Select Board January 13, 2026

Good evening. I'd like to call to order the Wellesley Select Board meeting of January 13th, 2026 in hybrid format, both in the Giuliani room at Town Hall and on Zoom. Thank you. Thank you. Our first agenda item is citizen speak, and Corey has received requests to speak from a few residents, so I'll turn it over to him. The first person is Nick Rindt.

Just come to the table and just make sure you click the button on the microphone so it's green.

There we are. Thank you for this opportunity to address the Select Board. My name's Nick Rind. I've lived with my wife and family at 16 Garden Road in Precinct C for 20 years. and I come before you this evening to address the issue of the MassBay forest development. I know the issue will be discussed in detail later at this meeting, but I'm not here to discuss the details. I'm here instead to express my disappointment with the way this issue has been communicated to the town. I understand that the Commonwealth intends that 180 units of housing are to be built on the 45 acres of the Mass Bay Forest. I also understand that the Commonwealth is keen that this development be done with extensive input from the town and eventual consent of the town.

I further understand that there's been no suggestion by any party that the southern 15 acres of the property, which is an integral part of the Centennial Reservation, would be developed as part of this project. Nonetheless, I have friends who regularly come to me genuinely worried that Centennial Park is going to be developed. And I believe this misconception has been facilitated by a lack of clear communication from our town government. Chair Freiman clearly expressed the circumstances surrounding the MassBay Forest development at this board's meeting last September. and laid out a reasonable outline for how the town could shape that development, an outline that was described later in the select board's letter in October. However, since then, the process for collecting town input has been canceled, with the only explanation being that, quote, there is significant uncertainty regarding the role the Commonwealth intends for the town to have, and

The town cannot provide additional information at this time due to pending litigation." I appreciate that this is a complicated project that will affect our town for generations. and that the select board has a fundamental duty to exercise due diligence to protect the interests of the town. However, threatening to sue the Commonwealth and using that as an excuse to limit information to the citizens of the town does not seem to me to be the most productive way to pursue that due diligence. Surely, we are working through the details with a commonwealth statement, would have been as accurate and much less alarming than a we are not certain that the Commonwealth is not trying to cut the town out of the development process statement that we got. The publication of the board's questions to the Commonwealth last week goes some way to elucidating the board's concerns about the logistics of this process, but raises no red flags that I could see would have prevented the initial stages of collecting town input.

I hope additional clarity will be provided later in this meeting. But either way, I encourage this board to work towards the sort of collaborative approach that Chair Freiman laid out six months ago that will benefit the town, the community college, and the Commonwealth. Thank you.

Mike Hines?

Nope.

and then we got a heads up that someone from Building a Better Wellesley might want to speak but I don't see anyone from that organization and that was everyone that reached out.

Okay, I am going to exercise my prerogative to give part of my chair's report now and that part will be on MassBay and that will be the extent of our MassBay discussion tonight. At the December 16th Select Board Meeting, I provided an update of the meeting held at the State House, which included Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus, Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Commissioner Adam Bakey, State Senator Cindy Cream, State Representative Alice Peisch, MassBay President David Padel, and MassBay Board of Trustees Chair Alyssa Povich, several state staff members, Megan, Corey, and myself. At that meeting, Secretary Augusta stated that the proposed development on Oakland Street would not exceed 180 units.

and that the Commonwealth saw an opportunity to preserve 39 to 40 acres of the forested site, intending to seek a developer who would commit to leaving that land undisturbed available to the community and under legal protection against future development. The development would concentrate on the remaining approximately five acre parking lot area with multiple kinds of housing under consideration. Our state legislators told the Secretary, Commissioner, and Dr. Perdell that they stand behind and support the town. I then stated that while litigation was not the town's preferred method of resolution, the board would consider all options to protect the town and the residents and to ensure that both the town and the Commonwealth comply with the statutory requirements. I also told them that the town had many questions in addition to a top priority of preserving the forested land

including but not limited to the Commonwealth's interpretation of several aspects of the Affordable Homes Act. and how it intended to implement the statute, the density of any proposed project, the serious traffic issues which exist currently on Oakland Street and Route 9, which would be exacerbated by a project of 180 units on Oakland Street, MassBay's initial plan for including student parking on the development site in addition to parking for housing residents, How to engage Mass Department of Transportation early to address those traffic issues since Route 9 is a state road. timing of promulgation of the regulations under the AHA, commitments that might be made to the town on the terms for the request for proposal, soliciting bids from any private developer, and more.

Finally, I told the Secretary and Commissioner Bakey that the town would need at least four months before an RFP was issued. Both our state legislators and we emphasize the need for HLC and DCAM to consider flexibility in the number of units they intended to build in any potential project. stating that 180 was a high number and would result in a very dense and problematic development at that location even if centered on the parking lot area. Commissioner Bakey indicated his position that there would not be downward movement in that number. As you know, the board canceled the community visioning session previously scheduled for December 8th because of the lack of clarity and conflicting information we had received from different offices in the Commonwealth.

In order for the board to consider rescheduling the visioning session, responses to these and other questions are necessary so that the board can continue to communicate and engage with residents. The Commonwealth has indicated an interest in hearing the Town's priorities and preferences, but we need clear parameters and expectations. The Town was asked to submit its questions in writing to the Secretary by January 9th. Since our December 16th meeting, the Board has engaged outside attorneys to work with Town Council and help the Board determine how to best move forward in clarifying the Town's rights and next steps. to protect strategy conversations and the attorney-client privilege and allow a full discussion between board members and council. Meetings were held in executive session as permitted by the Commonwealth's open meeting law.

The board's questions and concerns were incorporated into the letter sent to HLC staff on Friday. We also reserve the right to ask additional questions and present additional issues at any later time. That letter is a public document, was posted as part of our meeting packet material for tonight, and was circulated last evening in a special edition of the Select Board's newsletter, The W, sent to several thousand subscribers. The letter is also available for all residents on the Town's website. HLC has acknowledged receipt of the letter and the Board awaits the Commonwealth's responses in order to determine our next steps. The board is aware of and sensitive to a wide range of public opinion on this issue and is listening to all residents' views and concerns.

We continue to encourage you to send emails, visit us during office hours, and participate in Citizen Speak at our meetings. The Board will continue to provide updates as circumstances warrant. Our next agenda item is the executive director's report and I'll turn that over to Megan who is remote tonight.

Thanks, Marjorie. I just have a few items. Let me just pull up my notes. So first I wanted to remind folks that the Skip the Stuff initiative at local restaurants and takeout venues is underway as of January 1st, 2026. So this is just really the friendly reminder that patrons will need to request single-use items such as plastic utensils, napkins, coffee stirrers, and various condiment packages. So your restaurants have them. You just need to request them and they will... Give them to you straight away. And we have tons of information on the town's website. So if you go to the town's website and just search Skip the Stuff, it'll bring it to the Skip the Stuff webpage. I also just wanted to call folks attention to the Wellesley Cultural Council who has announced this year's awards. And these awards have totaled over $16,000 this year.

So the Select Board last year as a financial initiative had essentially doubled the amount of funds towards the Council. and so they have funded 18 projects and that's spanning music, theater, visual arts, literature, education, youth programming and community-based cultural initiatives. their press releases online. And I'd really encourage people to take a look at it. It details some of the amazing cultural programs that people have put in for. And I would also just encourage the award winners to add those events once they're formalized to the town's community calendar so that we can advertise those because they sound amazing and then lastly the town election candidates are set for boards and committees however there's still time for folks interested who want to run for town meeting to be a town meeting member to pull papers

If you would like to run for town meeting, the deadline to pull papers is January 23rd at 4pm, but you must have 10 signatures of registered voters from your precinct and submit those papers back to the town clerk by Tuesday, January 27th at 5pm. and that's all I have Marjorie.

Thank you very much, Megan. Our next agenda item is a public safety quarterly update. We have the fire chief and police chief here with us tonight. Who would like to come first? Chief Mortorelli. Thank you for being here. We invite the chiefs to join us on a quarterly basis because there's so much happening in their departments that we don't necessarily see every day and we want

both the board and all the residents to know what's happening in those departments thank you chief thank you thanks for having us tonight we appreciate it nice to see everyone again so just quickly I want to touch on a few updates and then talk about some projects that have been underway, bring you up to speed on where we stand with some of those and just go over a couple of what's new type of items around the station and I'd be happy to answer any questions. So just to begin, Firefighter Ben Gilkey successfully graduated from the Mass Fire Academy on December 1st and has been assigned to shift. I was pleasantly surprised when I attended the graduation to find out that Ben was nominated class president. and gave a great speech. So he's fitting in really well. We're happy to have him. We had an entrance exam that was a success. We had approximately 60 applicants. We performed about three days of interviews. with Haley Reddish from HR as well as Chief Soar.

We have a talented pool of candidates. We're currently performing background checks and I'm hoping that we'll be back up here maybe as early as next month to move forward with four new firefighters. just like the last knock on wood as the last update, no plan retirements. The senior Thanksgiving lunch was a great success. I want to thank Deputy Corder, who put in a ton of time planning and preparation, and all the volunteers. I know many of you were there, and I don't need to tell you what a great time it is. it's definitely one of the uh the more it's probably the best event of the year I think it's uh you know they're very grateful it's so fun to get to sit down and just hear some of the experiences and the conversations and there's just some great people and uh and we got to see Beth carry I think four plates at one time, which I think is still a record. So this is a big week for us.

We have live burns scheduled tomorrow and Thursday at Brookline Fire. So we're going to go through, rotate through the two days and we'll have the majority of the members of the department get to actually participate in live burns. So we forged a great relationship with Brookline Fire. They lend us a building once a year. with some staff so we can focus on our revolutions. They help us out with the actual burns and things of that nature. So we're really excited to do that. And contract negotiations started yesterday. So this will be, as you know, my first time on the other side of the table. I'm looking forward to it, and we'll keep you apprised with updates. So from some projects, you know from the last time, we've been doing a lot with technology, trying to modernize the department. and I just want to give you a couple of brief updates of where we stand so our alerting system project which is it's very important we've been working on this for quite some time the alerting system is essentially when a call when a caller will dial 9-1-1

and emergency comes in, dispatch will answer, decide who needs to go, where they need to go, and they inform the fire department. So this is a fully automated type of system. and the objective of it is to kind of streamline some of the information and take one step off of the dispatcher's plate A lot of help and a special thanks to Chief Whittemore and his team. Detective Peter McLaughlin spent countless hours trying to get this right. As you can imagine, there's a lot of growing pains in a project like this, a lot of reprogramming. and I'm happy to report we went live about six weeks ago and it's working really well so we're very happy where we are with that I mean I know this was something that's been in the works for quite some time so we're happy to finally you know, see this come to fruition. The next project was that you remember from the last time we spoke about the national reporting system where every fire department within the U.S.

as mandated to switch over to their system. And Wellesley Fire was the first in Metro Fire to do so. we had so much going on at the time I figured what's one more project rip the band-aid off and we're just you know we're under siege anyway but it actually it worked out well because I think being the first we got we got some extra TLC Whereas the departments that are doing it now are running into some roadblocks and bottlenecks. And we've actually been asked to assist some of the other departments. We failed a lot of phone calls, and a lot of departments are trying to use us as a blueprint. So it actually worked out well, and we're happy to help. which brings me into the next piece of it which first do which is the software system that we are using for anything under the sun, right? From payroll to scheduling, inspections, pre-incident planning. And we've been rolling along doing one module at a time.

We're in the process of doing the biggest one which is scheduling, which is to bring our time off and payroll online. and we're in the process now. We're just going to start with the training module. And the reason why I bring this up is it'll first do is it's a company that's really cornering the market in the fire service. and within Metro Fire, there are several, just about, I don't know if it's every department, but just about every department in some way, shape or form is utilizing it. it came up at the meeting last week at Metro that we should really have some type of a first due user group and unbeknownst to me I didn't realize how far along we were so I was asked to sit on that committee which I think will be good because it's going to put us in front of a lot of different departments, help them with some of their needs, and get to meet not only just chiefs but also other support staff within the department. So I think that will be a good opportunity for us.

