes to mind uh that needed quite a few zoning waivers we really won't need a lot and in fact really three of the four waivers really an essential part of the project itself and you would need almost regardless of size or scope if you're doing any sort of a project like this, you'd need those waivers. then we technically will also need waivers for parking design each unit is proposed to have a two-car garage so there's adequate parking spaces but the way the parking design guidelines work

there's certain things that like the spaces are supposed to be configured in a certain way and having them inside a garage they automatically don't comply with certain aspects so we will need a waiver from that but i will point out that an ordinary project can ask for a waiver under the zoning bylaw anyways. So needing a waiver into that is not an unusual condition, many commercial projects actually request and receive waivers for design because the design requirements are specific. For example, one of them is you're supposed to illuminate all of your parking areas a one foot candle per inch and invariably many parking areas if you do that, they're gonna be actually too bright or you're going to have lights where you don't want them. And so that's a typical waiver that is often given in connection with projects. and then finally a project of this size would typically require major projects site plan review with the planning board. And so that's a waiver that we would need more of a procedural waiver than an actual substantive zoning waiver.

So now we've identified sort of our base waivers. We've fine-tuned our project a bit, we know what the property is, we knew the grading, know the wetlands and so on. So now, we're at the point where teeing up to do more complete drainage design and getting into that, and fine tuning our design of the houses. So this is a very good time to meet with the board and ask for your continued input. We know that this is a process, and it will continue to go on. Michael has had meetings with the neighbors. He just hit another one recently, and I expect we'll have several more as we go forward but we do want to make sure to touch base with the board because as I indicated at the outset, this is a cooperative joint kind of project and if the board is inclined to support us on this it's sort I mean, it has to be kind of a two-way street and we have to be giving the project that the board wants on behalf of the town. So we would love to hear your input and any questions that you might have at this point.

Excellent. We're just going to go down the line here because I'm sure that everyone has things to say. Kevin, do you want to get us started?

Sure, okay garages are they underneath? Yes. Okay so as I look at it how long are these dry what's that the driveways look short What's the pitch on them to go underneath?

Michael, do you want to answer that? I'm not clear on your question.

Okay. So as I'm looking at this axis road coming in either side then there's a proposed driveway that looks I don't have a measurement on the length of it

Are we talking about from front street to back of property or?

No, from side to side. So you got to turn into your garage. You have a proposed driveway that looks like maybe it's five feet.

The

and it goes down, so what's your pitch to clear a garage door?

So the garage floor is about four feet below the street.

Okay.

So it's not...

So the rise over run is what?

but is that below? So he's asking the driveway that comes down the side and then the garage that comes off of that, the difference between the driveway on the side in the garage.

That's fairly level. It'll be pitched enough to force our water to go to our collection bases. but it's insignificant.

So, it's not a full garage under?

It isn't a garage under but so what we're proposing is going down four feet with the garage floor from the street and then we'll be four feet above that gives us our full eight feet. underneath. From the grading and maybe it's time to show I don't know if this will help any working at this our grading here, floors at 273. I'm sorry, first floor is 273. 264 we're 264 here and the street is at 267

above grade.

I'm sorry? What is that number? Three feet difference, variation of three feet from the street so it's a very reasonable Pitch as it grades down and as it comes down, it will always be pitched away from the garage floor. So we'll maintain our swale on on the road itself or on this, on the driveway itself and push it to our collection basins that we'll have.

Right but now for a motorist going into their drive into the garage they're going to take a hard turn, right turn suppose. What's the rise over run on that driveway?

At the driveway level, it's going to be fairly... We'll drop quickly from the street down to our 264. So that's fairly flat.

So then going into the garage, so basically from the street it drops down and then it's essentially at the garage level. So you're envisioning like a drop and then a drop?

No, road drop. I'm wondering what's her angle? because this seems really tight.

To answer your question, it's fairly level through. It will be pitched so we can control the water But it'll be fairly pitched. It'll be very easy to maneuver. You have much tighter spaces around town.

Okay. Speaking of water, so we're collecting an inch and a half off the roof and all hardscapes, right? Correct. So it'll be treated as well off the hardscape right okay so in the bylaw it's three before each SCM that you have and I'm counting I'm just looking at them in precise map okay the plant is 36 SCM chambers right that you have on here

Again, we haven't done our test pits but I know this gravel and it's probably a one minute park. And if that means anything to you the water just basically goes through... It drops a foot in a minute. Okay. And our water table, when I dug next door we dug down 12 feet and saw no water and no staining either so I'm very confident in what what their soil conditions are, as well as our water level. And we can contain whatever water volume we need to pick up the roof and any of the hardscape.

The design right now is 36 SEM's, right?

on this. That's an estimate. Okay. But there'll be calculations that we'll have to prove out to prove exactly what we have to do there.

All right, so then they'll be three two-inch caliper trees per chamber, correct? As by the bylaw. So those you will have by this, you're gonna have 108 saplings on this property. That might be a lot.

I can tell you, we did a double lot in Wellesley and we probably put that many on less than a half or about a half an acre.

Okay okay um but I think you're gonna have to that'll be the standard

There are also alternatives to that if it gets too crowded. We can contribute to funds.

Let's check that out, I'm not sure. Okay.

Anything else Kevin?

Well actually I gotta say ultimately if you want my editorializing, I mean I'm interested in that part. This just feels too dense it feels like five feet between buildings is too dense As I look at this now, I'm really not in favor of this. If you took out the I don't care what you do, but you build what you think you can sell. But I would remove one of the buildings and spread the other ones out to make something a bit more breathable. But I think it just feels for Location for the neighborhood, it feels too tight. It's just too dense. And then you don't have to play as many saplings because your algebra will change. But that's my sense. I think it just feels too tight.

Thank you I guess I've said before, I'm not a fan of the 4EB process. We have zoning and that's how I'd prefer to do things. If we do end up using this process, I would really first want to get comments from town departments so that we have them. And I know you've spoken with the fire department. We haven't seen those comments or comes from other departments. So that would be something important to me because there are a lot of technical aspects that I'm not an expert in and I can't evaluate. I mean, I do look at this map and I see that nearly the entire back building is within 100 foot wetland area. I don't know how to evaluate that, but I know that is something the Conservation Commission would flag. The other thing that is concerning is the waiving of site plan review, because that is the mechanism for the town to protect its interests.

I mean we talk about MBTA zoning that we just put in place, even that has site plan review. So I would not be in favor of a project that seeks a waiver of all site plan reviews.

Can I just address that one point, just so the process is clear? And I know not all of the board members have followed a IV-DB through all the way through. it's almost a technical waiver because even though we ask for the waiver of major projects site plan review what ends up happening, we file with the board of appeals. Board of Appeals conducts their full hearing and as a part of that, the planning board issues their opinion. And typically, especially on a project like this, we appear before the planning board and we have a whole presentation with them essentially in substance almost exactly like what we would do with a major project site plan process, except we don't submit a site plan application to the planning board. They review it and they make their recommendation to the Board of Appeals and then Board of appeals makes the decision so it doesn't technically go through site plan review but as a matter of practice, it does in all practicality. It goes through the planning board and it goes through engineering, goes through all the departments so they comment and they review it

So the concern that you're talking about, yeah, that gets addressed in the process. It's just in 40Bs it gets addressed a little bit differently than it would in your customary commercial project rather than having to go to three or four or five different boards you go to the ZBA and the zba is sort of the collecting point for everybody else

I guess maybe this goes to Kevin's point, the reason why it triggers the major project site plan is because of its mass. Because of its scale and I guess an easy way to avoid it without asking for a waiver would be to reduce the scale. The reason why we have that trigger is because large projects demand more scrutiny

I don't disagree on that point, but essentially anything other than a single or well. basically certainly four units or above would likely trigger major project site plan review here because the threshold is low enough. It's 10,000 square feet of area and so basically These units are roughly 22-2300 square feet per unit. Four units, you're almost there. Probably any development that would be in keeping with the size of the site and, for example, in keeping what the project that was done next door is going to trigger major projects like Plan Rio just because of the size. So I'm not sure that scaling it back like you'd have to scale it back to like a duplex or single, maybe three which is kind of almost the opposite of what the concept is here.

If I could also have Mary maybe discuss a little bit with the wetlands.

Yeah, good evening. As George had noted, I had gone out and done the wetlands delineation which is an evaluation that looks at both soils, hydrology, and wetlands vegetation. Wetland Area is located on an adjacent property, but that doesn't matter under the Wetlands Protection Act because it takes a holistic view of it. In Needham, the Conservation Commission typically has a very strict zero to 25 foot no disturb zone. And that's just... Lankett across most projects that are in front of the Conservation Commission. Because this project has A naturally wooded, albeit filled with invasives and non-native species slope. I believe that the Conservation Commission will impose a 50 foot no disturb zone on this property.

So in light of that, Mike has pulled his unit back to about 70 feet from the edge of wetland. As you may be aware, the buffer zone is a regulated area. It's not a resource area like the bordering vegetated wetlands down at the bottom of the hill. Those are one of the most highly protected resources in Massachusetts Buffer Zone is regulated and it is protected in the sense that it is protective of the downgradient wetlands. So, it doesn't have a strict set of performance standards because it's supposed to be unique and it looks at what's happening here. The plan that we have proposed on this site plan, I think is approvable by the Needham Conservation Commission under both the Local By-law and the State Wetlands Protection Act wouldn't necessarily need any waivers at all from their traditional look-see at a project like this.

We will have to meet stormwater management under the MassDEP regulations because we're more than four units. which is an extra level of protection above what your local bylaw has, that it looks at several different interests than towns typically do. But it makes for a fairly rigorous Review by your local conservation commission. My guess is that they probably would go out for a third party review, depending who was on their Commission right now in terms of engineering expertise you know so that you would be getting part of that site plan review from the commission as well um in their permitting process

No, thank you for that. I respect your expertise. I think I would want to also ask for the expertise of our Director of Conservation.

Oh absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I'm a hired gun. You know, you can talk. All right. Bill?

