All-Board September 29, 2026

We're going to start in one minute. I just saw Marjorie but then I lost her. Thank you. Does anyone have a quorum besides the select board? Schools only got two. Oh, here's Marjorie, here. Okay so no one else has a quorum? We have a quorum, yeah. One... Nope.

Nope. Okay. Nope! Only two members, yep. One, two... You ready, Marjorie? Okay, so we'll get started. Our typical program for all board meeting. So only the select board. We call to order downstairs. Do we need to recall to order Marjorie? Full board in attendance. And there's no other board with Oh, Board of Health has a quorum. And we'll give you minutes for the meeting. Thank you.

Okay so typical agenda. We're gonna start I'm going to give a brief update on where we're at in terms of our very preliminary FY28 budget and start talking a little bit about cost drivers. Following that, we wanna hear from you. I know you're just in the midst of getting to discuss and consider your budgets. It's very early in the process So if there's anything that you know that has recently emerged, now is the time to bring it forward so we can document that. And certainly as the board evaluates the budget guidelines, that's always considered and factored into that After we do the cost drivers slide, I do have hard copies of the FY28 budget timeline. I'm gonna put it up on the screen but feel free to pick up a copy and then after we go through the boards, whoever wants to present any items. We are gonna provide a couple updates. Mark Kaplan has a couple of updates and then anyone else if it's not budget related feel free

give both your budget and update when you come up. Mark's the only one I've heard from. So just as a brief update to where we're at in terms of 28, we haven't really wrapped up 27 obviously. We're in the midst of it but we're also in the mix of bargaining So we currently still have all town union contracts open, so we have nine contracts open that we are working diligently to to work to close. And so I want to thank our partners in HR for all the work they have been working with us over the past nine months on many of these contracts and I say many because sometimes we took a break, and then we came back. And so they've worked with us on all of the contracts, and we're working to hopefully come to close. Schools have also been working diligently with the teachers union, and so again that's an open contract.

The health insurance, so we have a memorandum of agreement with all of the unions and the last contract renewal was for two years. We were in a process at that time of evaluating West Suburban Health Group, whether that would be dissolved which it's not yet. We actually I would say are working Better Than Ever, and we've just hired a new administrator after 30 years with our previous administrator Gallagher. We just commenced September 1st with Hub International after a long process and so our MOA is up June 30th. Now, we don't actually bring the findings for appropriation in the same way that we do the town contracts, but it is imperative for us to complete the MOA obviously to dictate the health insurance budget that goes to town meeting. But also because our open enrollment commences April 1st

So even though the new plans don't become effective until July 1, we have to have that health insurance MOA bargain. That's with all the unions so that's all the town unions and I actually bargained with the teachers union on the health insurance MOA as well. so that will be commencing really by the end of October. So in a town-wide financial plan we've anticipated an 8% increase in medical health insurance, that does not include all of our ancillary benefits, which we've anticipated a 5% increase in those. It is so early in terms of the fiscal year. We don't have any claims history yet. We are meeting with West Suburban Health Group next week on Tuesday to talk about our Medicare rates. So we had factored into the budget a 6% increase. Medicare rates actually are January, they start January 1st so we'll have open enrollment for our retirees in November

and so we set the rate at our October 6th meeting. It looks higher than six percent, it's actually variable. The Blue Cross Blue Shield at present is just about it's like 5.8%, it's just actually under, but Harvard Pilgrim Health is running a lot higher than that at 10 to 12% or so. So Fallon actually was running pretty good. The aggregated will be slightly higher than 6%, but the predominance of our users are actually Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is positive. So unknown health insurance costs. Just as a reminder, we certainly have to continue to evaluate health insurance. We factor in A buffer of about, what did we do this year? 34 or 35 people. That's for life changes so that's

someone who is an individual, who becomes a family plan or family plan that reverts to an individual plan. Or your kids begin to roll off at a certain point and so, but it does not anticipate new positions. And so that's something we're monitoring closely with the school department in terms of positions. As a reminder for any new positions for 28 that is a $28,000 cost that needs to be factored in with any of the new positions. We have some other unforeseen financial increases. Large one is Munis, so Munis Financial Software has notified the town that over the next three years they anticipate moving to a cloud-based platform, which doesn't really provide us much more than what we're receiving because we have a separate server for safety anyway. but that is a $100,000 increase each year for the next three years.