LEPC as you know this had been dormant for quite some time really since COVID local emergency planning committee for those of you that don't know so we we did hold our first meeting in I believe November November. And it was a great meeting. We were able to establish, we voted on chair and a co-chair, Assistant Chief Dijon Minico and Lenny Izzo will chair the committee. as well as we reviewed some of the bylaws. And we now have groundwork of what we need to do to move forward. So we're working with a consultant behind the scenes in preparation for our next meeting in May to get a hazmat plan submitted. and I think, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I think after that meeting we may be ready for our first tabletop exercise. So we'll keep everyone informed as I know you would probably like to be a part of that and we would love to have you.

We started meetings for the marathon working with the BAA and that comes along very quick. So before you know it, it will be April and we'll be working with PD and getting our plans ready. So just a couple of things now. What's new around the department? As you know, we've been working with the master plan in the working group. We have representation from several different departments. within the town. Over the last month, we made tremendous strides. And I think, well, actually not I think, I know we'll be ready to present to the board in the very near future with clear and concise recommendations of which way this is going. So I know we've all been looking forward to this, and we're definitely excited to see that come to fruition. Our new engine one was delivered to the dealer in November. So they've been working fabricating to customize our specs for the last six or so weeks. And we just found out it's actually being delivered tomorrow.

I'll be in training at the fire at the live burn, but we have people that are going to be ready to receive it. So we'll be excited to have that in service and get all of our equipment transferred over to it. Our new command vehicle, Car 3, that's driven by the shift deputy, was put into service last week. And our new UTV, which will fall under the callsign Squad 1, was delivered. and all members were trained. We brought in an outside firm. They came to each of the four groups. They did a half day classroom session and then a half day practical hands-on portion at Morse Pond. So for those of you that will be attending the marathon, that will probably be the first time you get to see that in action. So that is our update, and I'm happy to field any questions or take any comments.

Wow. Well, like we said last time, you certainly have accomplished a lot. And I mean, this is a three-month report. Congratulations on all the consulting that you're doing and great to hear we have another firefighter on the line. It just seems like yesterday we made that appointment and it's nice to hear you went through the academy. 60 people taking the exam is a good number, isn't it?

We're happy with that.

That's terrific. And the four that you hope to appoint will round out your staff, right? Yes, correct. That's great. That's terrific. We've worked long and hard to fill that staff.

Yes, we have.

Do board members have questions or comments for the chief? Beth?

So thank you for the update. It's always great to hear how smoothly things are going. And I know you had a fair number of Metro calls that fire went out on. I know the local communities are grateful for the support of the town. I think it would be helpful maybe at the next update to give us an overview of the types of incidents that were responded to. in the quarter just kind of by the numbers so people could see what's going on because I know everyone sees the trucks going out all the time. But I think that would be a nice add to the report. Sure. If you could take that into consideration.

Of course.

Collette. I want to say very briefly thank you for the update and I think this is about 18 months since you've taken on this role as chief and it's unbelievable the amount of strategic initiatives and projects that you've taken on and Modernizing the Department. We are all benefiting from that. And so just want to say thanks. No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Glenn.

All right, Chief, thank you very much, and we look forward to the next presentation on the Fire Master Plan. I'm sure you're eager to get it moving along.

We certainly are. Thank you for having me tonight.

Thank you so much for coming.

Chief Whittemore, good evening. Thank you for being here.

Good evening. Happy New Year. So to start off with, obviously I'll be doing the same type of presentation, just a quick update on recent things going on around the police since I've last been here. and what we're doing in the future and what's coming up. So to start off, going back in the Wayback Machine to September, probably one of our largest initiatives was the e-bike task force, which came to fruition after months of planning by Lieutenant LaManager and numerous stakeholders throughout the town. Brown, and we felt very strongly that it should not just be the police department that led that or was primarily involved. We wanted buy-in from all of our stakeholders across the community. We put out our sandwich boards and signs and did a mailing and did an extensive campaign to educate the public. And as a result of that, I'm very happy to report that we've seen a significant reduction in e-bike complaints.

We had a number of buy-in, not only from the schools, but from coaches, from sports teams that may have had some people riding e-bikes. and we really saw a plummet in the number of complaints that came through in September. It started off, it was very busy in the end of August when everyone sort of came back and school was about to, start. But through September, through the campaign, we really had a lot of success, a lot of education. And again, those efforts were led by Lieutenant LaMeninger, and he got a lot of buy-in across the department. So you had all levels of the department contributed to that effort. And I think we saw a significant reduction through October of complaints, which was a huge success for us. Obviously, it was a very hot button issue, Colette knows certainly in the spring of last year as well. So working with human resources, as the board's aware, we managed to reclassify two jobs. One was the

IT specialist to IT public manager, which we're going to share with the fire department. The second being our office manager position, which was previously like an admin assistant position. so both of those were reclassified by HR and we filled we had Brittany Sullivan who works has worked with us for several years she is now our office manager she takes on a whole She does a lot anyway, but she has more responsibilities. And at present, she's interviewing for the vacant admin assistant position. So she's working directly with HR. which just takes it off of our plate and she's doing a fine job. We actually have some of our interviews tomorrow that she's coordinated directly with the HR department. Along those lines, we had the first round of interviews for the IT public safety manager position. That was headed up primarily by Detective McLaughlin and the HR department. and we had a number of fantastic candidates. We have our last preliminary interview tomorrow and then we'll go into a second round of interviews with the fire department just to see who our final candidate would be.

But we were pleasantly surprised at the the skill and knowledge of not only town operations with the IT department, but also public safety specifically, which is what we're looking for. So I take that as a win that human resources really helped us out with reclassifying that. And Detective McLaughlin did an absolute fantastic job writing the job description. for that. And I think that will really keep our IT needs met for the future and be very sustainable. All five of our officers that we had graduated earlier or in 2025 are fully trained and now on the street. So you'll see them. I know we got a nice letter tonight about one of them from a local citizen. Currently, we have two openings within the department for a police officer. We'll be holding an exam, which we're timing out in May or April and May. It's very similar to the one we had

two years ago where there's an online option that's proctored and also an in-person and that will follow a lengthy recruitment campaign headed up by Officer Ali Lucenta. and Ali takes members of the department to various job fairs at both community colleges and other colleges where we've had some success. So she will be starting that up. I know she's already posted the dates. And the most effective way to hire really qualified candidates that we got with the last round is to have a flyer that says our test is on this date. When you're graduating from college, take our test and see where you land. So we had, I think, 100 take the test two years ago, which was a huge uptick for us. and I think was a direct result of our recruitment campaign. So that will be ongoing this spring. As Chief Mortorelli indicated, the marathon will be coming again to Wellesley, and we already started our meetings this month, and they are... There are almost a few, at least from our perspective, we have a few meetings each week.

Deputy Chief Renzella will be heading up that effort and will be attending those meetings and leading our efforts along with Lieutenant Shostet and Lieutenant LeManager in those matters. We had a major visit from Secretary Clinton in November to Wellesley College, which we worked with our federal partners at the Secret Service on. And I say major. It was one of the larger visits that we've had, the presence The security presence was bigger than the last time, and we were able to successfully manage that. Secret Service was nice enough to give us a very nice plaque. Just this week, they showed up, which was probably an indication that they want more from us. But it was just very nice to have our federal partners recognize us and our ability to work with them. We have someone currently assigned as what's called a task force officer to Boston Secret Service who works extensively with them as time permits. We're also in the midst of another visit by Secretary Clinton that Deputy Chief Renzella is managing as we speak, literally this week.

He and Lieutenant Shostet are leading the efforts on that, so she's back for another few days at Wellesley College. and speaking of security operations, World Cup is obviously coming. in a few months for a lot longer than we first anticipated. At present, Wellesley will have a significant role, whether that's locally or also regionally at Gillette or Boston Stadium, as it's being called. and that's through our partnership with Metro LEC. So Metro is the organization that we belong to. We're probably one of the most northern towns. 44 cities and towns essentially going down to the Cape that pool resources including specialized units. So on game day, it'll be all hands on deck for whenever there's a match at Gillette. And we'll probably have between five and eight people committed to that between our communication. And the spectrum is wide.

everything from our communications people, our Detective McLaughlin, Officer Gover, to an officer that's assigned to the SWAT team, to multiple officers that are assigned to the tactical bicycle unit, which is very effective in crowd control. and our detectives as part of the investigative service unit. And they'll most likely be operating in a plainclothes capacity on those days. And then there's also, as the board's aware, a strong possibility that there may be a more local presence, which we're still working through. We had a major meeting today, as Director Jopp is aware. So we're still working on that to see what our role would be and what the role for the community would be. but that will be a significant impact on our operations for June through most of July, it sounds like at this point. I also never know if it's FIFA or FIFA, so Lieutenant Lead Manager told me to say World Cup. Just wanted to get that on the record.

We received a large donation once again from a local resident who wanted to remain anonymous for $50,000 during that same time period. Just recently we applied for a very competitive grant from the state. for public safety equipment or gear. So we received 16,000. We're successful in our efforts. We received 16,000, which was about half of what we wanted to outfit our officers with some tactical equipment. but we're going to use some donated funds and some other means that we have to supplement that so we'll get the tactical equipment. We're also planning on purchasing another AED, which goes in line with our sort of our, while the AED may not have reached the end of its useful life, we take it out of service before that, and we continue to slowly replace them instead of coming before the town and looking for a capital purchase request. just more of a rotating basis. Our third fully electric cruiser will be here any day. It's actually at the shop.

They're missing a console, so we're waiting for that. But that will be another Chevy Blazer, as we have now. So that'll bring our fleet up to three. And we currently have the infrastructure to support all three of those vehicles. in lines of other big things that have happened. On Thanksgiving morning, a little chilly, but we were out there for the annual turkey trot. We saw, I think, one of the largest both runner densities and spectator densities that day. again that's another almost all hands operation where many of our officers come in on their Thanksgiving morning to work and be part of that and then as soon as this year was a home game for the Thanksgiving Day game so as soon as that That is over. Multiple officers then transition immediately over to the Thanksgiving Day game and work that as well. With all the recent wind around town, we had a utility pole that has several communications antennas come down within the town.

and within an hour Officer Tim Gover and Detective Peter McLaughlin knocked the DPW radio system off the air and some other mutual aid communication systems that we have. Within an hour Officer Gover and Detective McLaughlin had managed to switch over to some other antennas that we had installed but were sort of as a backup so they got the DPW right back on the air and working with MLP and the DPW we've replaced that pole in the last week or two and we already have some new antennas on the way. So I just mentioned that because that sort of goes in line with how we our philosophy on we always like to have some really strong backups and that that was a perfect opportunity. I got the message that the poll had come down and the radio was off the air and then within an hour Tim Grover was reaching out to me to let me know that the DPW is back on the air and there's no greater success in backup systems when you have those kind of officers that are dedicated and you have the systems in place so On the training side, we've been doing a lot of extensive training.

We had obviously received capital funds to replace our electronic control weapons, more commonly known as tasers. So once we got those funds after July 1st, we immediately ordered those. And in August, we had department-wide training on the new systems. So those are fully in place, and everyone is up to speed on those. In November we completed, we have to qualify at the range several times during the year with our firearms. So one of my initiatives with our command staff was two thirds of our people work at night. So we shoot at night. So we went to the range that we borrow and shot at night under the leadership of Detective, excuse me, it's two Popovskys, Officer Popovsky and his staff, his firearm staff really put on a great training night for us and it just it's very realistic when you're when you're out there at night and depending on flashlights and other ambient light to shoot and that was a huge success.

It's not the easiest in the world to run a night shoot, to be quite frank, but detectives... Officer Pawlowski, did a fine job along with the rest of his staff. So currently at this point, we're recertifying all of our officers in defensive tactics this month, which is just OC, baton, and some other things that are mandated. and we have a number of active shooter trainings that were already sort of in the mix or being planned. This week we're working with Newton PD and we have six officers at a very large training Session that they're holding. We have a great relationship with Newton PD these days. So they invited us to attend. In return, we're supplying Upham School potentially for one day to practice some of the tactics. So it's a great partnership. It's a great opportunity. And the training is all under a federal grant, so it's free and just exceptional training. I know Babson is having a training coming up that we've been invited to in March. recently worked with Wellesley College on some tabletop exercises that they're planning.

And we are going to be running our own department-wide training that we're going to invite all the colleges, MassBay, Wellesley College, Babson College, to attend, and that will be in the last week of February and the first week of March. That will be a very significant training. Very fortunate to have the support of Joe McDonough from Facilities and also Dr. Lucier, who have generously provided the Upham School for our training. and that just adds a lot of realism to the training and I think our officers will get a lot out of it. We're also, as I said, purchasing some new tactical gear which we'll be able to implement and really train on in a hands-on method so the officers will be very comfortable in using it. and along the training front the last 18 months we really our previous training regime was always seemed to be crammed into the end of the year end of the fiscal year or in the beginning of the fall where we tried to accomplish a number of trainings all at once. And it put a lot of strain on the department.