As you may know, we're getting a lot of comments on this. And some of the things that we've just heard recently is the neighbors and people nearby Concerned about you're going to have to build some retaining walls. How are we going to do that? How's that going to be done so it'll look good, it won't... and Fringe on the properties next door. And the other talk about the 132 trees, that all goes into screening you know how's the screening going to be done because you know the driveways are on this side and that your other previous project which is great and has been good for a long time how are we going to be able to screen some from that with some of the concerns that I see

So we would not require a retaining wall above four feet under any circumstances anywhere. We can always slope from the other property. I also had some comments One of the neighbors that maybe we share some space in between and do some landscaping in between which we'd be more than happy to do. I'm sorry.

The screening that you said should share that space.

We have most of these comments that we're hearing now are the same comments we heard when we did Brown Whitney 24, 22 years ago. and after it was done everybody thought it was beautiful change is always hard for people to visualize and it seems impactful. These buildings are only a few feet higher than Brown-Whitney Buildings, and in volume they were on the first and second floor are probably less than 15% difference. Times have changed, demands of change people want different things We can't just build something and hope somebody's going to want it. We have to listen to the marketplace, and we've all seen that the changes that have come in the size of construction that's happened over the years We have not led that charge on bigger properties.

If you look at most of the things we build, we build under size and we get punished a little bit for it financially but that's what we try to do. We care about the town, we like the town. We want to drive by something and be happy that we built it My family has been in this town for a very long time. And if you drive around and look at the different properties that we've built over the years, there's well over 100. The ones that are well taken care of, which is most of them. Most people appreciate it. We won an award for building, for doing Brown Whitney. and a lot of the neighbors that opposed us ended up coming up to me later and apologizing for all what they put us through. We want to work with the neighbors and we want to Work with the board.

Our hope was in the reason we came In with the five buildings as we were trying To get that extra affordable unit for and some family that would benefit for it. And we're in a position where if the board wants that extra room, we're willing to do that. If they have not, we are willing to listen to the concerns that, as well with the neighbors on how to go forward with this.

are you all set?

I don't think, of course we want affordable housing for everyone but I think the density is more important than the affordable housing

And we're here asking for that feedback, too.

That's just my personal opinion.

Sure. Kathy?

Yes, actually on the point of the affordable units. I'm interested in the pricing so the market rate units targeted at 1.75 million and the affordable at 7 to 800 thousand does that track to a percentage of median income or how does that affordable number come about it's built around the median income of Needham it's designed and

the regulation determines what that, we don't determine the price. We have to fit into whatever the town and so I put a range in there only because I did some quick math but that's going to have to be approved by the powers to be on that.

Anything else, Kathy?

No, I'm all set.

OK. Well for myself, I would say my concern is not density. I think that density in particular places is not only okay, it's good for the town and specifically good in this kind of configuration where you have sort of a central grassy area. My concern is about the size of the buildings. I think that there's These houses are quite large. And I do think that they are a bit unrealistic for the space, I guess my question is really that a lip profit is limited by state statute to 20 percent of the development cost so It seems to me, and I'm not a real estate mogul. But I will say that if you are basing

all of the math on your development costs, and it seems as though it might be worth your while to consider reducing the size of the buildings. I think personally that would bring you into for some of the folks who would like to downsize as well as new families. I note that the previous Brown-Whitney development, those buildings are much smaller and we received letters from families that moved into those houses and remain in those houses, and were able to comfortably raise families. I do understand that modern living perhaps has some amenities we've all become used to but I think These do seem to be quite large, given that your profit is hinging on your development costs. I do wonder if your development costs were reduced, that might make it easier for you.

I think it also might make a little easier to gain this board's approval and to gain the approval of the neighbors because many of the letters that we received actually indicated support for the concept, but a feeling that the mass of the buildings was just too much. I mean, I hear you about the height I think that height is an issue across town and that it doesn't make sense to necessarily replicate. You know, we have a a height uh a warrant about amending our heights across town coming to our special town meeting in October so I guess um I would say that generally speaking, I would be supportive of this project. But I would like to see the size more in line with what the rest of the street is, you know, the development that you've already done next door and the single family residences.

I mean, that would allow you a good deal more spot for all your trees, for example. Um... so I will also say that i do have confidence in the ZBA to run the process appropriately, to manage all the oversight that is required and is mandated by state law. So that to me is not an issue I think for me the issue is just the size but again um the density i think is as demonstrated by the development next door not really the issue it's really the mass So does that give you the kind of clarity that you need across the board?

If I can talk a little bit about, now we're staying under, anticipate there's a potential of height adjustments coming. We're staying under that. with these buildings. So just so you know, we did take that into consideration. Again, we're only about 2200 square feet on two floors. The Brown Whitney doesn't have a third floor Dormers, there were a lot of zoning issues that came up that have evolved since then. And one of the things we were trying to do here was have a first floor bedroom and that takes up space in footprint so it becomes problematic in trying to shrink it too much but we will take a look at I'm not saying that we won't just giving you an explanation of why we did what we did

I mean, I wonder if you could make that a flexible floor plan so an older downsizing couple could use it as bedroom and family could use that as an office for example. It seems like there's ways to

but that space itself in order to include that on a first floor and still have a family room that works for most people, we need that extra space. take a look at our design. We will do that. but we're just trying to accommodate those things. And we also saved a space for somebody that might want an elevator coming up from the basement to that first floor level so if somebody wanted they could with the garage under knowing that a lot of the people are going to buy these have a potential being retirees don't want to walk those stairs or bring groceries up those stairs.

Sure, but I mean generally I think the location is terrific for this kind of development and I hope that you'll find a way to make it just a little bit more palatable.

Thank you.

Thanks very much for coming in.

Thank you all.

No, I'm sticking to the chair too. Okay, now that it's 7 20 we'll move on to the proposed installation of the The Accidental Artist, a public mural at 1299 Highland Avenue. And subbing in for Abby Bernstein who couldn't be here tonight will be our Deputy Town Manager and our Director of Economic Development. Welcome! Thank you.

So as you mentioned, Abby couldn't be here tonight. She is the chair of the Needham Council for Arts and Culture due to a family emergency so I just want to be clear at the outset that I'm very much here relaying Abby's sentiments in the work of the NCAC John is our current liaison to the council but I had the privilege of serving as the liaison last fall and into early winter which overlapped with some of the formative steps of this project so I bore witness to the tremendous amount of thought Time, care and effort that Abby and the council put into getting this right. We didn't want Abby's absence to delay the board's presentation tonight. The artist is prepared to begin almost immediately once the remaining accounting and administrative documents are wrapped up so we wanted to keep the project moving. you have Abby's very detailed report in your packet which walks through the artwork, its symbolism, the site community feedback and the evolution of the design so if you're looking for the artistic interpretation I will direct you there because I am decidedly not the artist in the room

The report does a wonderful job explaining the many Needham references incorporated into the final design, which I think John has larger versions for you. and the ways that the design evolved in response to the tremendous community feedback. What I do want to emphasize tonight is because I think that it is an important part of this project. It was new territory for the NCAC, it's their first public-private partnership in public art with the town and the Grossman Company sharing both the investment in the project and the participation in the process So that meant the NCAC was trying to apply a traditional municipal call for artists framework to something that frankly wasn't a traditional art project. So there were challenges along the way after the initial call for artists and first round of public input, it became clear that the process needed to evolve. So rather than simply pushing forward, the NCAC sought guidance from the town and from the Massachusetts Cultural Council

and they pivoted the process was reopened all three original finalists artists were compensated for the additional work in a second round of design development and public input was undertaken I think that it's worth emphasizing that when the original process didn't quite fit the realities of this new partnership, the council adjusted. They worked hard to ensure the artists were treated equitably. The property owner had an appropriate voice as a true partner and importantly that the community's voice was heard and reflected in the ultimate design. It went through several iterations. The second survey alone generated more than 50 pages of written public feedback. The result before you tonight is really the product of that iterative process. The NCAC sees this as a pilot and hopefully a starting point. They learned a tremendous amount about how to navigate a public-private partnership like this and they hope those lessons can provide a framework for similar projects in the future as budgets and opportunities allow. And with that I'm happy to answer the questions that are within my non-artist lane. All right, well colleagues?

who owns that building again? Grossman companies and so what if they sell it tomorrow is there anything in it that says you have to keep the mural for a while or anything there's not any agreement between the three parties no That's a bummer.

I think that's the same for other murals in town too, right?

Well if they're on public property.

No, if they are on private property then yeah.

So that would be like the side of it. This side of the building with the alley. There, yes. Thank you. Cathy, any comments?

I think it's cool. I'm excited that it's getting done.

Great, Josh?

You know, it's interesting reading the stuff. I understand the Grossman Company didn't want a call for them. and this is kind of interesting to see the two, someone tried to marry them together. And it kinda works. I get that they didn't want the brick and it creates a weird optical effect But the color punches are kind of like, this is what you can do with color. And the monochromatic has sort of an interesting effect too.

and the orange is from like their logo color too so it makes it all work nicely that's pretty good all right so it's an interesting solution

Well, I guess I'd just like to say thank you to all of the folks involved. you and you in your roles with the committee, obviously. And the artists but I guess I want to just especially, say thank you to the property owner. I think it's really fantastic. I feel a great deal of appreciation to our private property owners who acknowledge and embrace their role in bringing art into our public spaces, and acknowledging that their property is part of the town's public space so their support of the arts is part of what makes this town and towns like it awesome. So I just want to acknowledge that without the side of the building, we wouldn't be able to do this so thank you to everyone involved.

I could just add one thing too. It's great that it's right next to that math place because there are so many kids that are going to be going You know, you drive by in your car and you see it but they're gonna be walking. They gotta be there. It's great that it's right there for them.

And they're going to have a little scavenger hunt type thing that they can find the different images. That's awesome.

Yeah.

excellent thank you yay thank you great project all right so next up we're gonna

joined by Amy Haleson, our Director of Communications and Community Engagement to talk about a whole bunch of stuff. So, fill us in.