So we are trying to work with our partners in other municipalities because it's been... We've identified that it's very variable from community to community, even like communities with similar budget numbers. What's the word I want to look for? and a number of users and licenses. And so it is something we potentially might go to the Inspector General's office on because of the variability in rights, so where we're working to try and negotiate with MUNIS to try an ameliorate some of those costs So that's being led largely by IT department and our financial services department. That's something that was an unexpected cost, that just really hasn't been on our horizon. We certainly look at all of the IT costs, those go up at the highest rates each year. Generally our programs go up about 5%, but we have certainly some that grow at a higher rate sort of year to year based upon contracts.

We've had a capital project to finally put in our recruitment software with the HR department. That was approved several years ago on the capital plan, once that's up and running, which will be shortly within FY27, which would be great from a recruitment and tracking standpoint. that will come with an operational cost each year of about $24,000. So that's something also that will start being factored into the FY28 budget but that benefits all town departments so we will keep that as a centralized amount. The other thing we wanted to just identify is because of the contract negotiations, were obviously this year putting considerable focus on our personal service costs. and so that could take a back seat to our cash capital. So as we recall, really over the past two years in order to meet our personal services or our budgetary items on a departmental basis we have reduced cash capital.

Typical range is 6.2 to 6.8. Since COVID, we have tried to max that out. We've really been at the 6. 8% range or funding many capital projects through free cash Last year we were at about 5.9, we went back to the departments to meet the budget objectives and cut just under a million dollars in cash capital projects to close the budget So this year we need to set expectations early so cash capital currently looking like it will be probably at the 6% or less, to be honest range. To try and meet our personal service goals for this year Based on that and the continued increase in health insurance cuts, we're given fair warning that it's likely that strategic growth is unlikely this year.

largely because the personnel service costs both on union and non-union staff as we continue to look at making sure that we have competitive salary rates and compensation. We are still awaiting the State Outlook, which will come out in November. So we're just a little bit ahead of that and so once we have the State outlook, we'll share that with all of the departments. So not terrible news, but not great news. We just want to be realistic in terms of preparing you for some additional costs that we're Anticipating. As a reminder, also in the town-wide financial plan we are working to try and diminish free cash within the operating budget to balance the budget. We've been working each year to try by $250,000. So this year we're slated to have two million in there. I've already said to the board, I find that unlikely. I think we're gonna need more free cash to balance the budget this year

But it's just too early to tell for 28. Until we have our union contracts settled, It's very challenging for the big departments. I'm looking at Dave Cohen, it's very chalenging for Dave to do his budget we're making assumptions based on where we are in terms of negotiations and so we'll also likely this year for annual town meeting have as you might recall last year, we had a bucket holder for contract settlements. We will anticipate having that for FY28 as well as part of the contracts, so we'll be making some assumptions for those contracts that we don't settle at the special town meeting. At this point, we are hopeful to have a few contracts if possible at special town meeting but we're still working through logistics. We might get there, we might not.

So with that, that's sort of the brief outlook on where we are and what we're looking at in terms of budget drivers. but we'd love to hear from other departments, to see what you may have some unforeseen costs as well and we'd like to hear about those. So whoever wants to come up feel free. Thank you Dave, I can always count on you.

I'll rip the Band-Aid off. So for the DPW, we're expecting a level of service budget. The one primary driver that we're seeing this year is we have an expiring trash contract. It's a five-year contract and so we're working through negotiations now what we're seeing right now is we should expect something like an 8% increase and that could be between $75,000 and $100,000 depending on how that goes. That's the only unusual thing in our budget this year. Not tax impact, but on the enterprise fund side our early projections are that we're looking at a 15% water increase and a 4% sewer increase. And as always were looking to shave that down, but right now that's what we're seeing. So I just wanted to get that word out for now.

So the library, we don't expect to have any new positions or any new initiatives. We are looking at least a minimum of 5% increase on our licenses, Minuteman those kinds of things. at Security Software and Support. And I think otherwise, because we're in negotiations, we see it as a level budget until we have those costs. Just one other a little bit of, in case you didn't see the announcement we had a tremendous gift from the Wellesley Free Library Foundation and the Hills Library will be opening next Tuesday, October 6th from 5 to 7 is the grand opening. However, staff and board members are invited for a sneak peek on October 5th anytime between 11 and 2.