So last year and a half, we really tried to work on from September to May, spread out our training once a month, to bring the whole department together and do this training. This is the first time that we've actually been able to really implement that and it's been exceptionally, it's a lot easier and it's a lot more efficient and we don't feel like we're trying to cram everything into one month and then especially now with World Cup soccer coming so all of our training should be done by the end of May which is just it's a great relief so and that is the updates from the police department. Certainly any questions anyone have I'd love to answer.

Well I think the number one takeaway for anybody listening to these two reports is how sophisticated our public safety departments are. how hard everybody's working, how broad their purview is, how strategic all of this planning is, how everybody works together interdepartmentally across town. It's quite astonishing. You think about Wellesley as a small town of 29,000 people. We have amazing staff and our public safety as community partners is second to none. So thank you very much, Chief. Thank you, Lieutenant. Thank you, Chief. Does anyone have a question for Chief Whittemore? Tom?

Chief, in addition to all the accomplishments that you've talked about, I really want to acknowledge the work that you did on e-bikes and inserting some kind of regulatory control over the use of these bikes. and I want to acknowledge Sheila and Corey and the schools and really everyone who pulled together finally. I had received a number of calls about that and there was some frustration prior to departments making an effort to focus on how to try to I think more than just impose some control, develop a constructive for their inclusive approach to this so that kids didn't feel targeted, so that they were working through coaches, through individuals who they respect in order to try and understand

not only the danger to themselves but the danger to the public so though many of those same people who had called with frustrations began to call with and say thank you for the work that was done but I think it You know, it's more important than people may realize. We've probably prevented a lot of injuries in the riders and in the pedestrians. And I just wanted to acknowledge all the work that you and everyone else did on that program.

I appreciate that. Thank you very much. It was nice to get the buy-in from the community.

It's been an area of widespread concern over the past few years, so thank you and to the entire team for addressing that. Beth?

I just had a quick question. I know it always comes up at late fall, early winter. Have we completed all of the evacuation trainings with the schools at this point?

Yes, I probably should have mentioned that. So starting in September, we schedule, we do all the drills, the emergency emergency evacuation drills is what we call them. And we have done those with all the schools, Kathy Poirier and Matt Wall, our SROs, our school resource officers. they do primarily the scheduling and then Deputy Chief Renzella and his team will go out depending on where it is and they will run the drill. they also do that for houses of worship within the community that request it and a temple Beth is one that we've partnered with for years they've been very very they're always looking for something different and so they we try to give them something different and I know at a recent department head meeting that we had with the town given the new building here our staff will be coming in at some point with the town hall staff and working with them on not only the run hide fight essentially that whole program but also

the challenges that this unique building provides. So they'll be working with individual staff members. And I know Executive Director Jop brought that up at our last, like I said, department head meeting. And we plan on going forward with that.

and my other question was we have five major, at least five major educational institutions, maybe six actually. Have we reached out to them to see if they need additional support on inspecting the safety protocols in their buildings and kind of their procedures? Do they need extra support from us?

Mass Bay, Wellesley.

Mass Bay, Wellesley College, 10 Acre, Dana Hall, Babson.

So again, with Wellesley College, Babson, and Mass Bay, We work very closely with them. And MassBay has a new police chief. He's a former lieutenant from Wellesley College. He's very familiar with us. So we're developing some plans with him right now. We've actually, the last time we had an active shooter drill, we had MassBay for the first time come. So they're on sort of the same page as us. We are in regular contact with them. We actually have an orientation program starting, which will be for the next update, where our officers are actually going to walk through and some other... of MassBay and where things are and also some other security upgrades that they're doing. Wellesley College, same thing. They're working within their community to allow us access to their buildings on a 24-7 basis, which we've had with Babson for many years. and even like the Star Academy and Dana Hall. I know we did some training at Dana Hall.

And so 10 Acre is on our like emergency radio system, for instance, as are several of our houses of worship. We test every Tuesday with them. So we are in constant communication. I know the name, I can't think of which church, but recently we did some training at one of the other houses of worship that we previously hadn't. So words out. We offer the training for free.

Great. Thank you very much.

I just want to say briefly, I want to make one more note of the amount of deep relationships you have with our community partners. here in town regionally and then within your police networking support network that you have which is quite broad and that really takes a lot of management time and expertise to leverage that and I think you leverage that very well. same with the fire department I think those are networks that really pay dividends to us over and over again and the experience that we have with the marathon I'm sure will be very helpful with the FIFA World Cup and so yeah I think it's I just want to commend you for that it's just it's wonderful to hear it and I'll pile on with one more excellent thank you to the whole team who did the e-bike training, our regional collaborative reached out to me after we had done our outreach. People from Newton, people from Holliston, people from Safe First to Schools had reached out and said, who did that? Can I talk to them? I saw your materials. Can you share it with me?

So it really was very interesting to other communities. And I wish you a good partnership with the new chief in Newton. And I hope that that relationship is very strong.

We're very fortunate with Newton. potentially their incoming chief we worked very closely with in previous department and even their chief that just retired we have a very strong relationship in their their current acting chief is almost a 40 year veteran of the department and someone that quite frankly as a new sergeant I used to call quite a bit when he was a lieutenant in Newton at 3 in the morning to get some advice and that relationship has paid dividends now and it's very nice because it wasn't always that way with Newton and now it is so much stronger. We value that partnership very much. Is that it? All right.

thank you both very much thank you for all the extensive marathon planning the town shows up in droves as spectators and we appreciate all your efforts in keeping everybody safe on that day

Thank you very much and thank you to our team and thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Okay. Well, that's a hard act to follow, but we have our traffic committee update and a traffic regulation public hearing. So I will open the public hearing and turn to Mobility Manager Sheila Page for a couple of updates and votes.

Thank you everyone. Thanks for having me. I wanted to give a quick update on the Traffic Committees activities for calendar year 2025. There was something in your packet, so I'm not going to go deep into it. However, I've received a few questions on sort of how we operate. So we are a staff group with staff. We're a collaborative group from police department, school department, fire department, public works, and the engineering division, as well as the select board. and really we kind of were sort of a clearinghouse to work on sort of all things roadway safety and pedestrian safety related. We work with our regional and state partners, MBTA, WRTA, and the AmassDOT to improve our

services within town and improve some safety concerns that we have. And then a big chunk of what we do is we review resident requests regarding roadway safety. and how do we do that? We gather the data. We look at speed, volume, crash data. We always go out and do a site visit. Sometimes we meet with the residents directly on site. and then we use, Wellesley has their own traffic regulations, so we refer to those, we use Mass General Law, we use mass DOT guidance and then we also use the manual of uniform traffic control devices and that is a a nationwide standard so that drivers and pedestrians can expect the same thing in every town. And that is a We need to follow that. So that's an important guidance for us.

And then when we evaluate various requests, sometimes the solution is regulatory, which is adding a stop sign, a yield sign. no parking and those things as the road commissioners the select board needs to vote on speed limit speed limits we get a lot of requests of that and that is often mostly those need to be approved through MassDOT and they have a careful process for that. And then there's non-regulatory things that we can do to help mitigate some situations and that could be striping, posting yellow advisory signs. We look at physical improvements that we can do to the road. Sometimes the signal timing needs to be tweaked a little bit. I should add, we often consult with, we have a consulting engineer beta group

and we often tap into their knowledge to do more in-depth studies when we need and then we also talk about various grants that we want to go for and those grants can offer design money, equipment and installation, construction money. So some highlights, it's not going. So some highlights are, and I'm going to also steal from the e-bike safety. We talked about it a lot, and it was very much a collaborative effort led by Lieutenant... LeManager who is sitting in the back here he was he just was really focused on it and very patient talking with our residents and figuring out how to how to handle this situation and it was a great collaborative effort.

In fact, Stephanie Hawkinson did a little poem in the, I think it was in the last, the Christmastime Wellesley Report. so it's been the town everybody's been involved. We also signed up for Urban SKD which is an online service that actually takes data from cell phones and car data and can give us within a week some speeds. Speed Data. And so that's been really helpful in addressing some of the issues because it does take time to put out our recorders. and we have a lot of requests for those so sometimes a neighborhood has to wait a month or so until those recorders can be put out.

So this has been a great tool to make quicker decisions and see and even prioritize where we want to put those recorders. and then this past winter and spring and summer you probably heard a lot about it I know you all have we completed our complete streets prioritization plan and that really that kind of sets us up for grant opportunities. And I had told everyone initially like, we've been so good at getting those grants that they're trying to slow down some of the towns down. However, they took those breaks off and so we are primed to continue to get some Complete Streets money. Mike Murphy at DPW has been really successful in getting the money. So that's kind of the very quick traffic summary. Madam Chair, shall I move on to the please do.

And thank you for those explanatory slides. They're very helpful. I didn't have as much visibility into regulatory versus non-regulatory signs, so I appreciate the clarifications.

Oh, one minute.

I don't see. Oh, right here. Actually, okay. There we go. Okay. All right. So thank you. So for the As I said, the select board needs to approve regulatory changes on our roadways, so I'm here representing the traffic committee to request that you consider A parking prohibition on Halsey Avenue and Turner Road, as well as a stop on Ivy Road and Poplar. So first, the parking prohibition This is the corner of Halsey Avenue and Turner Road, which then kind of feeds into the Morris's Pond Access Road.

This location is a popular destination in town and often has parking issues with cars crowding the intersection, which then makes it difficult. for other cars or pedestrians to navigate through the area. There's virtually cones up all year round to try to control this parking. So it's kind of been... tried out in the neighborhood. So we want to make this parking prohibition permanent in our traffic regulations. So it would protect the kind of two sides of the northwest corner and then a little bit on the other side of Halsey Avenue. So that's the first parking area. their first regulatory change.

Sheila, can we ask you questions about that? Board members, Kenny?

where do you think the parking will there's two options here really people are either going to not come anymore or they're going to park somewhere else where do we think that those cars are going?

they will well it depends ideally they'll continue on and park at Morris's Pond if it's opened it will push some traffic further down but we'd like to start with this with an iterative approach because it is a public road. We should be allowing parking on the roads to some standard and so we'd like to start here to make sure that we're keeping the corner clear.

Sheila, how do you determine the length of the no parking prohibition?

Well, part of it is to make sure we got a clear corner, but also we like to put the sign so we want to end the parking. ideally between parcels, so sort of on the property line. So ideally there's not a sign in front of anybody's house. Can't guarantee that, but that's what we try to prevent. So that's kind of how we do it. And then we look at then where we're ending it to the next driveway as well.

And then beyond Halsey, is there a parking prohibition the rest of the way down Turner Road until you get to the parking lot at Morse's Pond? Or is that parking permitted as well?

Say that again.

further down Turner Road until you get to the parking area at Morse's Pond.

So I think that's Morse's Pond to access.

Right. Is there any parking allowed along the access road?

to my knowledge, no.

And is that signed already?

I don't know. That's a very good question. I can go out and check the parking regulations. I just didn't know. I think it is.

Sure. Sheila, can I ask you a question about, first, thank you for taking this up because as long as I know of, this has been a problem in this neighborhood. One of the things I think has exacerbated the problem is the unpredictability of the parking lot hours. It's fluctuated wildly. I think we're in a decent place right now with the parking being open. generally during the daytime until dusk. I don't think people understand what the hours are. And I'm wondering if we could... I know the lot isn't under our control but could we do a better job signing the entrance to the parking lot that in fact there is parking

if you just go in that entrance and so that people aren't wondering where to park and they're not kind of roaming around and parking at the end of people's driveways and all over the place. Particularly what I've noticed is when there are track meets or track practices. there are cars everywhere because I think the kids kick off their run down in the parking lot area so they keep the cars out of there or they're kicking it off on Turner Road and so they want to park closer. I'm not sure what's going on, but it is particularly crazy then. So if we could sign that parking lot and get commitments, that it's going to be open from X hour to X hour.

I think that would help, to Kenny's point, the patterns of where people are going to go instead of scooching them further into the neighborhood.

So are people parking in this area to access the North 40? Or are they parking there to get to Morse's Pond? Because it's a long walk from there.