Hi, nice to see you. Nice to be here. Thank you for having me. Okay, so we are going to start out talking about the National Community Survey. Miles, are you running the slide deck?

I am.

Okay, thank you. So the National Community Survey, it's basically a report about the livability of Needham. So we've done this every two years since 2008 with the exception of 2020 because of the pandemic, we skipped that year. So a livable community is basically a place that's not just simply habitable, but it's desirable. It's a place where you where you want to live. And so the questions that were in the National Community Survey um this has really been perfected they've been doing this for so long and there are benchmarks so Needham is compared to and 400 other communities nationwide that also participate in the National Community Survey. In addition, there are local benchmarks. There are six Massachusetts communities

Dunn, the NCS. And so as we walk through the results and it's a pretty dense report I've already uploaded it to the town's website so if you go under our government and under publications reports, it's already there so you can walk through. And I'm just going to touch the highlights because otherwise I'd be here for two hours and I know you have a long agenda. So without further ado, we'll sort of walk through the key pieces of this. So the study methods so 3,000 Needham residents were invited to participate and they are randomly chosen and so people received a postcard in the mail inviting them to participate, and they had a special URL that they logged on to. So that was open so that those were targeted for two weeks and then after two weeks the rest of the community was invited to participate. out of the 3,000 residents 562 responded to the survey.

And there's a margin of error 4.1% and the response rate was about 20%. So it's a little bit lower than it was in 2024 and then it's also important to note that the survey results were weighted so the demographic profile is more indicative of Needham. So what that means is If we got a glut of responses from a certain age population, what they would do is they take the demographics of Needham and sort of adjust them so that's more representative of the demographics in town. As I already mentioned, 400 communities and six Massachusetts communities. So let's jump right into the results. The overall highlights. Good news is 97% of those responded say Needham is excellent or good place to live. 93% rate the overall quality as excellent or

81% rate the quality of town services provided is excellent or good. And we'll get into how that compares to previous years in the next couple of slides. But there's a few things that jump out at first. Safety, the majority of residents perceive Needham as a very safe place to live and not to jump too far ahead and sort of take away the exciting announcement is that The stormwater management, all of that hard work that you all put into stormwater Management 12% increase in satisfaction and storm water management. So Yay. And I'm also excited to share that with public engagement, there was an increase from 2024 in people attending or watching public meetings contacting elected officials for the town So overall from those four categories, there was a 23% increase in people's engagement with the town which I think is awesome.

You know the fact that folks know how to reach out to the town or to elected officials, how to share their opinions and make their voices heard is really tremendous. So inclusivity continues to be both a strength and an opportunity for continued growth. Housing affordability continues to and Governance. Confidence in government, local federal has declined but this is a national trend so it's not specific to Needham but it certainly something we of course want to keep an eye on Okay, so we're going to go to the next slide. I'm just gonna highlight a few of these things here under quality of life as we discussed as a place to live overall quality of Life those ranked very high So what these numbers mean is when you see the percent positive, it's that 97% of the respondents said that Needham was an excellent good place to live.

But what the national percentile means is that we ranked higher than 92% of the 400 communities Okay, so that means we're in the top 8%, which is pretty tremendous. and then you'll see the changes from 2024 because even though it's interesting to compare ourselves to these 400 other communities, what we're really wanting to do is compare ourselves two years ago How are we measuring up to what we did back in 2024? So versus the local benchmark, you can also see how our results were. And all of these results are similar to the local benchmarks but higher in areas of overall image or reputation and its quality of life. Next slide, please. Public safety. Needham ranked much higher than the national benchmark.

So we ranked higher than 98% of the communities, which is pretty terrific. And also versus the local benchmark, we also ranked higher Crime Prevention also much higher and that actually increased 4% from just two years ago. So all of the great work that the Needham Police Department is doing is certainly being noticed and then fire prevention and education is also higher than it was a couple of years ago as well as emergency preparedness so that's pretty interesting to note. Okay, we're going to go to the next one for governance. I was particularly excited about public information services. The change from 2024 was an increase of 7%. and so we're also higher the national benchmark similar to local but that's certainly trending in the right direction. So, that was great to see

overall quality services by the town that did go down a little bit four percent lower than it was in 2024 The overall direction Needham is taking was also lower than it was in 2024 by 9%. And generally acting in the best interest of community, also decreased by 10%. Jumping down towards the bottom, contacting the town for help or information. Again an increase of 8% which is which is really nice to see.

Does that mean whether the respondent had ever contacted the town?

It didn't ask if it was the first time. It just means did you contact, have you contacted the town to get more information or asked questions? So that was an increase of 8% from 2024. And then the overall quality of services from the federal government, you can see a huge drop. It's 27% in 2026 and it's that's trending nationally. So again, while we want to I think keep an eye on the results here, acting in the best interest of the community and How folks feel about local government, that's also a nationwide trend. something to keep an eye on but just so that you know it's in context of that compared to other communities they're experiencing the same.

That's a 30% drop? Correct, yes

All right. So we're going to jump to the economy, the overall economic health of Needham. It's higher than the national benchmark. It did change a little bit from 2024 but also versus the local benchmark it's higher. Needham is a place to work that increased by six percent and it's higher than the national benchmark similar to local. Cost of living, that was the concern about affordability of Needham. It continues to resonate in all surveys that we've done in recent years. And then health and wellness continues to rank very high versus the national benchmark, very high scores on those Next slide, please. Under mobility

I just focused on a handful as i mentioned this survey is very dense and you can see every single one of the questions that was asked in this survey on the report that is uploaded to the town's website Interestingly, where we compare to local the other six local communities, the ease of parking Ease of travel by bicycle and walking all ranked higher than the six communities in Massachusetts. Stormwater Management, again 12% increase. Kevin is obviously very excited about that which he should be. That's terrific.

And that's perception. I mean, in reality we passed a bylaw but the actual act of improving stormwater comes a little later.

But they know you're working on it.

They know we're working exactly, yeah.

The other thing the overall quality of utility infrastructure ranks higher than national benchmark as well and our drinking water ranked higher than the other six local communities. Next slide, please. So we go to education arts and culture Not surprisingly, this has trended this way for the last several years. In fact, if I went back to 2008, I'm sure it would probably show very similar results but the quality of K-12 education is much higher than the national benchmark and higher than these six other Massachusetts communities. Community Support for the Arts, it's also 68%. So we didn't have a change from two years ago.

public library services again 97% which is terrific everybody loves the library versus the national benchmark is also higher next slide please okay so community connection um people generally feel a very good you know very close sense of community Needham is a place to raise children 95 percent that's Pretty extraordinary. I would say a change in 2% really isn't significant, so it's not anything to be concerned about. The neighborliness of residents in Needham Higher than the national benchmark, and it's trended very similar numbers in the last several surveys. And then opportunities to participate in community matters also higher

then the national benchmark. Openness and acceptance of community towards people with diverse backgrounds is also that increased as well seven percent and then this also, this last one here got me you know very excited that residents campaigned or advocate for a local issue cause or candidate. That increased by nine percent so I think we're seeing it trending in the right direction that people are feeling informed and are feeling that they have an opportunity to be involved. Okay, custom questions. So the National Community Survey allows us to ask four custom questions at the end of the survey so there's because they're custom to us we can't compare them to any other community

But it was interesting that the town's website actually is the largest source of information for folks to find out about what's going on with a newsletter coming in behind it at just under 50%. and then the alerts, the alert Needham that's sort of the reverse 911. And the notify me texts and emails where folks can go to the website to sign up for notifications on anything from a public meeting to the water restrictions or if their building is closed because of snowstorm, those types of things. can continue to push that because I think those are really effective ways to continue to communicate with folks.

I feel like this may be showing the bias of the sample a little bit, so I mean, all the percentages add up to more than 100. So people are using more than one system in town and I wonder if that's how they learned about the survey to get involved? I think sampling people who didn't, I mean this is hard. People who didn t take the survey necessarily are probably less plugged in to the news channels and so didn't know to take the survey in the first place.

What was mailed to their house, though?

Well, yeah, 3,000... So what you're looking at actually are These results are from the 3,000 postcards that were mailed. Okay.

That's good then. Thank you.

and then the barriers, the residents currently perceived to living in Needham age being you know that the top one at only 31%. And you can see the rest there. So that's a lot of information to share. Again, I picked sort of the highlights because there is a lot data Does anybody have any questions?

Actually, just a comment. First of all thank you very much this is great about the stormwater The real credit goes to DPW. They've done so many projects to work on this and address issues project by project and talk to neighborhoods. So they're the ones who push those numbers up. Good for them.

Great. Anything else, anyone? You're hanging out. We have more stuff to cover. Yes, we do. I'm not done.

I have a question or comment. I guess one of the worst marks out here actually, I think directly reflects on the select board which is the governance the overall direction that Needham is taking and generally even worse than that I guess in my mind they're generally acting at the best interest of the community, that we lost ground. And then our numbers are Lower here than in other places. Do we have any ideas? Were there, do people write me anything or just check a box? Do you have any idea what this is about?

So there's no open response Ability in this particular survey. So it was basically multiple choice. So to expand upon that, all I can comment is that again, this is trending not only locally, but nationally. There is a decline in trust and government across the board

I guess putting the national aside for a moment, if we look at the six peer communities in Massachusetts did they go down on these measures?

They did. They rank similar to where we did.

But were they lower last survey as well?

that I can look into. I don't have that data in front of me, but I could check on that for you.

Thank you.