Hi, everyone. Nikki Ofenlach, chair of the school committee. I have a few things to update everyone on. One of the biggest changes in our budget process this year will be we have a new assistant superintendent of finance and operations. We welcome Dr. David Jordan to the team, we're really excited he joined in July is getting up to speed and everything so if you see him around at meetings in the future be sure to introduce yourself and meet him. Quick update on capital projects So our air conditioning project, the feasibility phase has been completed and we will be asking for design phase funding at special town meeting in November. This will be funding for the window unit solution at all four schools. And there's been a lot of conversation about this recently, so if you have questions I will rehash it with everyone here but if you've got questions feel free to grab me afterwards. and the other capital project, the team rooms of the Honeywell track and field.

Those are modulars that were delivered late in the summer and they're being worked on being hooked up and all the onsite work and they should be ready for late fall early winter so we're really happy to have those that nearly wrapped up. And as we look towards planning the future, the school committee recently voted to establish a facilities task force to look at the needs of all our facilities over the next 20ish years or so. This would look like a preschool facility, the future of the Upham school site, the elementary middle schools. So we're really organizing that work and determining the task force membership now and looking to kick that off soon. In terms of our fiscal 2018 operating budget, things are still very early in the process. Salaries make up the majority of our operating budget and As Megan said, we're still negotiating with the teachers union though. We are very optimistic that we can reach an agreement with them and we know there's interest in the community around that so we did launch

just recently area of our website that has information on the negotiations if you want to check it out and also includes our most recent settlement offer. Also impacting the salary portion of our budget is the new state graduation requirements. So I'm sure you'll remember about two years ago that MCAS was eliminated by a ballot question as a graduation requirement. In its place, there was a Graduation Council that has now shared its recommendations These are a really, really big change for the schools. I don't know that I could overstate how big of a change this will be. So we're still working through those though we do anticipate they will have staffing implications to them so we're working through that. On the expense side, another unknown is our yellow bus contract expires at the end of this school year and we will be working through next phase of that in the coming months.

And so given that we're just at the very beginning of this, it's a highlight. But we really encourage anyone interested in the Scopes budget to listen to our meetings and look at our information. And please reach out with any questions or feedback. Thank you.

For the HR board, I know everyone's gonna be disappointed but we're not looking to do 10 policies at town meeting for the next 10 years. The HR boards considering doing them all at once and for that we may need some temporary help resource but our applicant tracking software, recruitment software will be amazing.

Anyone else? Okay. This is tough to read, I do have hard copies up here this is just our timeline you're all very familiar with this I did just update this just because the school committee just finalized their dates at their last meeting so I've been included those. We will be looking to finalize the budget guidelines of select board on October 13th, then we'll distribute those and then the department you know what to do with the manuals Will, the deadlines have remained the same. We will in terms of We've kept the same date that we did last year with regards to the operating budgets. I think that worked better for a few folks to get their first meeting in at the start of the month, so we've kept that and always, you can always connect with Rachel in terms of if there's any delays on the budget submittals. Most of the departments were obviously working very close with you with regards to bargaining anyway right now

and so you've been keeping us up to date. So I'm not gonna belabor this, So I'm going to turn it over to Colette. We just want to touch on some policies, and these were the policies that we had forwarded in August to folks, and then just resent the links.

Thank you, Megan. So as a member of the policy subcommittee we have been working on a number of policies. The first one I'll talk about is the withholding of permits for nonpayment of municipal charges and fees There's a draft of this policy, the second substantive draft of the policies on the town's select board policy website. We had a lot of feedback to our first draft and I'd like to say thank you in particular to the NRC who had some great feedback to us This is really implementing the town's existing authority that's in the bylaws and it's just giving the board guidance as to what to do and to implement that bylaw. any licensing body we haven't had feedback from, we'd welcome feedback from you before we finalize that policy. So that draft policy is on the website The other policy that's in process, we've asked for feedback on is the butter parcel sale program. I just want to underscore that this is not a drive by the select board to dispose of land that the town owns

it's to give the board a process and guidance should we be approached by a resident to purchase a piece of property that is I'm going to call them an offering piece of All dispositions of land require town meeting approval. And I think it's really important to note that in our policy, the first process step is to reach out if we do receive a request to purchase land is to reach out to boards and committees in town to ask if that land should be kept for public use. and we've had a lot of feedback. Again, NRC gave us great feedback. We've had feedback from wetlands, feedback from school committee about some... We've identified some of these very small parcels that are available potentially for sale. We've heard from a lot of groups to say actually these are considered important for public use for these purposes That's great feedback and we appreciate that.