It is a long walk. So no, I think it's mostly the trails. That's what I thought. And in the summer, it's probably overflow.

Right. From what I see, I'm there every Thursday morning walking, and people park on the side of Turner Road mostly. You're allowing for parking right now. It's people walking. that time in the morning is people walking the dogs there's lots of other uses this is best mentioned this cross-country and then there's uses for the pond but you know that's what I see

But in the summertime you can walk in and not have bought a pass. So they do that also.

have you had discussions with, I'm sort of following up on Kenny's point as I look at the map, You know, people react when they see that they can't park where they are used to parking. They sort of say, well, I'm going to show you. And they figure out where they can park next. And I'm worried that it's just going to move down Halsey Ave or the right-hand turn. have you had a conversation with the neighborhoods about what's going to happen if that's the case because we can end up with no parking everywhere from Turner Road north. And there's going to have to be a limit at some point as to how far this goes.

Right, no, we haven't had a direct conversation with the neighborhood. However, this parking situation has been set up with cones, so we want to We want to get that in the book so that we can then move, see how that goes and move forward and see how the parking patterns change. yeah because we'll have to watch then the corner of Halsey and Marshall as well

I don't oppose this. I'm just trying to figure out what's plan B. What do we do if the next problem comes up? And how are we going to chase this so that the initial solution remains effective and as intended.

Sheila, can I interrupt for a second? I just want to restate what Sheila said at the outset, which is that this is an iterative process. that a lot of the times when it comes to traffic and parking and mobility which I've learned in two and a half years of being on traffic committee is that sometimes these mitigation efforts and these changes work and sometimes they need to be tweaked or Strengthened. And I think that this is making permanent something that has been done with kind of a band-aid or slap-dash approach. And if it doesn't work, and if, you know, we've talked to Lieutenant LaMeninger and our representatives from the police department on traffic committee and increased enforcement will be part of this to make sure that people aren't just ignoring this new enforceable restriction.

and I have a feeling that the residents who have been living with this for a long time to Beth's point I mean I used to live in I grew up in this area so I know that this has been a long time I assume the residents will let us know if this is or is not working and we'll bring it back to traffic committee, of course. I mean, that's the whole point of the traffic committee. We meet monthly.

I do think it's important what Sheila's saying is that this is formalising what's being done with cones right now so it's not a huge change in order of conditions but I do think and I've always felt sorry for the people that live there who have these giant orange cones outside their home it would be much better to have a sign and I've lived on a street where we put in parking restrictions and it went from people parking all the time to signage with enforcement and it was amazing and a wonderful change and it really worked and it really solved all of our issues and I hope that the same thing happens here.

Sheila, so one of the things I've been really impressed with recently with traffic and parking, and I can think of at least three recent examples where we've done very strong neighborhood outreach. had the discussions, and then the recommendation has been brought forward with community buy-in, and they know exactly who to go to if things still need tweaking. With something like this, is there a time for revisiting? Is there a plan to pull the neighbors together and say, we've been through a cycle? You know, we've been through... Track Meats, and Summer, and Fall. Is there a revisit time where we can rethink it, move signs? What's the check-in points that are scheduled?

Yeah, we can. There's nothing formal scheduled. We can revisit in the fall, sort of, as you say, after we finish a cycle. I'm hoping the residents provide feedback anyway. I'm sure we'll hear from them if they don't like it.

I would also argue that this is a wonderful opportunity for the neighborhoods town meeting members to let the residents know that that's what they're there for. so if you know in a year or in nine months this is or is not working walk down the street to your neighborhood town meeting member let them know and if you don't feel comfortable coming to town hall your town meeting member certainly does they're your legislator

No, I was asking because it leapfrogged, I think because it's been such a persistent problem. It leapfrogged that early input session. I mean, it's a public hearing, so we're going to hear. I see some of the neighbors. So we're going to hear some, but I just wanted for clarity people to understand. Once we vote a regulation, how hard or easy is it to change the regulation?

Oh, I mean, it's easy. I mean, yeah. So if it's not working, I'll be back. Right.

It's as easy as us taking a vote like we're planning to do tonight.

Exactly. Exactly.

Right, and your meetings are public and anybody can come to your meetings or provide citizen speak for us. Our meetings are not public. Oh, your meetings are not public. Sorry, I misspoke. but there are plenty of opportunities to reach out and you're obviously getting feedback from residents now so yeah whenever you feel it needs to be revisited this makes A lot of sense as a first step and see what happens. Any other questions on this? Are there citizens who would like to address this particular item? We have two people that signed up.

One is the first person that signed up is Joe Schott. He's on Zoom. So Sheila, if you want to unshare your screen. I think Mr. Schott is still on the phone.

Hi, Joe Schott from 26 Halsey. Apologies, I'm in the dark of a car outside. A building here. I first want to thank the Traffic Committee for bringing this forward and the Select Board for taking some time to hear it. This is a dynamic little corner of our neighborhood and I think I'm very supportive of these no parking restrictions. I think this is not going to meaningfully change the overall parking supply because they're leaving the North 40 side of Turner available, which is where most people traditionally park. And that's, I think, Okay. I think while you're focusing on this corner, though, is the the bigger issue that I think that is lost and not apparent in that diagram is the existence of that parking gate and over the years the inconsistent hours as Beth referenced

sometimes the gate is always closed at night and at different times of the year can be closed for several months I think there's current efforts to try and leave it more permanently open during the day but regardless that when the gate is open people as they travel down Turner gather a high rate of speed and I think that creates real issues on the access road side as you approach the pond parking lot in the water plant and I would strongly encourage as we're thinking about this area for the traffic committee and select board to revisit Speed Limits, and Stop Signs right at the gate. I think in the past, neighbors have been told that doesn't meet the standards as referenced by Sheila earlier, but I think what we're confused by is that we have a literal Gate. We stop people from going there. It's more like a driveway to the parking lot and the water plant.

and in fact I look today at the town maps and it's identified as a unaccepted street on town municipal land which I think should give the boards that control those lands whether it's select board and the board of public works to exercise some discretion and treat the access road part as more of a driveway with a lower speed limit and a stop sign and I think the important part of the stop sign as with there's a lot of signs when you get to that corner this will be the parking signs I think are welcome it'll be a few more but the big thing we're trying to alert drivers to is that when you enter pass those gates you're really in a major change in conditions because for people who do park on Turner and are trying to access the trails toward the pond or if they don't have a beach pass and they're not allowed to park in the summer. The most direct route to that beach and the waterfront is the road. The sidewalk takes you on a meandering path in an indirect way. So you have heavier than usual pedestrian traffic on the way. I just wanted to take this opportunity to say I encourage the adoption of these no parking standards.

As Corey mentioned, we can come back if there are little reasons to tweak, but I think it's going to work great. But I think we really need to look more urgently at the safety issues presented by the traffic along the access road. Thank you very much for your consideration. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Joe. Mr. Jones.

I think Megan's got your slides. She'll put them up for you.

Just tell me whichever one you want, Pete. I don't think you want them all up at once, so just let me know.

Meeting member precinct B. My house is the second one in from the corner on Halsey Ave. My family's been there since 1947. So we've kind of seen it all. We've tried to work through these problems over the years. This big push on the problem started probably about 13 years ago. and we've been trying different things and they haven't worked out successfully. We've had some success but not as much success as we'd like. What I'd like to do tonight, because we have some of the neighbors here that live right on the corner with me, is bring up some of the slides so you can kind of see the substance here that we're dealing with. and we get to see the big crowds of 60, 70 cars when no one else gets to see them. So I just want to give you a flavor of what that's looking like during

The first slide that we have up here is Turner Road from Morse's Pond to Western Road. And those cars that day go from the gate all the way to Western Road and that's about 60 cars, 60 to 70 cars. At first we were calling the police, as you can see, one of the police cars. They were very good at coming down. But we don't have any formal enforcement. They can park there currently with no regulation around that. What was concerning us is what was happening at the gate with the safety issues because people can't see the cars speeding up from the pond or speeding down from the pond when they come out of Hall of the Abbey. Could you flip to another slide, the next slide, please? No, one more.

Hold on. For some reason, I had them all up and it's only showing me that one. Hold on one sec.

I'm glad to see that my meetings aren't the only ones with technical issues. Sometimes we wonder.

Well, in six years post COVID, we're still figuring the tech out.

Can you see that? Yeah. Okay.

What's hard to see is this was an event that they had there, a running event that they've started, and the cars are parked on both sides. You see the A-frames they have there. on the on the left hand side it says no no pocket on this side no it's going to be an issue but We can work through it, I'm sure, once they understand to park down the pond. But anyways, that's typically what happens every time they have that event, all the way down there. and next slide please. This is a panoramic view so you can see it. So on the far right, the person in that car there that's parked by the gate on the corner which is a safety problem, all the way down to Weston Road as you can see the cars on the left there. So this is a big problem. Next slide please.

So this shows Halsey Ave. and the safety issues that our neighbors across the street from us that are here tonight actually are facing. What happens is they park right on the corners. And to my knowledge, you're not supposed to be parking on the corners. and Morse's Pond Gate is to the right hand side by that sign that's up there and they're parked on both sides going up Halsey. They didn't park in front of the fire hydrant I was pleased to see but that last car and this kind of shows you the issue on the corner and if a fire engine and one time we had an ambulance that tried to get by and they were even closer and they couldn't get by at the time and sometimes they park in front of the gate if it's closed Next slide, please, Megan. This shows my halsey out. See the fire hydrant? They didn't park in front of it.

just past that is my driveway. And the cars actually go down to Marshall Road, the next road over, and then down Marshall a certain amount. So that's kind of what we'd like to see it shifted to so that they go down to the pond and they stay off of Marshall, stay off of Halsey. during these events, et cetera. And they typically will park up on the lawns and cause problems there and stuff like that. Next slide, please. So this is the corner of Turner and Halsey. You can see how they disregard parking on corners. They park in front of the gate. We've had the fire department come down to try to practice once in a while down the pond, and there's an issue with cars there, that type of thing. Next slide, please.

This shows the cones have been up for I don't know how many years now. Some of them have gotten pretty beat up. They don't know, don't park where cones are for some reason. I haven't figured that one out yet. But on both sides of the street there they've got cones and they park there despite it all and of course they turn around in my neighbor's driveway and Of course, I'm standing out in front of my driver so they don't bother me. But anyways, on the right-hand side is going down to the gate again. So you can see the amount of parking it does there, even with the cones there. So we probably need to have them parked down at the... down at Morse's Pond parking lot and enforce it so that they understand. Because we have hundreds of dog walkers. I mean, it's incredible over the years how many dog walkers come down there. They park here and they walk all the way down to the pond or they go down the trail, that type of thing. Can I have another slide, please?

and occasionally this is what we have for leftover things in front of the houses and in the woods and stuff like that. So it's become a problem. You can see how the grass has worn away from parking on it on the sidewalk there. That's kind of what I wanted to show you. Now, the issue coming out of Turner, can you go back a couple of slides showing that Turner slide there, Megan? The Halsey Ave slide, rather.

So, Pete, your reference to dog walkers means that these parking issues are not limited to the cross-country or the other running...

Rather than children, they have dogs. No, it's not limited just to that. We've gone from one poop barrel to two poop barrels now there. on the corner there because they used to leave them up in the trees and throw them in the woods and stuff like that. One more slide back, Megan, to show the halls you have one, if you would. Oh, another one. You're almost there. There we go. So on the holiday outside, when they're parked like this and you come down the road... you try to look to the right for traffic and they come flying up the road and sometimes it's a near miss. I haven't had anybody hit it yet. But when you're coming around that corner, it becomes a real safety issue for the neighbors. on that corner.

So I think the stop signs, one on each direction coming up and going down would have them hesitate before they ran out on the road because they come down there. I don't know what the limit on that road is. It might be 35. I'm not sure. Do you know what the one is? 25. Is it 25? Yeah, but they come flying down that road. As a matter of fact, one time I had a motorcyclist come down that road and he came down so fast that he didn't see. At one time we had a wire across there rather than the gate. He hit the wire. almost killed them, threw them into the woods down the other way. I asked him if he wanted to have an ambulance. He says, no, no, no. Well, we can call the police and they can help you. No, don't call the police. But this is the issue we have speeding down that road. So that's all I have unless there's some other questions on there. But I think the pictures are worth a thousand words.

Thank you, Pete.

It shows you the amount of the problems there.