Anything else Kathy? No, that was it. Okay moving along so as everybody knows the new town seal was adopted by Town Meeting in May of 2026 and the new town seal is being rolled out. Town manager and I met with the town clerk to discuss and review what constitutes an official document because the town seal should only be used on official town documents whereas the new town logo is going to be used on other things you know like vehicles and trash cans and clothing that sort of thing so With the new town seal, one of the things that does go on is our town flag. And the town flag as you may all know is actually hung there's 351

from each municipality in the hall of flags at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. We are going to need to replace the flag, which I actually have here to show you. But there's two different versions of it and so Katie and I thought it would be a nice exercise to go through to show you what the flags look like and then you can decide which one. But I'm in touch with Representative Tarski's office to see how we might be able to schedule some type of ceremonial flag raising of sorts to replace because you know in our lifetime this will probably be the only time the flag is replaced. So there are two different versions. There is the version on a white background, this is a completely white version

so that's what that looks like okay and then Kerr Selectman Fiennes request. We put it on a navy background and I'll add that Kevin chaired the town branding, Needham Branding and Town Seal Committee. And it was many, many months worth of conversations about the town seal to bring us to this point. And so now we have two options here for the flag to be raised at the statehouse.

Kevin, why did you choose blue?

I think there's a joke somewhere that a lot of them just do the bed sheet, like so many flags. It's just another bedsheet with a seal on it.

So it was like let's try blue. I go to Hall of Flags every year for an event and it's very hard when there are 351 flags up there to find the flag because they're all white. so it would be helpful I think to be a blue. I mean they have a little interactive thing where you can press a button and say look the third row up, the twelfth leg down but even with that when there's so many white that I'm down with blue.

yeah yeah i think blue's got my vote too it seems like it's got more gravitas i don't you can kind of see through the white a little bit I don't dig it. This is also just more our colors, blue and yellow, gold. That's good. You agree? Yeah. All right, well. Just fix a typo. Kathy, do you have a... Oh, we lost Kathy.

No bed sheet. Thank you.

Nobensky.

One will also go in Pollard's Hall, right?

Correct. Yes.

Excellent.

All right, so moving right along and I will try to be brief about this. I know you have lots still on your agenda. Just wanted to walk through some communication highlights Over the last year, I was here just one year ago giving you an update. So as we just talked about worked with the Needham Branding and Town Seal Committee developed the new town branding of the town seal. Logo was rolled out about a year and a half ago. And so everything that needed to have the logo on it already does, including all of the big belly trash cans around town, the vehicles, etc.. so the other highlights increased outreach to stakeholders of last year social media followers grew by 8% it's so fascinating for to me, to watch to see what gets people excited.

Anytime we have anything about veterans or there's any kind of ceremony that gets a lot of engagement but then last summer we actually had our new conservation specialist saved a snapping turtle in the reservoir along with the assistant town engineer and that just blew up. And it was shared a million times, and people love sort of the heartwarming feel-good stuff so any opportunity I have to be able to share sort of the human side of local government, I try to do that. Our newsletter subscribers grew by 8%, which is also which is also great heading in the right direction. We still have the pop up screen when you go to the website that asks you if you want to subscribe, if you're sick of seeing it, you could hit close and do not show again so it doesn't keep popping up and then continuing to increase the number of social media posts and news flashes. Polco surveys beyond the National Community Survey, I also

worked to publish a few other surveys that we're going to get into in a second, and then continuing to cultivate relationships with local media. So Needham is viewed as a valuable resource for local news outlets so because We're fortunate to have NBC 10 and also WCVB Channel 5 here locally. They often will call, You know, it's convenient for them to just come down Highland Avenue to find somebody to interview. So we often I often get phone calls saying like, you know, we need a local shot and Kara Celestig is always wonderful in accommodating requests for interviews, especially during storms. But they love to have the Needham perspective and also not just because we're convenient but also because we're a respected source for information and expertise.

So the public health department has been interviewed a lot, and even most recently I got a call during the first heat wave of the Summer from the assignment editor at Channel 5 and said, can we do the weather broadcast from the Rosemary Pool? and so I called Stacy Mulroy, and she said send them on down. So you know as long as we don't have children in the background they just wanted a nice background and they've also done The Reservoir So I like to be accommodating whenever possible. But it's a great opportunity to get Needham on the map. All right, so jumping to communication tools. The website we did a refresh last September moved things around because I can see the Google Analytics and I kind of nerd out sometimes and see what people are searching. What are the most frequently visited pages? The calendar section continues to be one of the top.

So having it now on the top right hand corner allows people to get the information right away that they're seeking. So new photos, fresh graphics. We have the hot topic buttons at the bottom that change occasionally depending on what is considered a hot topic at the time and then how do I's letting folks find the information quickly that they're seeking, like how do I get an RTS sticker? How do I register to vote? How Do I get a license for my dog? That sort of thing.

How do I sign up for the Memorial Park Climb Board?

Okay, next slide please. Okay, so News Flash and Notify Me. So News Flash I can post newsworthy items that we want to get people's attention when they go to the website and folks can sign up for notifications with News Flash. In fact, so let me jump to the next thing notify me If you go to the if it's just NeedhamMA.gov slash notify me, you can sign up for as I mentioned earlier public meeting notices water restriction alerts that sort of thing but when i do news flashes to let folks know for example yesterday that the Water Restrictions were downgraded to level one. I did that as a newsflash and it went out. Okay, next slide please. The newsletter continues to be very popular, and I check every week to see what the open rate is.

And I can tell whether or not people open it so if you don't open up your newsletter, I can actually tell. I don't spy that closely, but the analytics actually are pretty fascinating. And I post it also to social media and we get a lot of readers through posts on social media as well. So we're up to about 8,000 subscribers now which is again really awesome. It's heading in the right direction. social media, we're up to about 5700 followers. Instagram about 3000. Anybody who likes anything on our page I immediately check It's a slight obsession of mine to see if they actually already follow our page. And if they don't, I immediately invite them so I can also see how people like our page because they saw one of our reels or they saw A post and then I can see actually how they came to us. So that's kind of fascinating And the blue sky and threads have been asked about that.

They don't currently Have the ability to be backed up on our social media archive Software, that is actually through Civic Plus. I've asked when they're going to do that and there's no definitive date so we don't use those as platforms to post to because they cannot be backed up and so if there was ever you know a FOIA request specific to that. So, that's why we don't use it but we have handles saved so should they be integrated into social media archive? We can start using those as well and test them out. Polkal Surveys. Next slide, please. We just talked about National Committee Survey but I also did Surveys through the Large House, Envision Needham Center. That was huge. That for Highland Ave that John and Liz were just talking about, and the street design guide.

So we had about 4,200 responses through surveys this year. Next slide, please. And community engagement. I continue to try to connect with local nonprofits they reach out to me all the time asking me to include their information on our community calendar, the website and also in the newsletter. I love to go out and visit with residents whenever possible I've now been to Wingate a couple of times and have spoken to residents there just to talk to them about the town, how to volunteer opportunities or how to stay informed and engaged. And they are really excited group of folks, and they had some really great questions. So very interested in projects because the The former Muzzy site is right across the street from them.

They want to know what's going on, but they have a lot of questions and they're very well informed so that's been really rewarding. So hope to do more of that in the year ahead. So other things in process, I am working on a template for a townwide mailing that we are talking about doing twice a year and the fall and in the spring. And so it would be information that would be a preview for folks on major initiatives. How to stay informed, how to get involved, how provide their feedback and also if there is public you know public engagement sessions coming up. It's really important to try to get that out and so speaking of community engagement when we do have public engagement, sessions, public information sessions It's not just the usual, you know, throw it up on the website or put in a newsletter. It's sharing flyers going over to the Needham Housing Authority and sharing them there, bringing them over to library, to cath, trying to get people where they are.

they know what's going on so that is it in a nutshell I tried to be brief but if anybody has any questions I am glad to answer them

thank you this is uh quite a lot of activity yeah um much appreciated and take some time to digest but Much appreciated. I look forward to looking at all the information on the website.

What communication challenges or hurdles do you look to overcome in the coming year?

I often say, I don't ever want to hear people say I had no idea that was going on. So that continues to be my biggest challenge. So I try to think through and if you're not on social media, if you are not subscribed to the newsletter How are you going to find out about what's going on? And we're fortunate to have two local news outlets here in Needham that folks are very well informed of, but constantly sort of thinking outside the box. doing a lot of sort of the grassroots outreach, I think is effective. So connecting with nonprofits and building reports with folks like that and I think generally just providing sort of an opportunity for people to connect I get responses all the time from the newsletter. I've gotten suggestions on things to improve the newsletter, and I appreciate the feedback. So I just, you know, I wish there were more hours in a day.

I would love to be able to do more with video, more with feature stories. So we'll get there.

thank you of course i would just you know local government is a communications business and so thanks for doing it because this is a big part of what we do

right thank you thank you all right excellent terrific thanks very much thank you um i'm going to propose a five minute recess uh or at least i am going to take a short recess So we're resuming our meeting. And we are here with our traffic regulation amendments, with our director of DPW, Karis Lustig and Justin McCullen who is the chair of the Thank you, Traffic Safety Committee. I can't remember which one. All right.

tell us all the things maybe we'll start like an overview and then we can go into each one but these are all items that have been brought to um the town through the traffic safety committee The Traffic Safety Committee has vetted through all these items. All the abutters have been notified and communicated with to see if there's any concerns about these regulations and relatively speaking, they're sort of small incremental changes. The first one you have in front of you is a change to a small portion of Borough Street where there is an island in the middle of the road and it is just delineating that the side of the Road that would typically have outbound traffic will be one way and not two-way traffic.

They're big incidents.

No specific incidents, but then it was brought to the attention of the TSC by abutters.

Yes, and it was anecdotally wasn't what we didn't confirm through police or any sort of accident data, but it was an absolutely brought up to us with regards to that in a dud. It did lead to potentially increase conflict between vehicles.

I see on the proposal that you gave us property, we're going to place one more signs And if you've spoken to that homeowner, who's on both sides, does he agree? Because it almost looks like... If he comes out of that driveway, I don't know whether the blockage, but it won't matter that much because he turned him right onto a one-way, so I don' think it'll matter that I just don't know whether you spoke to him.

They're aware and they're aware of the location of the signs.

Just a quick question. On the other side of the island, is that two-way? Or is it just... So there are two ways to go on to Charles River Street.

Correct. Yes.

I mean, I'm not suggesting we do a project where he just combined the island with the other side because that cost money.