The draft policy is on the webpage again, so we're still looking for feedback from boards and departments we haven't heard from. but the policy is just to help us have a consistent process should we be approached to dispose of some land. So I'll hand it back to you at this point unless there's any questions for me on that, but we're still taking feedback from boards.

So we just wanted to remind some folks of the upcoming fall special town meeting. As Dolores had indicated, HR previously had policies on. We've delayed those policies. We'll have some at annual town meeting We are working on motions. Thank you to all that have submitted, I think we're just waiting on some finalization from a number from our citizens petitions. We also just wanted to remind folks of the annual town meeting dates, just because we have you in the room. So our typical dates 29th and 30th of March and then the 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th of April. That's leading up to we would have the next week off because that would be April vacation and then if we have to come back it would be April 26th or 27th. Let's hope not.

We also wanted to give folks a reminder, we have thank you to the schools for letting us use the high school. We're gonna have a big turnout there on Thursday I think So we are having a community conversation in Charette on the North 40, focusing on future uses. If you have not registered but planning to attend just let me know. We want to make sure that we have an appropriate count for tables and materials with the select board also leading up to this has been working with CPC to finalize a conservation restriction so we have a good framework for where we're at on that hopefully will finalize that We'll work with engineering to come up with the plan and hope to finalize that this calendar year. I also wanted to thank the planning staff who's been really helping us. and Tom Taylor here.

So I just wanted to recognize that the planning staff has been helping us on this, and will be participants on this as well from a staffing standpoint so want to thank them for their effort as well as Brandon Schmidt from the NRC who's been incredibly helpful on that too. And I also want to say we have a new wetlands administrator if you have not met him, Mike Dickhouse who has been helping me on 3 Bacon Street because I have to go to wetlands he is amazing and so he's a great new hire for when anyone needs assistance on wetlands. He's been terrific. So just a brief update on this. We hope people will attend. Fire Station, so the select board has been working with the chief and his team and FMD's team and Contacts Architecture. We have completed a master plan and presented that in June. We identified two main sites for a new Station 1, so Station 1 is our station currently located in Wellesley Square on the corner of Central and Weston Road

and the two top locations have been identified. The North 40 on the Weston Road side, which is about 1100 feet up the road from where it currently is and then the second location would be Morton Park which is located next to, which is under the jurisdiction of the NRC. It is currently designated as parkland and is adjacent to the police department parking lot, sort of in front of the housing authority properties. So we had a public meeting on June 24th to review that. And September 15th, we took public comment from the select board. The select board had a discussion answer without public comment on September 8th. We have established web pages with the report findings, a fax page and an FAQ page. That FAQ we're continuing to update. We have some updates that we need to incorporate from some recent analysis that FMB has been working with us.

So the select board is continuing to evaluate this, to determine the next steps for feasibility The feasibility study had initially been planned for STM. That's been deferred to the annual town meeting at the earliest, but the board has to continue to deliberate on that and has made no decisions with regards to timing or location. So I'm actually going to turn it back to Colette to give an update on Capcom.