Sheila, once the no parking signs are put up, that would facilitate issuing parking tickets, right?

Yes. Yes, usually. I don't know if Lieutenant Manager is here, but usually it's a warning period to...

Is there a problem with putting stop signs each direction at the gate if we're going to keep the gate there? So they would have to stop before they entered into Turner Road or stop before.

You mean coming out through the gate?

Coming out through the gate, yeah, and going down just on the access road part of that. because I'm just waiting to hear the crash because I've done it myself. I've come down there and looked, and you can't quite get the whole view when they come in there.

So Pete, why don't we deal with the no parking first and let the traffic committee consider the stop sign issue because this is what's before us now. Thank you very much for those pictures. They're very helpful.

Kenny?

Thank you, Pete, for the pictures because that really highlighted the problem to me. What I would say to follow up on what a lot of us has said is I think the parking committee should really start thinking hard about what's going to happen next because I don't think those cars are just not going to show up anymore and they have to go somewhere. So I think you guys should spend some time thinking about what to do next.

Marjorie, another resident would like to speak.

Is there a reason we didn't go to Marshall and stop it? So it's easier to understand that the first block... you can't park as opposed to people getting there and finding out oh the couple spaces they could park are taken and then they do start doing turnarounds there

We didn't go to Marshall partly because that's not sort of what's been coned off initially. If we're going to go that far, we need to start really talking to the neighbors because the no parking prohibition would apply to the neighbors as well and so suddenly the neighbors now if they have guests have to walk further as well so we wanted to try to keep it as tight as possible as a first step to see how it goes.

Good evening. I'll keep my remarks brief because I know it's been a long evening. This has been a good discussion. My name is Jamison Barr. I actually live on 2 Halsey Avenue, right on that corner. and I took some notes on some of the questions. One thing that is an issue is that area is a turnaround area. and so with all of the, one of the big issues is all the Amazon delivery trucks that come around there and when it's double parked it becomes a problem with them. there's also been issues as Pete mentioned about ambulances and it's also not only a turnaround area there but when the gate is closed it also becomes a problematic issue. I also second both what Pete and Joe had said about that access road that we are finding people that just speed through that road when the gates are are open and it has been you know

there hasn't been any danger, but it has been a problem. It is a problem. The other thing is your question about where people will ultimately park. A lot of times my wife and I walk through there with our child. We love that area. And it's always funny to me that when I look at all the cars parked up and I go to the parking lot and the parking lot is empty. So that's one thing. And then to your point about communication, my family would be happy to help in any communication, happy to put anything on our lawn, whatever we could do. also it might help with with the chief of police because we will stop calling about the stolen cones because when we first when we first moved there we were like wow this is wonderful then all of a sudden there's these park up then they came and they

they gave us these wonderful cones with all the signs and then probably within a week or so they had been stolen so that is an issue but the other one is really I don't want to Belabor, but I do think that there should be some thought about whether there should be a stop sign or something, maybe some type of yield sign or something at that gate. and the other thought that I had was really that the point that has been made that with the cones, people are complying with the cones So I think that if there is proper signage or proper enforcement, I don't think that there will be an issue. But I really appreciate the select board considering this issue. And it'll be very important. for my family and for our neighbors.

Thank you very much. So I think that, yep.

Hi, Terry Bonet, 45 Turner Road, Precinct B. So I am the house that Sheila showed. That's right. It's the last one that looks at the North 40 right before the gate at Morse's Pond, and I've been there for 35 years. so I see all the traffic and it's not just you know for the for the meets or things like that or our events obviously huge in the summertime with people who don't have pond passes and so they don't use the parking lot they will use Turner Road or Halsey and there's just no signage there's really no signage for people there's no indication of that the the gate is open and that the parking lot is open so to

and, you know, a select person's woods comment, it would be really good if there were some signage at that gate just to say, Parking available and here are the days and time I think that would be a super easy fix. Additionally back, and I'm sure some of my neighbors will recall this, they had some years ago in order to control the traffic. And I know that's not the topic, but they put down the speed bumps, the removable speed bumps. along that road, the access road, and those were very helpful to slow down the cars, especially from coming out of the gate, no pun intended. they do kind of just go and but there's traffic all year round very popular place for dog walking I had a dog myself

it's it's so wonderful that we can have that kind of wooded area and available to the public but it would be really nice if they just could use the parking lot that is down and where I go there every day I see that no one's using it so

they're just using the street thank you thank you very much so we've given among all of us has been a very productive conversation and we've given the traffic committee I think a lot to think of potentially beyond for this issue, beyond this issue, maybe next steps to consider. What's before us tonight is the no parking regulation so that's the only thing we can vote on tonight. but it's clear that the conversation will continue and the work will continue. are there any other comments before we have a motion?

A very brief question are we going to use drones for enforcement the same and we've had some success with that for big events as we've had success at the Thanksgiving Day games and things like that is that something we're considering? and it might be, no, okay. All right, I have no further questions. Can we have a motion please, Colette? Yes, my apologies.

Do you want me to do the other one?

We're going to vote on each separately. Okay, so I will close the public hearing first. No, we need to leave the public hearing. You can do the first motion. First motion, okay.

It's actually the second motion in our packet, but it's the Halsey. It's okay.

Okay. Move to amend the traffic regulations under no parking schedule one by adding Location, Halsley Avenue on the south side from Turner Road to approximately 140 feet westerly on Halsley Avenue from Halsley Avenue on the north side from Turner Road approximately 110 feet westerly on Halsley Avenue. from Turner Road West on the west side from Halsley Avenue to Hodges Avenue.

Second.

all in favor aye okay thank you and those neighbors who are here if you would share with your other neighbors that this is the first attempt to address the issue and that they're invited to contact the board or the police department to let them know how it's going so the traffic committee could consider further steps if necessary. Thank you all very much. Okay, Sheila.

All right.

Next one.

Oh, and the traffic committee's email is trafficsafety at wellesleyma.gov. All right. Let's see. So the second request is to add a stop sign on Ivy Road at the intersection of Poplar Road. typically when roads intersect sometimes there is a stop there this intersection has no stop control on either direction and typically the roads have When you're driving, if you're approaching a busier road, it's obvious to the driver who has the right of way, and you stop.

In this instance, they're both low volume, low speed roads, and so it's not really distinguishable who has the right of way. so we wanted to add a stop and then the MUTCD the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control recommends that the stop go on the road that has the better visibility. And so that then is why we've chosen to put the stop signs on Ivey.

So because it's a plus intersection that doesn't have signage and it's not clear who has the right of way, you don't have to meet a warrant for volume?

No. Okay. No.

Usually we hear about the volume.

Yeah, sometimes we look at the volume. But because they're equal volume is really what it is.

I've always wondered why there wasn't a stop sign there. I think this is a very sensible addition. Any questions? Kenny?

What would be the argument against this? It seems...

probably just that it's relatively low traffic but it is having gone this route to go to hardy school for six years it is it's dangerous when two cars are crossing right right

stop signs are not to be used for speed control that's very clear in the regulations I mean in the in the manual and so some people complain because they don't want to stop but because it's not obvious it's important that

somebody knows that they need to stop okay no questions from the board is anyone oh Beth did we receive a lot of requests for this I mean it seems logical to me I'm just curious if we received a lot of community feedback

This one actually came up through the Complete Streets effort. So the public input during the surveys, this was requested several times. and then when we were out there when we're standing out there usually particularly a lieutenant manager in his in his uniform they always come out and ask what we're doing so so we get to talk to neighbors

Okay, is anyone here from the public to address this one?

Okay, Colette, may I have a motion, please? Move to amend the traffic regulations under Section 7-11, Schedule 4, stop signs by adding Ivy Road at Poplar Road, so as to face southbound drivers on Ivy Road, and Ivy Road at Poplar Road, so as to face northbound drivers on Ivy Road.

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Okay.

Sheila, thank you very much.

Thank you. Thanks for your time.

Thank you for all your work on these.

Is there a work plan list of intersections or roadways that the public could see kind of what's on the list so they could give us feedback on what's under consideration?

So usually we, so in the summary, we listed all the ones we've talked about and why we've recommended or declined, and some of them we're waiting on for an additional discussion. Engineering Study. And so I do plan to... I want to make... our process is a little more public and so people can understand how these things happen so I'll post this summary on our website but eventually I'll kind of keep a running list because then that way people can come and see like Oh, you know, because if somebody asks and we already have evaluated it two months ago, we're not going to reevaluate it. But if they ask eight months or a year, we'll re-look at it.

I think it would be really helpful for people to be able to see. what's come through the queue, what's in the queue, and what that notification process is like. I know I received a lot of questions about how do you find out what's the notification process like and you answered the question of who is thinking about it so I think if we could fill some of that in it would help people I think generally people are thrilled that we're doing this. So the more we can get the word out, I think the better off it will be.

and one other thing I would suggest is that if people put in through the survey machinery Reckless. So they can see any time we post an agenda, whether it's on our agenda. But I guess having a list would be helpful to see what's coming up next.

and I'm watching about Hampshire and Fox Hill. It's the same argument as what was just presented.

So I will say, you know, we look at all those. You know, we use data and everything, and we do site visits. And we... We also argue with each other. We don't always agree, and that was one that we didn't agree, and so we kicked it up to an engineering study.

Thank you. And that is moving forward.

Yes. Yes.

Thank you very much. Megan?

Yeah, the only thing I was going to add to that is so the survey and the complete data analysis that Sheila discussed earlier, that really does set out a lot of the prioritization of the plan. So we have ranked those. And so that the more critical ones may need additional engineering study. and we continue to evaluate all of those that we received but the prioritization plan outside of looking at our traditional complaints that we received is also driving the plan. So to Beth's point, can someone look at those? I would look at the complete streets plan.

Exactly.

Okay. And with that, I will close the public hearing.

So move to close the public hearing.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much, Sheila. Lieutenant Chief, thank you very much for all your work. Our next agenda item. is annual town meeting preparation to discuss and vote the draft warrant. We had a draft in our packet and Corey handed out a later version as we entered the meeting. So I'll turn it over to Megan.

Can I ask something before? Because I was just looking at, we have a red line, and then we received a clean copy.

Yes.

In the clean copy, I'm just looking at Article 9, and in the red line, we struck the Baylor compactor and added language...

I'm going to address that, Kenny. All right, here we go. So... What I'm going to what I'm showing right now is the comparison to what I know you have the clean version, but this is a comparison to what was in the Friday Night Mail so that I can just go through the changes real quickly to address questions and what you know. arguably some of the nominal changes are. So we just confirmed with planning the date of the public zoning hearing. That is February 9th at 6.30 p.m. It will be via Zoom. And that will go through any article... there's two articles currently on town meeting warrant for zoning articles that will address that and we have the advisory public hearing at the top there was just as someone was typing something in it must have just went to the wrong section so just clean that up um This had a holdover date from last year.

We added commissions to Article 1 just to make sure we categorize all of our board's committee commissions, such as the historical commission, just to be more inclusive. Article 9, so initially, so in conversations with the DPW Director. They have additional funds in the Baylor Compton RDF Equipment Repair Fund. So because, as you might recall, at town meeting last year, We were able to use funds in their stabilization fund to purchase a new baler and compactor. They won't need repair funds. So some of the excess funds initially were contemplating transferring over to the stabilization fund. but for the capability to do that would necessitate essentially eliminating it transferring the money and then reestablishing it at another time.

We've decided in conversations with the DPW director we're not going to do that at this point. And so no change there. So that's just correcting it back to what it was. We also so it was just to eliminate this provision to terminate. And so then we also noted and actually Colette raised this, but I didn't wasn't thinking about it to the warrant when I read the comment. But we did double check all the revolving funds and recreation. We just had to make sure that was on there from the one that was established last year. Under Article 11, we just verified the exact name of the fund established. And so it's actually the PFAS Settlement Proceeds Fund. So we just wanted to add that in. And let me scroll down here. We were just missing the title here. Other sponsor.

So in personnel policies, town council initially was recommending combining sort of the two things that The HR board was putting forward I, after further thought, was really against it. We like to separate what is in the bylaws. So I wanted the personnel policies, which arguably may be in consent versus a discussion on Testa, Ulfelder, and then I'm just gonna scroll down. Article 29, this was just corrective language with MWRA that town council worked out this afternoon with them, just finalizing it. They've gone back and forth a couple times. And then here's that language. under Article 30 that was going to be combined that we've just maintained separate.