But this is a sign change, right? I do know and obviously CARES can discover it. I know there have been talks about future projects that maybe would some sort of road improvement be done there to either eliminate that island or do something, but I think that's kind of like a blue sky thing. But it had been touched as that could be some sort of geometric improvement in the future.

seems considerably lower cost yes right yeah okay great um i definitely always feel like a dork when I come up to one of these intersections and realize that i could have taken the two lane but i took the one lane and now i have to go but it's worth it to reduce potential conflicts between vehicles so people will learn their way around it quickly enough.

Madam Chair, I would move that the Board vote to approve and sign the Notice of Traffic Regulation Permit Number R26-08-11 requiring that the West Fork portion of Grove Street South by the Charles River Strait be designated as a one way street. Second

All right, so we'll take a vote. Kathy? Yes. Bill? Yes. Josh? Yes, Kevin?

Aye.

And I vote yes as well so excellent that one is disposed of as they say

Next. The next one is at the intersection of Forest Street and Central Avenue, and you'll see from the rendering that you have it would be adding a no turn on red sign from Central onto Forest. This is a crosswalk that is heavily utilized, I think oftentimes by families who are utilizing the farm next door. We have talked to Volante about the change and they're aware of it as well. Okay.

Does that walkway have one of those lights light up or no?

This is a fully signalized intersection, but the issue is if somebody In theory, you have a red light. You can pause and then you can go and take a right-handed turn. There's no indication when you're at a typical signalized intersection if it's for a pedestrian phase or if it is for the opposite lane of traffic So there's no distinction. It's just a regular red light that you would have as if Forrest had a green light.

I mean my own, and I haven't done traffic study but I've seen Central Lab in the afternoon how far backed up it gets. And I don't know whether that's going to back it up more because you can't take a right turn. It probably would be minimal

I do know that our traffic engineer has taken a look at this, and I know it did not send any concerns through our engineering division.

I also know that because of the bump out at the curb, if you were to take a right, you have to go into the center of it.

Correct. That was one of the concerns of why we would do this change yesterday.

uh given its proximity to the farm and then I think the school kids this is a school route so i mean i think this makes sense i agree i would be worried about the backup but for Pedestrian Safety. It strikes me as worthy trade-off.

If engineering did not bring that up, then it wouldn't be a concern because they would probably have brought it up.

Usually when it comes to right turn on reds, it's not like a major...

Right.

um congestion reducer because you have to have the vehicle that's teed up at the intersection at that time wanting to take a right as soon as somebody wants to go straight you no longer have that benefit

Okay, so would anybody like to make a motion?

Madam Chair I make motions of the board vote to approve and sign the notice of traffic regulation permit number NTOR 26-07-21 requiring that a no turn on red restriction be established for Central Avenue southbound at the intersection of Forest Street. Second.

Okay, and we'll go again. Kathy? yes bill yes josh yes kevin aye and i vote yes as well thank you okay and then the last

The last one that we have is a parking restriction on Greendale Avenue towards Webster Street. The Butters actually came to the TSC with a petition to request that one side of the section be limited for parking. The town evaluated which side would be the least impactful and this side was indicated. The temple has been made aware of this particular request and they've indicated that they're supportive of it. We do know that we've talked with them regarding some high holiday events or high function events when they often engage a police detail officer anyways, and that would be at the discretion of the detail officer how to manage that intersection during those events.

Okay.

I mean, this isn't going to reduce the number of cars. It's just gonna move them to park different places.

I think the concern was people getting out of their driveways and then maneuvering between cars staggered on either side as opposed to correct limiting the number

Yeah.

So if they're all parked on one side, then you have more space to go through. I know people on my street all the time, people park on both sides of the street and then you're like trying to squeeze through which can be challenging

and I think from an emergency vehicle access perspective, just like it was across from Devasio. There was some concern there of, you know, cars on both sides just like it came in front of the select board here before. This is kind of that same scenario where you have a very narrow road and then you do have potentially a lot of cars that do park so for both residents as well as the temple overflow.

Okay. So that makes sense.

Madam Chair, I would move that the board vote to approve and sign the notice of traffic regulation permit number R26-08-11 requiring that parking be prohibited on the east side of Green Hill out between Webster Street and Davenport Road. Second.

Thanks, Bill. Thanks Kevin. Okay any more discussion?

I anticipate that this is going to lead to other, like there may be knock-on effects. Because people can't park here they will park on other streets and people in those streets will come and ask for no parking signs

and Wilmot, because that was actually something that came up when I think the town probably 10 years ago started to do no parking around commuter rail stations in order to reduce the amount of cars that we park during the day. and I don't think it really manifested too much. The other guy was saying change is sometimes hard, but we'll carefully monitor that. But yes, that's something I've always said at the TSC for like 10 years that I've been on it is, you know we can't just put signs everywhere. But this is something that made a good case and obviously with the temples, with an officer who would be able to at least allow that if in fact they needed overflow parking during the holidays. To be able manage that on those few days a year I think is appropriate.

and hopefully the temple can help to inform their

The congregation, yes.

Congregation about the need to make sure that emergency vehicles can pass and so...

I think the main concern that came to the committee was really on the regular workdays and related Childcare facility that's there. And so what I sort of heard was it's not parked on a regular basis on both sides of the road, it's that people aren't thoughtful about where they park. So they don't stagger necessarily and you get these choke points. So by diverting everybody onto one side of the rode, you're at least creating sort of more of an orderly system than what we currently have.

right well so we'll try it and if there's issues adjust. I think that makes sense and we have a motion on the table and a second and so if there are no more discussions then we will go to vote and we'll start with Kathy Yes. Bill? Yes. Josh? Yes Kevin?

Aye

Yes. Thank you. All right, fantastic.

Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Next we're going to talk about Dedham Avenue intersection at South Street and improvements.

excellent so i am here tyler is actually remote um he had a situation that required him to be at home but we wanted to update you on the progress of a grant that the town has applied for The town applied for the MassDOTS Local Bottleneck Grant. This is the second time we've applied for this grant. The first time we did was for the two intersections in the downtown on Great Plain Avenue just a little bit explaining how this grant works because it's a little different than some of the ones where you're seeking specific funding. This is sort of an engineering grant with construction as a secondary application. The primary grant is really to look at intersections that we have within the town that meet criteria as identified by the state, where we feel like there might be congestion issues or bottlenecks currently. And then the state engages their own engineering process to help consult the town on what could be done to alleviate those congestion items.

So sometimes that results in construction and sometimes it really results in limited work like we saw in the downtown So when we enter into this process, we don't necessarily know what the outcome will be. So when the last round came up Dedham Abbott South Street was on our list of intersections to be evaluated and because of its proximity to the highway it met much of the criteria that was identified as part of this grant. We applied for the grant, received it and are in the earlier phases of the design process after alternatives were rolled out for looking at that intersection including things like rotaries or other treatments that could be used and we wanted to present where we are, and where we think this project will go as far as moving forward for funding for construction. So with that I'll turn it over to Tyler

Good evening, everybody. So this project as Karis was explaining is you don't need to have identified necessarily a solution before application so The process is intended to address congestion issues at intersections, but it can also incorporate improvements for safety reasons, upgrading the technology of the signals as a way to enhance the performance of the intersection so uh the main changes that are proposed as part of this project and so far we have a It's more like a 75% design, but essentially we have all of the surface level infrastructure is designed. traffic signal equipment improvements.

A lot of the equipment at the intersection is quite old, you can see that it's more of the basic technology than some of the other signals that we have in town. It has only magnetic loop detection at the side streets, the side street approaches on South Street The project would propose installing traffic camera detection in all directions that has 360 degree view. of traffic in all directions and can actuate the signal based on inputs from all four directions. The other changes are The addition of a dedicated left turn lane coming out of town south eastbound on Dedham Avenue.

that is primarily because of the current condition where if there's cars that are queuing to go north up Dunham Avenue into town from the other direction, or they're turning left onto South Street, rather. They queue up in the lane and that can block sight lines of oncoming traffic for those that are heading out of town. So when you're trying to make a left onto south street you kind of have to inch into the intersection so that you can see traffic around the line of cars waiting to turn left. So having a dedicated lane with a dedicated arrow signal would make that much safer the other thing is that the South Street approach coming northeast bound across South Street to meet up with Dedham Avenue.

Currently, it is not striped as though it's two lanes but it functionally is acting as if it is two lanes and that's because of the dimensions are just short of allowing for two standard size lanes there. So this project would slightly adjust the dimensions to allow it to be striped as a dedicated Turn Lane for traffic turning right, again heading out of town onto Denham Avenue from South Street. These recommendations were made after traffic data was collected by the consultant CHA that we're working with. So the changes were modeled through traffic data, traffic projection software Synchro to model how these changes would affect the intersection.

The other thing that's important to mention is the installation of pedestrian signals at this intersection. So there is a sidewalk at the end of Dedham Avenue right in front of DPW that currently does not lead anywhere. This project would install ADA compliant ramps and pedestrian signals at that intersection to both make the existing pedestrian traffic safer, because right now we have observed people crossing the intersection without any sort of signal just kind of dodging traffic. which is very unsafe. So it would allow for that exclusive phase when the button is pressed and enable us to explore a future connection Edgewater Drive neighborhood over the culvert that exists there.

Those are the extent of the changes and how they have what is involved with this project currently we are in a phase where we are negotiating the utility pole relocations, which are kind of the thing that's going to determine a lot of the project schedule. If we're not able to get those poles moved and then we're The other thing is that where there is a small overlap on the corner, one of the southwest corner with a property on Edgewater Drive. We've approached that abutter and explained that this would be a small taking by the town so that would require a town meeting approval of that. So that's pretty much where the progress we've made to this point.

We're still working through those utility pool relocations and taking

I just wanted to add too about the proposed projects developing off of 128 and Denham so one thing i'll sort of indicate is the general overall the enhancements that are going to be made as part of this project we're going to increase the capacity that can be processed through this intersection and the information that we have so far about what the intended throughput through this will be, has been conveyed to the engineer and will be taken into consideration as part of the design.