Thank you, Megan. So I gave a pretty lengthy report to this group last year when we were establishing Capcom but just as a reminder, Capcom has been established by the select board it's a standing advisory committee to the select board in this elect boards work and capital planning. It's subject to open meeting law so the meetings are televised and recorded we had our meeting last night which was great meeting you're welcome to watch it and we go through a process to review the capital plan, the Tangmai Capital Plan every year and make recommendations to the select board for what's included in the Tangmaid Financial Plan. We're also developing a final report summary from the Advisory Committee, which will be an appendix to the Townwide Financial Plan. It's going to be a pretty detailed report so we'll look forward to the first year of that As a reminder the Select Board, the voting membership is two members of the select board. One member serves as chair that's me

There's one member of the Board of Public Works, there's one Member of the School Committee, it's Nikki Offenlock. She is Vice Chair and there's citizen representative appointed by this select board with a background in finance or construction That citizen representative is Tom Gormat in his capacity as a resident. He brings an incredible amount of construction and the construction finance experience to the committee, and we're so grateful for his feedback. We also have a cast of thousands as ex-officials officers and those are nonvoting. That includes the executive director, the CFO who's our principal staff, thank you Rachel the school superintendent or the assistant superintendent for finance and operations. We have a facilities director, Joe McDonough DPW Director, Dave Cohen. And I have to thank Dave and Joe for the incredible amount of work that they've done in preparation for this committee. Mary Beth Martello, the Sustainability Director is also ex officio as is the Municipal Light Plant Director. and Dave Wood.

So we had our initial kickoff meeting on June 16th, 2026 where we did an orientation for members and the public We had Town Council come and do a bylaw review. We had a financial overview from Rachel who really gave us an overview of what's the problem we're trying to solve here? We have a mountain of capital facing us. If we don't try and moderate that, we're facing over the next four to seven years tax increases of 30%. And so we really want to work on that. We also had at that meeting an overview of capital building projects and sort of an introduction of committee members. and our meeting last night we had an overview of the civil or site projects, so the roads that DPW does. We had a financial policy update from the select board, which I'll give a little bit of a touch on later. And then we had each proposed project has a proposal form from the proponent

and then an evaluation form from staff. We went through those forms, if you're interested there's about 300 pages of material that you can really take a deep dive in and get to know more than you ever wanted to know about the proposals on the capital front In November we will be doing, deliberating and reviewing project submittals. The CFO is going to bring us a recommendation for funding methods and staff will bring forward a recommendation for our draft town-wide capital plan, and we will deliberate on that. And what we think are the recommendations to the select board We will then come back on January 25th to finish our deliberations and to vote our recommendations for the Townwide Capital Plan. the next night, because we don't want to miss any time. We then come to the select board to present our recommendations and so will be moving at light speed this year We're establishing everything.

We are establishing all the forms, we are establishing a baseline capital plan, we're establishing the report to the select board which is no small task So we've kind of broken down the projects into different areas. We have what we've called Projects with Confirmed Timelines, so those projects are Morse's Pond, we know what that confirmed timeline is and the other project with a confirmed timeline within Asterix is air conditioning at the schools. And there's work to be done on that, a special town meeting. Then we have immediate priority projects. Those are things like the fire station, the DPW master plan. Then you have maintenance projects, roofs, HVAC systems, things like that in the future we're going to be looking at, I'm gonna call them strategic priorities and what that really means is this. What we have on the future is school facilities projects so as Nikki mentioned

School Committee is looking at a school facilities task force to really do some work on school facilities and their strategic needs in the future. And that report would really help Capcom do their work and Capcom has a detailed evaluation criteria. The same criteria is applied to all projects, so we're really working with school committee closely to ensure that the output of the task force is responsive to the needs of Capcom can do our work. So I'm just gonna move on to the next point. I touched on a little bit earlier that we have, the CFO gave us an update about the capital financing policies that we're looking at As we know, the town is facing a lot of pressure from capital projects. One of the comments that we received at Capcom and it's certainly been on our work plan should we be more proactive as opposed to reactive in capital planning?

Should we be setting ourselves some guidelines, how much debt do we want to take on and how much of our budget should we spending on debt financing. should we do that as opposed to being reactive to projects? So, we're kind of working these two things at one time. The board really has understood The number, the scale and the complexity of capital projects over the next 5-10 years is fairly daunting. What are we going to do about that? I think of these as three legs to the stool. We have capital planning, so we have Capcom, we worked for a year to establish that, we voted in February to establish That is to improve coordination, evaluation, sequencing and alignment with our policies. It's also a transparent process The other two legs of the stool are debt management. We need to consider policies to guide the share of resources that we're spending on servicing debt