Just clean up on that one. And we also did run these by Bond Council. This was just a correction on there was multiple commas and I think that's it.

Any questions or comments from the board? I have one question. Megan, I apologize. I can't remember where it is in this new version that you're scrolling through. But one of them requests that you be authorized to submit the legislation for the change.

It's this one. Hold on. I think it's the Article 29. We actually changed that to Board of Public Works.

Okay, great. It didn't totally make sense to me, so thank you.

Yeah, I think the MWRA was suggesting that to have it more administratively go through. And, you know, my inclination was I don't have jurisdiction to do that. They don't report to me. And so it would need to go to the body anyway.

Okay, any other questions on the warrant? Thank you to Town Council and to you and your office of making those updates.

Marjorie the other thing I'll just note this is one of the shortest warrants we've had I can think of in the past 10 years

I don't remember one that was under 40. Me neither. So Megan, would you like us to vote this tonight?

Yes, I would. The only thing I have considered is if we want to talk about the budget, because if for some chance there's something that you may want to fund differently... that we would need to add to the warrant. I would just want to maybe reserve that right to do that. So maybe we just wait till after the budget discussion to actually vote it, Marjorie.

Good. Good idea. Okay. So I see Rachel is here. So let's move right on to our budget discussion.

Okay. Hold on. I just want to pull up my notes real quick.

Okay, sorry.

So, and I will have, I stopped sharing, right? Maybe, so Rachel and I have worked and we actually have some late breaking news on the sources and uses. So we have provided the board an initial sources and uses as part of the Packett, that was online. And just interestingly, we had a meeting with Hilltop Securities, who is our consultant who assists us with borrowing as we contemplate the borrowing of for our inside the levy debt for fiscal year. 26, actually. And so that's for Warren HVAC, Weston Road, and one other project that I'm forgetting right now. What's the other project? RDF. Oh yeah, and the RDF admin building that have already been authorized by town meeting.

and so we talked about typically our set schedule tends to be in May but as the board might recall we with the Hardy and Honeywell schools Hilltop said, we think you should borrow earlier. We think you'll get better rates, et cetera. So we had that type of conversation today. They actually think we should borrow earlier. They're seeing very good rates and they, I think they told us they currently have out like 30 different bond authorizations basically right now so the feds are meeting the end of January. And so they're pulling it together potentially for us to borrow in February or start of March, February, start of March. And so based on that, we have modified some of our assumptions. Do you maybe want to go through that, Rachel, for the borrowing? to put the numbers together for us.

Sure. So including the sources and uses, we include the inside the levy debt. So we build in our estimate. of what the new debt that we'll be adding. So again, Megan mentioned the Warren HVAC, Western Road, and the RDF admin building. Our original projection, we were estimating interest rate at about 5%. But based off our conversation with Hilltop today, they're seeing more favorable percentage at around 4%. So we updated our calculation and brought that percent down from five to four. And then also we were talking through with Hilltop the total borrowing cost so we realized that for the Warren HVAC we were projecting that we borrow 5.2

but as we were talking through with Hilltop we realized that there is a greens community green community grant about five hundred thousand dollars which is offsetting the cost of Warren HVAC so instead of going out to borrow that 5.2 we dropped that down to about 4.7. So a slight reduction of the interest rate along with that slight $500,000 Reduction in the grant funds. The estimated inside the levy growth, we decreased it about 200,000, 213,000. So, and I don't, I can share. Do we want to make it? Do we want to walk through the sources and uses? I can share.

Yeah, I think because I think we can I can hit some of the notes maybe, Rachel, as we go through that, just we can start and maybe start by showing what the new deficit projection is at present.

Yep. So let me just jump down, apologize for the scrolling. So the original, with what was included in your Friday Night Mail, we were projecting 2.29 as the deficit. So I've made that update to the inside the levy debt, that reduction of about $213,000. So now our current deficit is just over the $2 million.

So slight reduction before we even started, so that's favorable. But it is a $2 million current deficit. so under the proposal that I submitted to the board in terms of closing that there's a number of different strategies we could employ but the first is to look at our capital Not our capital that we're proposing for town meeting action within the warrant. We're going to have a conversation about the application, potentially a free cash to some of those. But this is within our cash capital. So cash capital is a line item. here that you can see that is currently at a little over $7.4 million. And so that is, and I should note, The board in their budget guideline had authorized the low end of the range, which is 6.2%.

and so that takes into effect both the inside the levy borrowing as well as the cash capital. So we just reduced the inside the borrowing by $213,000. So our initial proposal was to reduce cash capital by $1 million. and you know so we've gotten a lot of questions in either through email or conversations with the select board. So initially we were already over by almost a million dollars to the 6.2. So to get down to the 6.2, FMD and DPW took some larger projects off sort of the top before you even saw this. So DPW cut approximately $500,000 and Joe McDonough cut about $490,000 from facilities. We did not look at this lightly. Rachel and I and Tiana also looked at the cash capital that's previously been authorized in prior years. We carried forward about $4 million of that into FY20.

So we have a lot of capital that has not been expended yet. So part of the rationale in cutting $1 million from cash capital is it's a good catch-up year to expend what you've already been appropriated and wrap up the projects or the acquisitions. that may be lingering. and because there's a question of if we we push that up it is going to slide things around but we slide things around every single year as part of our capital analysis and we reprioritize and have the departments reprioritize so should the board um wish to proceed with a reduction in $1 million. We have alerted the department heads that the board would be having this discussion, that it would be our recommendation and the board would be having this discussion this evening and have asked all of the department heads to look at their cash capital and that following this discussion we're going to come back to them pending the board's view on that to reduce these numbers further. obviously smaller cash capital requests would have

Lower percentage, just overall sort of reductions. But the challenge always with capital is, you know, it's not like, okay, just cut X percent because they're project based. So we also have to take that into account that, um, the percentages are going to vary based upon projects in each of the departments. And we've already in particular spoken to the larger Cash Capital Holders, such as the schools. We talked to Cindy and Dave Cohen and Joe about looking at that and all of the departments, as I mentioned. So that is... The first proposal to reduce the deficit. The second, and maybe if you just scroll up. I'm sorry.

Can I just stop you here? Does anybody have any questions at this point? Go ahead, Beth.

Just for clarification, so FMD and DPW have each reduced their cash capital proactively by a half a million dollars each right 490,000 and 500,000 and the proposal is to have all of the town boards and departments cut another million. Is that what you said? Correct.

And DPW has a number of other projects that we are proposing to use free cash to support.

And can you, the projects that they've cut, can you tell us what they are?

I don't know offhand. I have to go back to them and look. Because it was before they submitted their initial... We knew we were already over based on the FY25, excuse me, the FY26 capital in their out-year projections. So we noted we were already going to be over and looked at them to reduce before they submitted.

and then in addition our proposal is to move some projects outside of the cash capital. to be separately voted on on town meeting, although they could still deplete our cash reserves. Is that correct?

Yes, they would deplete reserves. Correct.

So it's just it's how we're taking it as opposed to. We're not reducing the amount of our cash reserves that we're tapping into. We're just, for the remaining amount of money, we are just voting it separately. You mean to consider free cash? Yes.

Cash capital. So I would say this is a reduction of cash capital. Because at this point, I am not saying take a million dollars out of cash capital and fund a million dollars with free cash. That is not my recommendation. We will have a request for $3 million of free cash towards capital projects, but that is not my recommendation at present.

but you did say that the reduction of a million dollars from FMD and DPW would reappear later on. No. Burring or delaying. They're not, they're not never.

Oh yeah, they're delaying. They're moving.

They're just delaying it. They're not.

That's what everyone would do. They would shift them out. Right.

Kenny. Kenny.

Just to simplify this, we're just not using a million dollars for projects and we're plugging a million dollars for the operating deficit. Is that the right way to think about it?

Yep, that's exactly right. Okay, Megan.

So the second component, which is significantly driving... and the Board of Directors. and we did have a $1 million supplemental to offset FY25, keep in mind. So FY26 was then built accordingly with that million dollar appropriation. Last year was an anomaly. So we came in last year through West Suburban Health Group significantly lower. Thank you for joining us. So I know there's a question of, well, we added a million last year.

Well, we're also more than tripling the rate increase this year. And so last year, many communities had 15, 17, 19% increases. West Suburban had a bit of a windfall because Holliston had left West Suburban Health Group, which had a significant number of bad claims. And we used some reserves. to bring down the rates. So we were an anomaly. Westerburn was an anomaly last year. So this year, we're still, I think, in a favorable position because rates are increasingly high based on all the things that nationally are impacting health insurance such as prescription drug medications, negotiation between the carriers and the hospitals and the doctors. and overall health. And so

The outlook in the coming years potentially may be improved, but it's largely driven. The claims are the claims on top of whatever's happening on the national level. So we have a significant increase here of 2.4. This is based upon a 12.5 projection. Our initial projections and rate increases were 14%. West Suburban is looking a bit more favorable. So right now the projection is about 9 to 12 percent. That will be set the second week in February. So we to be conservative because we didn't want to dip down and then have to come back up. We currently have 12.5% baked into this. keep in mind too group insurance health insurance is probably 90 of it but group insurance is also includes includes our life insurance our ancillary insurances imed

our critical care, our accident illness, and dental insurance. So that's all being baked into this as well. Our dental did go up incrementally about $10,000 as well. and so we're showing a 9.62% increase. So the other proposal would be, given this increase, is to apply essentially $1.3 million in free cash to offset this. So this would be an operational... So unlike reducing that and, as Kenny had just said more simply, increasing your operational capacity, this is then adding reserves, so taken from your savings account, and increasing your operational capacity to close the budget.

that number is fluid at this point we'll have definitive amounts in um in February and so at present we're saying 1.3 and that would close the um the deficit. And it might even be slightly lower than that based upon, because right now, initially we were projecting a two point basically a $2.3 million deficit and we're at a little under $2.1 million deficit.

Okay. Questions? So, Megan, just to clarify, we had planned to use, if we used last year's numbers, about $2.3 million to close the operating budget deficit in free cash, right? 2.2, yeah. 2.2. So this year we're proposing to use 3.5 in total. and that's going to set a new baseline because the health insurance costs aren't a one time it's going to reset the floor of the operating costs so where we had projected in our plan and told town meeting we were going to look at Lightening our reliance on the cash reserves. We're actually going to increase our reliance by a third.

Is that correct?

Under this proposal, it would. Now, in past years, arguably, we've offset that differently by pulling cash capital projects out and using reserves. So, you know... if arguably if we looked at how many times we did that to draw down our cash capital to meet budget guidelines, arguably that's doing the same thing. So it is a reliance on that. We have other strategies we could deploy. The next step in strategies are significantly more detrimental to the staff.

Right. I just want to clarify because this is a different strategy kind of on two levels. We're using more... . . . . .

Right. Well, we're talking mostly about health insurance, which is three times what it was last year, over which we have no control. So we could look at COLA, we could look at merit pay, but that's not what staff is recommending. Right. But our year over year... Or look at cutting.

Right. So year over year, our health insurance number went up about 10%. going back in time because of the million dollar application. So it's just an increase to the floor. that's it I'm not I'm not taking a position on I just want to understand the the building blocks of our decision well year over year the increase actually was far less last year um

I don't know. It doesn't show the percentage. I can pull it up as we're talking now. The sources and uses, Rachel, from 26% because we actually, so the million dollar supplemental, again, that was for 25. So, you know, the 26 year over year was substantially lower.

like four percent right under four percent yes right so we have to do it this year I asked Megan the same question and we'll we have to see what happens next year before we determine what we need to do to close it next year this is what we would need to do to close it this year this is one strategy we could employ

So I think you're looking for feedback from us tonight on the strategy, so I'll take each strategy one by one. As far as the capital is concerned, I'm fine with that strategy because for several years we've been very... are generous with capital. We've been at the upper end of the range. We've been doing a lot of cash capital to catch up with capital that was deferred during COVID. I think it's OK to do that. So I'm fine with that. with the second element with the employee benefits I think that this is an appropriate strategy to take and I think we just keep watching the numbers and hopefully they come down a little bit however I think it's important that we go back to what we said at the very beginning of this budget season and even at the end of last year's season that this was going to be a tight budget year. There are no strategic initiatives and new full-time employees. I want to confirm that there are none in the budget proposals that have been put forward and that we're just going to have to ask people to hold on them.

and so I think there are one or two things that we need to go back to because we need to minimize as much as possible what we're drawing down on free cash for operations because we are building ourselves some reliance on that for next year and I think that the reliance for next year should be limited to health insurance because it's outside of our control. and so I think that there's two areas I'm not sure I know schools had asked for the latitude to look at strategic initiatives I think we have to confirm that there are none and then I think there's one situation where there are two part-time positions being consolidated into a full-time position. I mean that is a strategic initiative that we may have to defer and I think it's particularly important to understand that the cost of doing that is benefits which are increasing at 14%.

and so we really need to be careful with that and every initiative that the boards and committees come forward with are good initiatives but we were very clear I felt at the very beginning of this session that this was going to be a tight year and we were holding on those things so we have to stay true to that in my opinion.