I'm under the impression that we also reached out to the MEPA review with some information about this new proposed scheme.

yes everything you're getting presented um Tyler asked that we share uh with MEPA as an addendum to our comments to the campus at 128 project and so we've done that because this will be done before that project decisions made okay

Great. And Tyler, I'm sorry if I missed it but I know that South Street is a big cyclist route. Is there possibility of getting some of those four feet signs and whatever else that might need to go up to protect those folks as this is built to carry more traffic?

So I think one of the We've had this conversation about the signage, and I think South Street's a perfect example of the concerns we've had. It's sort of a philosophical decision, but because of the forefoot that you must give a cyclist four feet of clearance when you pass them. I would say on many parts of South Street, sort of two things. One is you are telling people they have to cross a double yellow line which they're not supposed to cross. We know they do, but from a truly road control perspective, they're and I think one of the concerns we've had is that if we sign that, and somebody does give four feet of grace to a bicyclist, and they get hit on a head-on collision because there's not sufficient space for both vehicles to fit.

And also give forfeit of clearance if there is some I know there are many communities that have installed them and they felt this is an okay decision. Public Works has been concerned about what the implications would be because effectively On South Street, in many locations you really have to go at the speed of a bicyclist because there is not sufficient space to pass.

What is the speed limit on South Street?

It varies between 30 and 25 miles an hour

30 in this fiction.

Yeah, I guess I'm wondering if that's appropriate given what you said like the topography or the curvy nature of the road. If you can only see far enough ahead that you can't figure out how to safely pass, which we should all know how to do because that's part of driving. Then I wonder if the speed limit should potentially come down because at the kind of cyclist who's on that road is not like it's not a child or family cyclists. Those are road bikers, they're moving at a reasonable speed for that I wonder if that's something we should just think about? The only comment I'll make is typically speaking you set

speed limits at 80% of the median speed. And I'll just say anecdotally from the RFBs or the speed feedback signs we've put out, many people are going well above 30 miles an hour in that section.

Understood, but I don't know that's something we want to condone.

I think it's just important to note that changing the speed limit does not necessarily on its own influence speeding behavior. We know, I think we're open to exploring that and then we're not against it by any means. I think that we just don't want to change a number and then nothing really changes. And then all of a sudden we have a bunch of noncompliant drivers who are dangerously above the speed limit. So we want to also do that in combination with other strategies if that's the goal, is to reduce the functional speed.

Sure. I think generally I'm hearing can we integrate more bicycle safety into this intersection?

Yeah. I mean, I just think that we have to acknowledge that this in particular is is frequented by cyclists and one particular kind of cyclist. So it's not like the variability that we might talk about through other sections of town, but just as Tyler is saying, just because you change the science doesn't change the circumstance. I think just because this condition exists they're there so we should just make sure that everyone can be safe. Gentlemen?

Go ahead, Bill. So I have three questions. Right now coming down South Street, I see on the new plan actually that there's no turn on red onto Dedimav. whether you're coming down south and want to take a right to go to Dedham or if you're And then you were talking about the sidewalk. The sidewalk goes in front of the DPW building and then it just ends, doesn't it? At South Street or does it go around the corner?

So it just ends, I'll say there's sort of two things that are crossing people or causing people to cross. So one is the proximity of the boat launch across the street. There's a lot of people who recreate between those two locations so they end up having a circuit or loop that they do and then the other one is really from that community at Edgewater we do see a lot of people who will cut through they'll walk you know sort of on people's yards, basically to get over to that intersection and then they will cross. One other thing I just wanted to note because you highlighted already that we have no turn on red on south we do have some frequency of accidents at this intersection. I can just say from having my building adjacent to it, it is not uncommon to have accidents there and that those accidents have physically impacted the signals and that they've hit the signals repeatedly in the past.

And so is the goal though to have the crosswalk and then have a sidewalk like go up south to both lots or you could have a side walk, go up to Edgewater?

I think that's the goal we're moving towards. There are just a few pieces in place, the culvert on South Street being the primary obstacle trying to figure out how we could either accommodate it in the current right of way or cantilever it and then I would say the same conversation could be had on the other side of South Street as well.

And then I notice on this map that I have in front of me right now, it has the little planter where the welcome to Needham sign is. And it says RET, which I hope that does not mean retire. I don't know what that means. What's it mean? It means retain. Okay, that's what I was going to answer.

All right. Josh? Bill, you asked most of my questions. The other one was about biking. It's particularly busy on South Street on the weekends. The survey says at most four bikes per hour. Do you know when this survey was conducted?

I'd have to defer to Tyler, but I agree with you. It's more frequent on weekends although it comes in spurts for sure.

There was a memo that was distributed in your packet that describes the observation.

I'm afraid I didn't get to read through the whole thing.

yeah so the page it's a page four of the memo that's appended before the plans and it says talks about data collection and said that the counts were conducted April 15th to April 16, 2025.

Okay, thank you. I know you haven't gotten a chance yet and neither has Kathy but can I just ask does the grant cover total cost of this work?

There's a small match from the town, but Tyler do you just want to go through what the anticipated costs are?

Yep, so after the plans in your packet there is also a estimate provided from the designer. The estimated total with contingency on this project is just shy of 700,000 The project, the grant that we're talking about, the bottleneck reduction grant will cover the first 500,000 of other construction if the engineer determines that to be and improvement, either safety or traffic performance. So the delta of that would be covered by the town through either through local funds or through a Chapter 90 allocation. This is yet to be finalized.

Okay. and then if any alterations to this intersection were required or suggested for the function of the campus at 128 that would be

I'll just say, yeah and we've sort of talked about it internally. You have a space limited area in which you can only develop to a certain extent. And we believe that the design that we're working on will maximize the throughput, trying to say, you know, you have a bridge on one side, you and you have property owners on either side, right? So you only have so much space that you could extend for alternative turn lanes or something like that. So we feel fairly confident in this design as far as its ability to accommodate that additional traffic.

Okay, thank you. Kevin?

This is really interesting. I spend far too much time on maps like these. I find them fascinating and thank you, this intersection has always been over for how it was originally laid out. It's definitely heavily used, so thank you for updating it.

Kathy, any comments? No questions. Thanks. Okay, thank you. And we'll stay with Kara's Lustig and move on to our next item, which is a discussion of wind waste negotiations. and for this we're bringing up more superstars council Dave Davidson deputy town manager and director of finance welcome

So the day that MET Demaree has been talking about for a long time is finally coming to fruition. and our 20-year agreement with currently with wind waste is set to expire June 30th of 2028. That was originally negotiated as part of a large consortium that consisted of over 30 communities, all of which have executed their own individual contracts. Some of which actually expired June 30th of 2027. So... while it feels like we are talking about this well in advance of our contract expiring, working with over 30 communities in order to try to negotiate with such a large partner. We know will take quite a bit of time in order contracts and the time that we need in order to have a MSW vendor. So as I said for a little bit of history, we have a current contract with when waste, when we executed it.

It was a 10-year agreement with 10 option years at about year eight the company was looking to sell and so wanted to get all of its contracts in line So they actually opened up that extension early so they could extend it for later. As a consequence of this, we saw a significant reduction in our tonnage tipping fee to the point where the tipping fee last year was the first time that it matched what our tipping fee was 12 years ago. So, it took us 12 years to catch back up to where we were Very few things when you are purchasing do get to take that much of a cut and for that long. That being said, we are acutely aware that we are likely paying Under Market Value for our MSW, and that we are anticipating an increase which we've been discussing for several years. about a year ago, all the communities that were part of the original agreement met to try to discuss how we wanted to move forward.

We've actually had the addition of about three communities come into that group who are not part of it and we had one or two smaller communities leave Part of the constraints and the concerns that we have about the waste industry in Massachusetts is there are no new landfills. Most of them are being permitted to closed or beyond their permit, We have no new waste energy facilities being created and there's not less trash being generated in the state. So we have waste, and we need to figure out where to go The alternatives we have to our current contract are really to ship that waste out of state on freight largely to Ohio and New York. So all the communities that have come together, I've been discussing how we as a group can come together to negotiate with WIN. as I mentioned it was about 20 years ago we last did our major negotiation and as you can imagine many of the players that were part of that contract have either transitioned positions or are no longer employed, they're all retired.

So we've been trying to figure out and uncover some documentation about the method that we used 20 years ago to get this consortium together. We ended up discussing and talking to the firm that represented this group 20 years ago, KP Law. And their recommendation was to do an intermunicipal agreement with Walpole and have Walpole manage the contract with KP Law for legal guidance. The group that I'm referring to has created a subcommittee that consists of seven different communities, Needham is one of those seven communities and that subcommittee is going to be the committee in charge of negotiations. So it is intended that these municipal representatives will be doing the primary negotiation and that the legal expertise that we're soliciting is really to provide legal background and clarity for us. So with that, I am asking the ability to join in this inter-municipal agreement with Walpole so they can then contract with KP Law.

First of all we are trying to figure out how many communities willing to commit to move forward. We have given all the communities a deadline of August 31st, to try to start our negotiations in earnest and second of all, so we can start engaging with wind waste. We haven't started any formal negotiations with them. They have given us a tour of the facility so we sort of see the condition of what they have what their capital plans are, and kind of what benefit we have. One of the things I'll note is that while when waste is a very large entity and they have a significant foothold in the waste industry, this particular contract has a high value to them. We provide the sort of stable waste in this entity. They get a lot of construction waste or other large commercial waste, but MSW is that consistent feed

I just wanted to articulate the two largest players in this group are Newton and Worcester as in terms of size, Waste Generation. Needham is the seventh largest community as part of this consortium, but I will indicate we are the fourth largest in terms of waste generation. Part of that is because We have become somewhat of a regional area for commercial waste. So we're taking in waste not just from residents, but we're also taking it from commercial haulers and other people and several of the other communities of comparable size to Needham have larger apartment complexes than Needham does in which they have private entities that remove the waste and not the town.