Right now we're looking at some, but we've taken a look at our peer towns and what peer towns do to manage debt. And we have some considerations about Should we have a certain percentage of our revenue that is applied to debt service? And should it be also looking at the percentage of outstanding debt as it relates to the equalized values, the property in town that generate tax income. So those are some things we're looking at to manage debt. The other thing we're look is to moderate debt service, so the town uses a stable principal pay down method. So when you borrow a lot of money in the first year, the payments are really high and then they start coming down. And so that's the peak A good practice in financial management is to smooth that peak or to shave the peak. And how do towns do that? The way they do that, is they establish a capital stabilization fund

So as you have excess resources, say we have good free cash in one year. Our reserves are a little high. You could put that money into a capital stabilization fund that money then can smooth the high years, the initial borrowing for any projects. We're considering establishing a capital stabilization fund as a means to do that. That's a tool that is provided by, it's best practice the Department of Local Services recommends this as a financial strategy for towns We're currently considering that. The policy subcommittee had their discussion of this in June, the board has taken up a discussion of it and will take it up again on October 6th. So those policies are being developed and that's ongoing. and again, I can't thank the team enough who are working with us on this. Kenny's my partner on the policy subcommittee and also Rachel and Megan for helping us research all our peer towns to get this information to move forward.

Back to you.

Actually before I give, because this is like a two second update. Mark do you want to give your update?

Okay, my update is a little incomplete because the motions aren't in yet. But based on the warrant... We are going to have a consent article on the warrant, so it looks like there are two or three items that can go on the consent agenda. and that will leave us with about 10 items, 10 articles. And until we see the motions obviously it's difficult to project how much time that's gonna take But we have three nights set aside for the town meeting, November 9th and 10th. And I think conveniently the next day is a holiday so if necessary we can stay a little later but just in case pencil in the following Monday as the third night that we've reserved, but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do it in the two nights.

And then just in terms of logistics, we use speakers podiums at the special in May or June. And from my perch up on the stage, I can see that really worked well because people either have what they want to say summarized on their cell phones or sometimes on paper, and they can lay it down. And they don't stray from the microphone. So I definitely think we're going to do that again this year at this meeting. and then one change in the that's still a work in progress and we get some calls and complaints when the results are published There's no easy way of resolving those issues in a way that makes anybody happy. So we're going to try a new procedure at this

and that is on those items where we do take electronic votes, I'm going to call for an automatic scroll through on all of them. revised the guidelines and the ground rules that I published before the meeting to make it clear that if anybody sees that their vote is not properly recorded, the time to stand up and speak their pieces at the town meeting. and that there will not be any changes made after the town meeting. They have to be made right at the town meetings, so hopefully that will resolve that problem. And with that, that's my report.

Thanks, Mark. So we at our last All Board had a couple updates on development projects so I figured I'd follow up and there's not a whole lot to report but anticipating some projects coming forward. So MassBay Community College, no change I can't really report on that we're in litigation so there's that, 49 Walnut Street. That is a residential project of 28 units that has gone through the Project of Significant Impact they are currently in wetlands and then we'll follow the site plan. Wetlands has asked for some modifications. 888 Worcester Street, that project where we currently have 10 offices that has been acquired by Jumbo Capital. They have approached the town and presented to both last year, the planning board and the select board with regards to making that site ultimately assisted independent and memory care

that will require a rezone. I believe they are going to be making the rounds again, thinking to try and head to annual town meeting first with the planning board in October, and then following the meeting with the Planning Board they will work to get on the Select Board calendar, 592 Washington Street residential project at the former funeral home and Century 21 site in Wellesley Square. That has gone through PSI review and will be gearing up for site plan review. with the Zoning Board of Appeals. We have had some major sales, Boylston Properties acquired the Lower Falls Haynes 11 acres of properties they do not intend to develop down there for about two years. They are working on some of the existing buildings that front Washington Street, those will largely remain as office and we'll just do some renovation.

And then they will expect to do a large residential project likely again in the two year time frame. Taylor Block, so where Tuto's and Wellesley Bakery is. Jumbo Capital acquired that some time ago. They continue to let the town know they intend to do the project at 888 Worcester Street first prior to doing anything at Wellesley Square. that likely will be a five year, they won't touch that for about five years because I know we get a lot of questions about that from many boards and departments. And the impact construction may have in particular to Cameron Street, the library parking things of that nature. So that is about five years out and when they come before us we'll get some more intel on that between planning and select board. Jumbo Capital has also acquired 110 Cedar Street, which is basically behind Patriot Gas there as you come around to go to Barton Road.