So just maybe to address that in terms of the overages on the various departments We have a few that, obviously the smaller budgets. Rachel, could you maybe throw the existing sources in use? It's just a little easier to... to sort of tick down the list. You know, some obviously that are such small, small departments that it looks like it's a big hit when it's nominal. So we had a few budgets over guideline, obviously. Youth Commission is a hair over guideline. That's for like and Intern. We have...

I'm not talking about the de minimis amounts.

The de minimis amounts... Yeah, the big ones are slight over... It's not diminished, but it's about $11,000. And Rachel and I went back and forth, and we also thought about the recent all-board meeting. So at the assessors that said they needed personnel, but what it really wasn't personnel in that way. It was more consulting services. So this is a certification year for the board of assessors for personnel property. So not so every five years they do. Real Estate, and then they do personal property. And so that's up slightly, largely because, um, they have, that's 11.5 or so in terms of, um, their increase, oh, 11,480. And that's really their consulting services. So their appraisals and surveys for the personal property for the cert year.

which is I would say that is not an initiative that is to assist them in in doing what is a mandate from the commonwealth every five years to me that's analogous to an actual election it's something we have to do that's not strategic initiative and then the other one was Human Resources. So they're slightly up. So we last year, we were able to sign a three year contract contingent upon Funding. We actually absorbed it in the select board budget last year, the initial $2,200 or so for a brand called Lytics. And what this does, it's a company... they've largely helped school departments for many many years where they do contract analysis and it helps with bargaining and they've expanded that to public safety and public works and potentially the library moving forward

and it's really a tool that HR and our team would use for union negotiations because our HR director had long been serving on MHR, MMHR that Wellesley is one of the 14 communities that is able to do a test trial for the first three years for a little over $2,000 a year for three years. and so I advise human resources to put that in their budget moving forward because it really is a human resource function. And we are employing that as we speak, doing some analysis for negotiations. Library had... has proposed to consolidate two part-time positions which would necessitate the increase of about $28,000. The $28,000 increase there is for benefits attributable to that position.

And then there, I don't think there's much more after that that are not the minimus.

and I guess one of the reasons why I feel we have to hold to that is we're not done with union negotiations so we're making our best strategic planning for that but you know I think we really have to hold the line until we know where we are at the end of that.

and then obviously Town Clerk is the other one. That was the other one. Sorry, I meant to call up. And that is because we have three elections and as part of the guidelines, it's a little wacky to identify, but We did add $75,000 because of the cost of the three elections to their guidelines.

So Megan, I recall from the all board meetings that the library posited that the consolidation of their two part-time positions was cost neutral. and to follow up on Collette's point, benefits of $28,000 is not cost neutral. I think that's what you're referring to. and we met with the school committee this morning. My understanding is that the superintendent's budget came in a little bit under 3%. If they did it at exactly 3%, it would include $26,000 of strategic initiatives. We've been very clear in both all board meetings for this fiscal year that we couldn't accommodate New FTEs, which means benefits, includes benefits, and couldn't include strategic initiatives. So I think those are two conversations that staff should have with those departments. But I'd like to hear what the others think.

So what we're talking about here, I just want to make sure I further understand this. We're talking about an additional $1.3 million being drawn from free cash. We've already accounted for the other million. It's just kind of where are we using it for. But now we're talking about drawing additional 1.3 million. I think Colette's point is very important about the unions. We've plugged a number here. We don't know what that's going to come out as. And so I agree that we should I don't feel comfortable pulling another $1.3 million out of free cash, but I also see the necessity to pay operating expenses. so I would suggest that we look at the capital budget and find another 1.3 million dollars to cut from there and I think

I would look to things that are not safety concerns or legal concerns. So things like the feasibility study for a million dollars things like the irrigation at the Honeywell field that's 1.5 million dollars that would not necessarily have to come out of free cash and we could use we could use that to plug the operating deficit.

So we would have to still take that money from free cash even if we were taking those off because those are being funded by free cash. So it doesn't impact operational, but it would sort of trade off to keep reserves higher. Yes. And so Rachel could put up the reserve sheet, Kenny. It's a good segue so we could show you what that potentially would look like.

Yeah, I think it's like 75 basis points about.

Yep, so keep in mind, it's only the start of January, so we have also no idea about snow and ice. We have not gotten a supplemental yet, but... The Almanac says it's supposed to be snowy. So we've put in sort of an average of about $700,000 and that we've sort of ranged from $300,000 to about 1.2, but $700,000 has really been the sweet spot where we've seen that that's actually what it sort of shakes out to be. So that's a placeholder right now. We had the 2.2 for balancing. You'll see there that 1.3 for the health insurance. The supplemental... We've talked about previously for Article 7 and then the HR. So then we have DPW Master Plan, which is a suggestion that that's on the warrant for free cash appropriation. comprehensive plan was in the planning board's cash capital.

It's too big a number that we would pull it out as a separate project. And then we are proposing West End-Lyndon intersection, the playground reconstruction Irrigation. Those are the capital projects that I think Kenny is referring to. and then our typical stabilization fund transfers. Those are funds that sort of flow back into free cash and so we appropriate from free cash. So if we... took out, let's say you take out the feasibility. If you just delete that for one second, Rachel, you can see what it would change. If you scroll down, we can see what the percentage. So it would bring our reserves down. to 15.08%. So our policy is 8% to 12%. based on the board's early discussions of the town-wide financial plan and really the unknown federal climate and in prior conversations with our state delegation who have indicated that

if we were going to see the impacts of federal cuts or federal policy modifications, it would impact us in FY27. And so we tried, even with the application and proposals that we put forward in the initial round, to try and keep ourselves above the 12%. So I think our initial was in the approximately 14.5% or so range. Oh, thank you. 14.58% range. So happy to talk or reconfigure this in any way with the board. Other comments?

Yeah, go ahead.

I'm interested in Kenny's suggestions about cutting capital, and I understand your response to that. I think my concern is a little much of a longer view, and that is if we can predict that Our experience with health insurance increase and the impact on benefits is going to be repetitive. The first year you can say we need to draw 1.2. This is unexpected. But if it gets out to year two and three, it's no longer unexpected. And the question is that I have, what is the timing when we begin to talk about cuts? and I don't mean cuts that are one time or pushing things off two or three years. What does it look like? What's the discussion we have to have in public?

about what this means to maintain some kind of sustainable trajectory for our municipal budget. and what kind of cuts. If we want to pay people, which I agree with properly, do we have to talk about paying fewer people? Do we have to have fewer services? Do we have to not have the RDF open on Sunday? These aren't things that I would necessarily want to do, but we have to have these discussions if we're going to continue to have this kind of upward movement. Pressure through health insurance. And what I read is that there isn't necessarily a clear end in sight to these increases at this level. You may have a different perspective on that, and I'd love to hear that. that's my concern is aren't we better off starting

and this spring for a year later so that departments aren't being caught at this point for July 1 in terms of cuts and what their expectations need to be.

which is why Colette and Kenny are working feverishly on the capital planning committee between these capital items and are anticipated debt exclusion votes over six or seven consecutive town meetings beginning in two years. I don't think this growth is sustainable and that's why we need this capital planning conversation sooner rather than later because we can't keep asking taxpayers to fund these big projects.

I think, and maybe in response to Tom's question, I think that we may be in the position where other benefits, OPEB and pension, will make capacity to deal with the healthcare issue and that the timing of those two things could overlap. I do think it's worthwhile discussing what Kenny said on capital. I think I'd like to hear what staff say is the impact of postponing the field irrigation, I would actually put the playground destruction in as a postponement as opposed to the feasibility study because I think we need the feasibility study to help with the capital work. to be able to make decisions on what capital goes forward. The partner to the Townwide Capital Planning Committee is the Townwide Facilities Master Plan. the Fire Station Master Plan, the DPW Master Plan and we need to do a Schools Master Plan.

Those three things are critical to us making those decisions. and so while that is one we could postpone I would rather look for other items that could be postponed because we really need to have the Townwide Facilities Master Plan to help us do the capital planning. I don't know if we should talk to planning and understand is the comprehensive plan something we should delay because there's no director. there's going to be some changes in the board you know is the timing right for that could that be delayed I think those are things we could talk about

We also don't have anything upon which to base a $400,000 request. I'd like to see a little bit of information that supports that level of request.

The other option, too, is we have not, Rachel and I have not run this, but, you know, outside of the application of free cash for the items on the warrant would be to borrow those funds. And, you know, it they would be inside the levy borrowing um so what we just gained in terms of percentages you know would potentially be eaten um but that's the other alternative so uh we obviously these are on the warrant from other bodies but the application of free cash is yours so those are certainly conversations that Rachel and I can have with those departments.

Beth? So I think it's helpful to think about this holistically because we have items that will require the application of free cash in the fall. and so I would like to see the fall list with the spring list because it's all the same.

You have that in your capital plan. The only thing we have is...

No, but as we look at it here, because it's all the same bucket, right?

No, because Free Cash would be certified in the fall. So it actually is a different bucket.

I mean, it ends up hitting in the subsequent year. It's cash reserves. It's all use of cash reserves. But you would have the turn back, so your percentage is different.

Wow.

Right, so I look at, and it sounds like several of us might think this way, the health insurance application-free cash . . . . . a bit by a million three and maybe it's a million or maybe but but that unlike the others is an improvement to the base when I look at this project list which I think is what your question was I have a couple questions. One is the West and Linden intersection. So that one, we had thought we would have grant funding. and we didn't receive it. The folks along the Weston Road corridor, whether they're commuting or living there, have had a very miserable set of years.

and I wonder if deferring that might not be positive on the community. and positive for the budget at this moment and the playground reconstruction I love playgrounds but I think we still have a number of playgrounds in the queue that we've budgeted for and they haven't they haven't been installed or finalized yet so for me I think We'd have to ask the DPW and the NRC, but I would think there's an advantage to completing some of the playground projects before we go to the next one so that we can have iterative learning. and Experiences and also stretch our playgrounds out so they're not all coming up at the same time in the future. So those two for me, which I believe are about a million one,

kind of stand out as opportunities that might be good for the community and good for us.

The only thing I would reply with regards to the West and Linden intersection is that is the only thing truly that's going to improve the safety of that intersection and the traffic flow so to me of all of them any item on here that is actually the most important one that we pursue because that's just the design. That's not going to be the construction yet. And so, you know, the neighbors aren't going to feel that next year, but it gets the ball rolling and it will. Delaying that is really kicking it out multiple, multiple years.

And we hear so much about that. I'm not sure that the community would want us to do that.

And I wouldn't cut that one either. So Megan, do you want to take all this feedback back and work again with Rachel? Is there more we can be helpful on tonight?

Well, I think so. I just want to clarify some direction because it might impact whether, in fact, you want to vote the warrant. So if you want Rachel and I to go back to DPW about these larger capital projects to say, OK, we're going to keep reserves high, we're going to aim for whatever it may be 15 and change percent this year and in order for us to close the gap with additional free cash operationally we're going to defer some projects if we do that and they're amenable we likely would take them off the warrant right because those are items on the warrant and so it would make sense to like just remove them early rather than sign the warrant tonight so we could always sign that the warrant on the 20th and allow Rachel and I some time to have those conversations.

and can I ask one other question? Is the legal supplemental, that's in Article 7, so that's actually this current fiscal year, not next fiscal year, right?

that's this current fiscal year yes so that's the cash right but it's all these others but you're appropriating it at a town meeting so it would impact this number

Megan, with respect to something Beth said before, is it possible to see the list of projects that have already been funded and not completed?

We can work with Tiana and take a look at that, yeah?

And also the ones they've cut already to get the million dollars because they've already eliminated proactively a million dollars. So we're asking them for another million. Right, postponed.