Okay.

that's a lot of information uh kevin you can do all without notes okay um no this sounds like it makes sense i'm happy we got the ball going and it sounds reasonable so yeah

Oh, Josh?

So this is just to negotiate. My understanding is there would be individual contracts still between each municipality and wind waste. would they have the same terms between all of the municipalities or is that subject to negotiation?

So I think the intent is for them to have the You have many different communities who operate significantly different models. So you have communities that are fully Municipally Run, and our transfer stations. I'll indicate Wellesley was not part of this in the past. They are looking to join as part of program because of the capacity issues they have at the landfill they have contracted with. So you have those, the model similar to Needham. We send our materials there on oversized trucks you then have communities that run their own collection services and then they go there and haul. They usually go there twice a day as part of their regular routes and then you have communities that outsource their hauling and collect to this location. So the reason that we would all execute is our physical delivery's different, I will say for the original contract the terms were all the same.

Bill?

Well, I think it's great we're getting ahead of it. You know you gotta...I hate wasting time because it costs you more money so I think the sooner we can get out of it the better off we're gonna be.

Great. Kathy? Yeah, I think this makes entire sense. We need the volume to negotiate. It's worked for us well in the past and so I'm supportive of this.

Can I just ask why is Wellful the lead?

So interestingly enough, they were the lead 20 years ago. Whether that's a good answer or not, they have chosen to sort of take on, I guess, the administrative burden of collecting the information It is a little bit like herding cats trying to get over 30 municipalities with different forms of government in order to all commit. And they also had worked with KP Law in the past, as I indicated, they were the firm that represented this group 20 years ago and have some of the institutional records that we thought would be useful as part of negotiations.

Madam Chair, then I would move that the Select Board approve and execute the inter-municipal agreement between the Town of Walpole and various municipalities regarding solid waste contract negotiations Subject to the additional stipulation provided by Walpole that when total fees, costs and expenses billed to all parties under Section 2 of the agreement exceed $75,000 The Walpole representatives shall notify all other parties represented by email at the email addresses set forth in this agreement, and the parties shall promptly confer through their representatives by teleconference regarding anticipated

future cost and continuation of the agreement second all righty then um so kathy yes phil yes josh kevin hi and I vote yes. Thank you very much. Okay, next up We have Miles Tucker, our support services manager to talk to us about digital legal notices warrant vertical proposal.

Thank you Madam Chair, good evening. Members of the board I will try and keep this brief given the hour so Last year goals, this board set as one of its initiatives to study a home rule petition to permit the town to place legal notices on a digital format as opposed to having them printed in newspaper. This is a relatively recent option provided to communities by the Commonwealth and has been successfully completed by other communities. Arlington and Lincoln are some of our peers who have passed a similar home rule petition. This is beneficial to the town in that there is a consistently shrinking printed newspaper market, especially with the recent limited distribution of the last print newspaper, and even the hometown weekly which no longer does home deliveries anymore they deliver to 70 sites in town but it's further limited

So in your packet is a draft warrant article containing the text of the proposed home rule petition. It is nearly identical to two peer communities, Westford and Wellesley that have recently passed said home rule petition. Both of those are still with our friends at the general court But the way that the law was updated, it's pretty clear what this language needs to be. It would permit the town as well school department to post in five specific locations. Those could be Printed Newspapers, a printed newspapers website, a local digital news site, statewide legal notice repository or town repository. it's worth noting that the town already has a part of our website that has public hearings and legal notices in one central location so that already exists does not change the actual noticing requirement time that a legal notice would need to be placed in advance or anything.

Those time limits are still in place. Notably, our Deputy Town Manager Director of Finance highlighted to us that tax takings will still need to be printed in the newspaper. So this applies to most but not all. legal notices, tax takings are a specific thing that need to be still printed representing a very small percent of our overall legal notices. A proposed concept for the operating of this home rule petition, if already passed and passed by the legislature would be using the town's web page that exists right now as the default However, committees or the bodies that would be using these that are required to post these legal notices would still have the option to post in any of the five available and other sorts of media in the event that wider distribution would be wanted by that body.

And with that, the draft article again is both included in this packet as well as in the draft of the special town meeting warrant that you will address later in this meeting because they're still later in these meetings. With that I'm happy to answer any questions.

Miles, what happens for the tax takings? I mean, for those that are required to be in a newspaper. What happens if there's no newspaper?

That's a great question. Well, I will say as well it's a newspaper that is distributed here Past practice has been to go with the local newspapers. There are also The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald. Those are distributed here. Frankly speaking, the price is significantly higher than the local distribution papers. So we've gone to the globe in examples where, to the point of the time notices not being changed. In the past, I'll admit, when I was a new staff member here, I missed the posting deadline. I believe it was for a cable hearing. So we had to go out to the globe. because we needed it done soon, and it was able to be done. So there are still papers of record that are distributed with enough distribution in Needham. okay so it doesn't need to be a local paper no it needs to have um i forget the specific term but it's it's effectively

All right, well this is really very comprehensive. I am shocked to see the cost spent on printing legal notices in fiscal year 2026 was over $34,000. So it seems to me like not only is this actually generally speaking, probably more convenient for folks but also considerably less expensive I would hope for the town. Do we know what the comparable cost of digital... presumably nothing but staff time, which is not insignificant for the town website. But do other local outlets charge for digital notices?

that's a great question I don't know at this time for example we have a few digital only publications here Needham the town is not permitted to notice with them so there's not exactly market however, to your point and to highlight back on what the Director of Communication and Community Engagement mentioned earlier. We do not want people to not know what's going on This does not restrict the town or the schools from posting only to our website. The other media are still permitted and it actually increases the scope by which the town is permitted to communicate which would be beneficial, I would believe.

Great. Anyone else?

I think this has been official for the town. It's bringing the town into The Times. Most people don't subscribe to a newspaper, let alone get a free one anymore. I think because Amy was just here talking about how people get their news, I do think it's really important to have that central repository. To at least have all of the postings on the town website and then certainly we can add other postings in other locations as well. Could I suggest like one small change to that effect? So this would allow posting any of these five, could we say It's satisfied by posting it to the town website plus any of these other locations. That would just ensure that it always has to be posted to the Town website so that it is in one central location, always.

That's a good question. I'd have to confer with council and report back, and I just want to say I appreciate town council for drafting this.

Correct me if I'm wrong but you did say that we are currently keeping all of

this is something we already do, that's correct. This is current practice. We already have all the ads procurement public meetings they're already posted on the website in a central repository so it's something we're already doing

I'm just thinking ahead for the future because practices can change over time.

All right, anyone else?

I used to work for a publisher who said the legal notice is for license to print money And I think though times have changed and the reality of it is that websites replace newspapers, and we have to be and go where people are reading. So we should...I'm all for this. This is...I mean it's very sad to see the newspapers go. but the reality is we could realize some savings, but also reach the people we need to reach better. Wow.

Thank you. Cathy has her hand up. Oh, Cathy, go ahead.

Yeah, I think that it makes sense for us to continue the practice of always putting something on our website as a way to have a record. to have it there. I think in terms of the way we draft the law, it does make sense to model it off of what has already worked from these other towns. We're talking about a home rule petition. These things are a giant pain and I would just go with what works.

Yeah, I suppose we can always add in practice a secondary if we choose to do that. But I wonder about requiring it as a point of law that seems like they could be encumbering ourselves who knows what is going to happen in the future.

Have these, I think the ones this has modeled after haven't been passed right?

The two specific ones Westford and Wellesley have not they're still in the general court however extraordinarily comparable ones in Lexington and Sudbury for example um have okay if you could get that answer from time counselor I'd be more than happy to thank you thanks Miles

Okay, so next up we're going to look at town manager and first on that is referring accepting and referring zoning.

Great. The Planning Board has been having their deliberations for articles for the October Special Town Meeting, and so what's before you tonight is they have asked for you to accept and refer back to them Two articles under the umbrella of the Large House Review, one on half-story attic requirements and the other on height requirements. And this is a procedural vote that you have to take under state law.

Okay, any thoughts from my colleagues?

All right then. I would move that the board accept all the proposed zoning articles Article 1 a men's only bylaw half-story in parentheses, Attic requirements in the single residence B district. Article 2 amends zoning by-law height requirements in a single residence b district for referral to the planning board for its review hearing and report Second.

All right, and we'll take a vote. Kathy? Yes. Bill? Yes Josh? Yes Kevin? Aye I vote yes Thank you.

Next? Next up is asking the board to call for and open a special town meeting warrant which will be held on Monday, October 19th, 2026 you are being asked to open the warrant tonight. Just looking ahead, you would close the warrant at your next meeting September 8th so at that point we'd hopefully have no additions after that point but there is you have a meeting September 22nd which is your final meeting before it goes to print so we could still make changes withdrawals or changes to the article language etc. I do want to just walk through the draft warrant. This is very much first draft, a lot of placeholders but just to give the board and the public a sense and just walk through the articles. And I would love if there's any that you particularly would like a presentation on just note that and I can start getting those scheduled for your next couple of meetings.

And this is the moment, let me just pause and say it's August, it's summer, and yet here we are and we're like headlong into town meeting So this is when things start like ramping up at a speed that no one ever anticipates until we're in the middle of it. So walking through the draft warrant, The first article is appropriate for the Pollard Middle School, and this language has been drafted by Town Council. We will ensure that MSBA has had a chance to review it and Bond Council as well before we insert the language into that warrant.

Basically there will be lots of presentations to come in this?

Yes, many presentations to go. The next handful are placeholders should we need them. So unpaid bills and line item transfers if needed within Levy, our FY2027 operating budget and our two enterprise fund budgets for sewer and water. So we're Gathering, if any of those will be needed. We have our public education and government programming PEG. This is pass-through funds from Cable providers to the Needham channel. And so we have this on every warrant to have a timely expediting pass through. it is 942. The next two articles are the zoning ones that you just took the procedural vote on and I guess i pause and see if the board would like a presentation on those

yes definitely yes great i will work with the planning board plenty directors schedule those Under general articles, we're on page six of the draft warrant. There's the home rule petition related to the article 97 for Warner Field as part of the Pollard project that we've discussed at your last few meetings. So this is the continuation of the local approvals that would be required to comply with Article 97

Madam Chair, the last time we had an Article 97 article in the warrant it appeared right after the article that we were voting on. Maybe that might help with the flow? if we made that Article 2 right after Pollard.