So they're still evaluating what they are going to do on that property. We have, the town has hired a tool Design to look at well-discovered amenities. So we're working closely with the Traffic Safety Group, which is comprised of police, DPW, we have a representative on the schools there, our staff that's really being led by and Sheila Page from our office with all of our team members in tool design. And engineering is a huge component, so that is looking at all of Wellesley Square We do have some public meetings scheduled, October 14th. And then the next one is 1118. I didn't have the times but we'll... 630, thank you. Honeywell at Honeywell School so we just wanted to alert folks to that there'll be more information coming out on those Oh, just the other one.

We are also working on Fells where we have hired Howard Stein Hudson. The traffic safety group is working through an earmark. We have a $600,000 earmark and we're working on a redesign over there at that intersection.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Corey Testa the assistant executive director for the town when I was with you in May for our last all board meeting I gave you an update and kind of an overview of the Citizens Leadership Academy a priority identified by the select board on our work plan and continued for this fiscal year. So we are finally underway, we started a little over two weeks ago on September 17th We've had two classes over the last two weeks. The first class was in this room and it was a 2 1⁄2 hour overview of everything municipal government, select board office, town budget, elections, and town clerk. some public information, and then we introduce them to a select board department that I think a lot of residents do not interact with which is our veteran service officer. So they got to meet Dan O'Neill, hear about the work he does and the services he provides to a small but very important population in our town.

The next week, so last Thursday we went outside and did about a two mile walk with Brandon Schmidt of the Natural Resources Commission. And he stopped and showed us different things that the NRC staff does in concert with other town departments, other boards to protect natural resources, to amplify the natural beauty we have in town. and it ended with a tree planting exercise. The residents broke into groups, planted some new trees along the Fullerbrook path over near Wellesley Green So the first two classes, I think have been pretty successful. We are actually skipping this week because we're encouraging the participants to attend the North 40 Charette so they get a really hands-on experience on a public meeting and then we've got as these are listed out below the rest of the courses. We're really, we've explained to the residents that this is they're kind of volunteer guinea pigs as well

A lot of what we're going to do this fall is learn what we are doing well, but also what we need to improve upon. So at the end of this eight week course we're going to give a very comprehensive survey and asking the residents to take their time filling it out so we can learn on ways we can improve for the next course, which we hopefully will expand to include more departments. I just want to take one more minute to thank all the department heads and staff in the participating departments which you can see here I am constantly amazed after almost three years of being with the town of Wellesley, not amazed. I'm constantly reminded after almost 3 years how impressive our department heads and supporting staff are. And I think a lot of that is because of the wonderful boards and committees we report to, so I wanted to thank all of you through you to your department heads

they've been incredibly patient with me and through this process because it started and stopped like four times in two years. But we're finally here, and I think it's going well. And if any of you have any questions specifically about the program or where it's going moving forward, never hesitate to reach out to me or the Select Board office.

the only thing I'll note on that is each year we're going to look to modify the classes so we know we can't include everyone in year one and so if you're not included in your one, you will be included in year two. So the other thing Corey's really been working with all the department heads on is we try and give someone, or the class a sneak peek into something that an average resident might not see on day to day. So like the tour from branding or planting a tree, Corey's ready to light fire with the fire department so he's really hoping you're gonna come through Steve on that.

So... Safely light fires. Put it out. The whole point is to learn how to put out fires, correct?

We're all looking forward to that. So we look forward to hearing from the other departments next year when we do this. Really, those were all of the updates. I just want to make sure everyone's had an opportunity if you have any updates, if you wanna come up. If not we wanna thank everyone for coming and we will kick off the budget season shortly and appreciate any comments anytime you can feel free if you email sel at wellesleyma.gov that goes to all of the select board staff and our select board members so feel free to email us with any questions or comments and then we have the event October 1st. If you have not registered, just you can register online or just let me know before you leave tonight. We'll make sure your name's on the list. Thank you.

and us, we just need to adjourn.