Let me confer town council on that, yeah. Okay. You had a presentation at your last meeting regarding the proposed single parcel historic district for the Wyeth House on South Street, so there's placeholder there. One question for the board... proposal for a general bylaw amendment around tree protection and preservation. I wanted to gauge deferral to May versus advancing to the October special town meeting

As much as I would like to see this go to October, I'm a little concerned about the timeline given the number of big events. Not only Pollard and all of the stuff that goes with that but also election, we still haven't had a public hearing on the part of the select board for this bylaw. And so it just seems like a lot to squeeze in but if I mean if it's feasible, sure. That would be... I would like to see that but I think we have to evaluate whether or not it's really feasible in light of all the The big fixed items on the docket for the fall.

I would lean towards May because I just don't see how it can be feasible to get everything done that we need to get done.

Yeah, I'm worried about it.

Not that I don't want it to be done.

As we game out all of the... time that is needed for each one of these things issues you know i just worry that this one's going to get knocked off the plate so as we game it out. I mean, I'd like to keep the possibility open, I guess until our next meeting but I acknowledge that I think the timeline is really tight.

I'm just thinking of scheduling-wise, your next meeting September 8th is immediately after Labor Day. So if you wanted to hold the public hearing I'd recommend to do that at your September 22nd meeting. You would have if you had the hearing that night, that would be your last chance to take it off the warrant right then. So it's tight I guess and i think it just um you'd have more time to process feedback if you received any if you deferred to me

I don't we don't have to make this decision at this moment though.

I can keep the placeholder on yeah until your next meeting let's do that okay and maybe we can

you know we're going to have our goals meeting next week so we'll see how many things are on our plate for the fall and once we understand that kind of we can game it out see if there's enough time But that seems pretty tight. I'd hate to be hearing about it.

It may feel like a better fit, but if you want to hear it.

The next article on the top of page seven is the home roll that Miles just presented to the board. And it sounds like support to move forward with that, so we'll keep that on. and Deputy Town Manager, Director of Finance is working on potential recommendations for real estate tax exemptions. So adjustments to our existing programs to expand eligibility next steps on that would be um he'll he will be presenting to the board of assessors and getting their feedback on that so my plan for the select board is to wait for those conversations so then it can be presented to you in full with that feedback

there's also an abatement related to affordable housing. So if residents rent a unit to someone who is below certain income level, that homeowner is eligible for residential abatement? Maybe we can discuss it during the board hearing. if we wanted to opt in it would have to be on the town meeting. The town meeting would have approve it.

Okay, I'll ask Dave to follow up.

and there are two articles related to changes to revolving funds. I think we discussed briefly at your last meeting one to just moved the park and rec revolving fund to a more modern structure. And to replace our current revolving funds for traveling meals, to replace it with a community nutrition revolving that would just allow it for a broader set of purposes around food insecurity and community nutrition.

For the Parking Record Revolving Fund, does that eliminate the existing revolving funds?

um yes that's yes and the fun for the community nutrition Are we doing this in anticipation of Beth Israel not participating in that program or is this an expansion of the program?

So it is not driven by our current arrangement with BID Needham. Public Health Division and Aging Services has broadly been working on thinking about expanded community nutrition programs. A part of that would be if we ever needed to take on the services that BID Needham provides for us. How could we or would we? But it's, um... The motivation for this is I think more broad. We'll have the updated kitchen at the Center at the Heights after construction's completed This year, and we'll be able to do a lot more offerings in-house. So this revolving fund is a way to use the existing revolving fun mechanism more broadly.

I think it'd be great to have a presentation on this and learn more about the program.

Yep. I'm actually on the board of Traveling Meals, and we get a lot of requests besides just getting the meals delivered for things like can we bring someone to CAF? I provide them with breakfast and do things like that. So, I think it is basically the expansion of the program so when we get requests you know we will be able to do more things.

and the last two placeholders are takings related to infrastructure projects that you've heard from DPW about. The first is we have an intersection improvement Project at Great Plain and Central. A voluntary taking would be required at the Presbyterian Church, DBW is in touch with the church and they have expressed their willingness to donate the land for the improvements that are needed, but this would require town meeting action. and from the presentation, you just heard that an easement needed at Dedham Ave in South Street.

Can we, is the design for Great Plain Island Central at a stage where it's ready for presentation?

Yeah I can follow up with DPW director on that. I do want to note, I had mentioned this at your previous meeting but one of the articles that you do not see on here is design funds requested for Great Plain Avenue improvements. that you voted earlier. My recommendation is to have that be for the May 27 town meeting Given the level of engagement, interest, number of stakeholders in that project if we defer the article to May that would allow our staff team to be able to map out the full design process, bring the process to the board to make sure that we are in agreement have the same expectations about how that design process would run, what community engagement or stakeholder engagement would look like, what staff and our technical expertise and consultants would be working on. And then we'd be able to have that

presented to the board in advance of Maytown meeting. When the design funds are requested, we'd be able to answer a lot of questions that I anticipate we would get from town meeting members.

Sounds reasonable.

Madam Chair, I move that the Board vote to call for and open the Warren for the October 19th, 2026 Special Town Meeting. Second.

Okay. Kathy? Yes. Bill?

Yes.

Josh? Yes Kevin?

Aye.

And I vote yes, great next um

The Commissioner of Trust Funds will have a vacancy at the end of August and I will be brief, and I think maybe turn it over to the Vice Chair just to know procedurally. The Town Clerk provided this select board with with a letter outlining the available options to the board relative to filling that position by a joint appointment process with the Commissioner of Trust Funds or via special election. The Commission did send a letter to the board expressing their interest in participating in joint appointment process. And I will turn it over because I think those conversations are underway.

Thank you. So the chair of the commissioner of trust funds and I have a meeting scheduled tomorrow night in anticipation that the board wants to move ahead with appointing. If not, we can cancel that meeting. but the chair has indicated that she wishes to fill it as quickly as possible. I think we could probably accommodate that, and would propose a similar process Park and Rec Commission where we notice it for two consecutive weeks. And then I think that would allow us time to hold an appointment with a joint appointment with both boards during our regular September 22nd meeting, if that works.

Sounds fine. Okay? Great.

um lastly town manager report um i just want to note we have had two notable retirements of dpw foreman this summer so i just wanted to share a little bit about them particularly because they may be a little bit more behind the scenes for some folks. They're well known in our eyes, but Doug Mangine retired on June 30th. He's a well-recognized member of our Parks and Forestry Division he was instrumental in kind of all of the operations of that division and ensuring that our fields were are safe and beautiful. And I'd say particularly, um, in talking with the team our most visible events where people really get to access and work be in our Park Spaces, July 3rd and 4th events, and the Memorial Day tournament being those two big ones. He was instrumental and had a lot of knowledge

And I will also note he was our irrigation expert and kept the town systems going over the years. So, you know we have a lot of systems that are different and hand run and require the expertise of someone like Doug. Jerry Sharpe retired on August 7th and he is a lead of the water sewer drains construction crew. They are responsible for responding in all emergencies to the distribution systems that we have and this is core life health safety work. They, Jerry also in addition to responding to emergencies because we have the talent in house he was able with his crew to do a lot of proactive projects that are smaller in nature. So, a smaller diameter main replacement and other utility projects that we didn't have to go contract out because we had the expertise and the talent in-house.

So over the years Sherry has trained dozens of staff members on how to manage our distribution systems and respond to emergencies and this is to the benefit of every single person in Needham, businesses residents alike so they both will be missed and we thank them very much for their service.

Do we send them an appreciation letter like we do for committee members? I don't know why we wouldn't for them.

You know, we haven't had a formal system. We talk about that a lot with... Can we formalize? Yeah.

I mean, I know both of them and they're both unbelievable. Yeah. So I think they would appreciate something like that too.

Yeah, it's a good idea.

Personally, but better coming from... Yeah.

Excellent. congratulations to both of you that's it okay um so thank you and the next thing is committee reports i expect this to be reasonably quick because it's the summer. We'll start with Kathy. No reports. Excellent, thank you. Bill?

I was lucky enough to go through the Needham Night Out that the Needhams Police sponsored last week and it was a great event. It was great to see so many families there but one of the best things was seeing how many families had repeated. They came year after year and there was a picture on social media of Eddie by Eddie's on his police, the motorcycle and they brought a picture of when they came nine years ago with their child, but I came back for that child and put him on the motorcycle. We took it so it was great to see them back there. And then Kevin and I attended the Purple Heart Vint, the last Friday evening. Kevin did a great job and I wish we could get more publicity about it, get more people there but that's for another day.

Great thank you Josh

We talked about Commissioner of Trust Funds. Just wanted to give an update on Park and Rec. The interviews will be conducted during their regular meeting on August 24th. I don't believe that at 7 p.m., but I believe the location has been announced.

Rosemary Recreational Complex Multipurpose Room.

Thank you, Rosemary

okay perfect so everyone welcome to watch including members of the select board yeah and uh can you remind us how many candidates i believe eight that's great great uh kevin

Same, I went to the National Night Out on the 4th and it was great. It's good to see new police do community policing and outreach. And then the Purple Heart Ceremony too.

Excellent. And I'll just say one thing today was the The Red Cross Blood Drive hosted by the town, which is usually held at CAF. CAF's under construction so it was up in beautiful Powers Hall and really just a spectacular room to do anything in including give blood. And so if you too want to give blood, you can do so on November 12th which is their next their next date in Powertal for that blood drive. All right.

Move we adjourn? Second.

Excellent. Kathy? yes bill yes josh yes kevin don't start yes and the chair votes yes thank you and good night