Right. No, I understand that. And that would affect, you know, staff bandwidth and funding for next year. But if there are outstanding projects that... Town Meeting had funded and are yet to be completed. Maybe we should focus on completing those first before we take on additional ones.

Megan, is there anything on here that is potentially CPC fundable?

Like playgrounds?

Sorry, I do not believe so. Playground reconstruction, maybe. We can check.

Great. Is that not considered like a structure?

I have seen CPC funds used for playgrounds, but I don't believe that's in CPC's plan right now, only just because DPW didn't bring that forward. We've been on sort of a... This is, I think, our... Third Appropriation over a series of years on the playgrounds. But we can follow up. We'll add that to the list of potential questions and alternative funding.

We're at the end of playgrounds right now, I think.

I believe this is actually the last one.

This is the last one.

Yeah, it's for Phillips Park and... I asked Dave and I'm sorry.

Was it Warren? Was it Warren?

Or Ouellette?

Ouellette?

I think Warren's been done. Yeah, Ouellette was done.

I think it's Uppam, Megan. Uppam? All right.

Well, you'll find out which one it is. Corey's right. It's Upham and Phillips Park.

Okay. Megan, why don't you and Rachel put your heads together and see what you can come up with. Maybe give us a list of yet-to-be-completed projects. We'll hold off signing the warrant because you're right, we might take a couple of those articles out of the warrant. and can we bring this back next week? Mm-hmm. Okay.

We can trample as much information as possible. As you can.

Right. Of course. Okay. Great. Anything else before we close this out? All right. Thank you very much for all of that. Well, yeah, I need to talk about that. Okay, just let me scroll through the budget. So the next agenda item is to discuss and vote the modification to the town bylaw committee charge. The last time we talked, we had a couple of staff members and the moderator included in the proposed voting membership. I met with Marc and he's concerned about conflating the executive and legislative branches of the government and didn't want to vote on a bylaw proposal or amendment that he would later rule on at town meeting.

in deference to the responsibilities of the executive director and assistant executive director, I change their membership to and or. to leave the decision in their hands as to their bandwidth and they could attend as their workload allows. So I move the moderator and staff and the town clerk to ex officio status. which left only two voting members. So I propose that all members voting an ex officio together . . . . . A good number for a discussion and an odd number to facilitate a vote. So this would be my final proposal for the charge and I'm eager to hear the board's feedback.

Beth, so thank you for taking another look at this. So this is effectively an appointed committee. So why wouldn't the appointments follow the appointed committee process? instead of having the committee appoint itself. It seems to me that this should be an appointed committee where a requirement of membership is town meeting position, but that the board would review the applications and vote on them in the same way that I think the board should collectively determine which two members are going to sit on this board. I just see it as an appointed committee.

Well, but it's set up as a different mechanism of appointment to include the staff we believe need to be involved in the conversations and the review of the bylaws. so it's slightly different than a typical appointed committee but they're not appointed they're not appointed members they're ex officio and they're there by title

So that's not a choice, but the appointed members should follow the typical appointment process. They are a subcommittee of the Slack board.

Can I add one point to that? It might be helpful. I take your point on that. However, I think it's important that the moderator and the town clerk have some input too because I think they're so critical to understanding the bylaws, what the needs are here. So I actually think it would be really helpful to have the moderator and the town clerk who know town meeting members quite well to be helpful and maybe recruiting people and also giving their feedback on which time meeting members you think would be really additive to the committee and to help share the work and I think their perspectives are actually really quite important here.

So Colette I agree with you and in that way I think it works just as our appointed committees because they are on the committee so they would be giving input in the same way that our appointed committees give input to the board on the appointments. so I see it following the same framework and I agree with you that members on an appointed committee give valuable input. I just think that we should stay in the process we just identified and have the board vote on the members that are voting on the committee, because those five members are voters, unlike the ex officio members that are advisors.

I think they're not only there by virtue of title, they're there by virtue of experience and exposure to town meeting and town meeting members. I think to take them away from the initial appointment does a disservice to the board. But Kenny, Tom, interested to hear what you think.

Well, if it wasn't happening in accordance with the typical appointment policy, how did you see it working? We shouldn't be heard to suggest. I think it ought to be the appointment. I'm just trying to make sure I'm clear on one.

That the chair would appoint the two board members like we do any other liaison committee. and those two select board members along with all the ex officio members who are ex officio because of their role would together determine the other three town meeting members and the town meeting members as outlined here would serve for the duration of their town meeting membership or as renewed by the committee. I mean, we've discussed this 10 times and this has never come up.

I don't have a problem with the approach. The one thing I would suggest we change is that the select board determines who the select board members are and then the smaller group appoints three town meeting members. It seems fine to me. Remember, this is not this is just making recommendations to the select board ultimately, right? It's not.

Yes, yes. And I viewed it as, I mean, whether it's me or it's any other chair, the chair assigns liaisons to committees. and it's important to balance the portfolios, the time demand, when the committee meets. We all agree that the first year will be a heavy lift for this committee. and everything is going to come back, as you said, to the select board.

I'm fine with it as it's presented to us tonight. I appreciate the changes that you've made. I'm fine with it.

I appreciate the changes too. I initially had a few concerns about the structure of the voting members, but I do think it is different than a number of the committees that are part of the appointment policy. I think for important reasons. I think there's a particular focus, skill set, and experience, base of experience that you're looking for in the membership. because the changes that are going to be recommended, even though they are coming back to the select board, can have a significant impact on the operation of the town.

Okay. With those comments, could I please have a motion?

Move to approve the General By-law Review Committee as amended.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Okay, our next agenda item is administrative to review the minutes of December 16th. and Corey sent out the compiled edits an hour prior to our meeting tonight. So I know Colette and I noticed a few changes. I think Colette has mentioned them already. I sent them in to Corey. I don't know if you can just

Pull up on the screen, Corey.

Yes.

So the first edit I just wanted to review was on lines 72 through 74. So we have in the past sometimes included that the chair had reviewed the consent agenda items and then expressed them. but I deliberately drafted it without that because it's duplicative and because we had such a long consent agenda it kind of jumped out at me this time. so I don't think we need that amendment because it says Ms Freiman reviewed the agenda items you know and confirmed etc etc so I think as a matter of style and policy going forward I'd like to get the board's feedback Can we just say we reviewed the consent agenda or do we have to repeat all the items again? I don't think it's necessary.

I agree with you.

I agree. They're all laid out right above the line 72.

So I would just suggest rejecting that amendment. and then the next suggested amendment is on line one well it was line 151 it's just the Fiorella's discussion we typically just say a board member I've missed a space in there a board member noted rather than the name that's what the policy says and then The next amendment I On line 231, I actually thought it was fine the way it was drafted, the discussion about the Uber and Lyft funds. I think there's a question in there about... I thought it was okay, so I thought the board should look at that and see if we wanted to change in that.

So, Colette, I actually went back and watched this because... I thought we had a really good discussion about this funding, but we didn't finalize our decision about the use of the Uber Lyft monies for that. particular situation, we said, I think Sheila was getting some more information, but we did not agree to proceed. That was how I... consumed that portion of the discussion. So that's why I was suggesting that we take it out because the lines that precede it capture the discussion. it was just that we reached consensus to move forward. I didn't think we did that.

I thought there was General consensus and I know there were some questions but I thought we thought overall there was a majority of the board felt that it was okay as presented when we were moving forward with it. I didn't think it was on our Tasklist to come back and revisit because it's a warrant article now.

It's a warrant article to make a motion about the UberLift funds but not the amount or the application. and I'm not meaning to imply that I wouldn't support what was brought forward but I don't think at that meeting we finalized that that would be the recommendation going forward.

I thought there was and so I think it's up to other board members to see whether or not because I looked at the transcript when I was doing this and there was a lot of conversation but I think overall a majority of the board supported it

That's the way I remember it, that there was some, the discussion there was, I thought it was a majority that agreed to go forward. But I also support the change about the senior transportation because we agreed that that was not an appropriate time to have a full discussion.

there's no change there it's just it's highlighted to say lessons yeah right but it's so I think that and that some board members agree felt

I think it stays the board generally agreed because I think it doesn't say a vote and it doesn't say and Amell is a general consensus to continue the educational planning.

So I would just suggest that the items on line 228 and 229, those changes are rejected and leave it as it was drafted. I think it was okay. and based on what I'm hearing tonight that's other members then the next thing on the next page Corey there's online 257 and 258 that's been struck that conversation did happen it's a little bit confusing in the transcript because I realized as we got into the next agenda item that I hadn't raised it under the previous agenda item so I said I should have raised this but are we doing an awarding article for the Timewide Capital Planning Committee and we did have a conversation and the outcome of that conversation was no it was going to be established as a standing committee so I think that amendment should stay and not be struck.

So Colette, my question about this was, our discussion was about the pros and cons of proceeding at this annual town meeting versus ever. and I think the discussion was that it might be worth waiting a year to pilot it but the way this reads it's going to stay a standing committee that that was our decision and I don't think that was the meaning.

So maybe we say it was a standing committee to do this work.

In the short term. For the first year and then review.

Yeah, I think that's fine. Thanks, Corey. And then I don't know if you had questions. The next section, Marjorie, if you had questions on that. I think there's a typo, but...

Yes. Other than that, it's okay.

Okay. And then... I think that's it. Other than that, I had no other comments.

Other than that, I think they're just ministerial. Any other comments?

Line 186 provided detailed explanation of, it should be an administrative? Oh, yes. High-level change there.

Anything else, Kenny? Okay. So move to approve the minutes of the December 16th, 2025 meeting of the Select Board as amended.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay, our last agenda item is the Chair's report, and I acknowledge that the way it's written could be interpreted a couple of different ways. . The MassBay item was included under the Chair's report because I was going to report on MassBay, not that we were going to have a conversation about it. and I exercised a prerogative to do a lengthy update at the very beginning of the meeting. However, There may be people who thought that it was intended as an agenda item, and therefore, if there is someone here who would like to make a public comment, I'd be happy to accept it and ask you to limit it to three minutes. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry.

You know, I felt that people were going to be eager to hear from the board after the special edition of the W last night and the publication of our letter to HRC. So there's an extensive update.

Wellesley Media gets the video up very quickly.

Yes, very beginning. Right after Citizen Speak. And if you have any questions, please let us know and we can give you any further detail. So from today, Tom and I had a meeting with school committee leadership. I'm sorry, everybody. I know it was a little bit confusing. Yes. Oh, yes. We're fine. We're hanging in there. Thank you. Okay. So... Sorry, going back to my update. Okay.

Yeah. I thought it was really excellent to move the update to the beginning when we had people here for Citizen Speak. Maybe while we do have such a hot topic on the agenda We should move the chair's report earlier in the meeting just for... Ease of access for the residents so that there's no confusion about it. Because I do support that it was a good decision to bring it up. to the beginning so maybe just moving forward we could put it right after Megan's report for the short term. That's just my suggestion.

Thank you.

So the public hearing on the school committee budget is set for next Tuesday the 20th and the final school committee vote on the budget will be on February 3rd. We've already talked about the submission of their budget at slightly below 3%. There's a second version exactly at 3% that contains 26,000 of strategic initiatives. Since the superintendent submission, there have been no changes, but they will discuss it next week and on February 3rd. Nicky and Sharon asked several questions about the components of the presentation of the town and school budgets, motions two and three under article eight. We answered what we could and I told them that I would seek further information from Megan and then report back to them. Hardy and Honeywell Solar.

Preliminary cost estimates are in to PBC and work is proceeding on the funding sources for that work, the pending grant application and the next steps. that is also on the school committee agenda for next week. But Nikki needs more information before she makes a final determination whether to proceed next week or not. for the AC project in Bates, Fiske, Schofield, and the middle school. The school committee voted to proceed with window units only. The approximate cost runs between 17 and 20 million based on late information from Joe. Under that cost estimate, none of the schools will require ADA modifications.

We found it a little surprising, but the total of the construction costs is below the 30% threshold for the building assessments that would trigger the ADA modifications. the 30% does not include soft costs. So it's only construction costs and those are below 30%. and finally there's a new state policy that school districts must inform all middle school students about high school options beyond Wellesley High School like Norfolk Aggie and Keefe Tech. so that students know about those options and can make the best decisions for themselves. I think that's a good policy. People might not apply because they might not know about them and they might be a better fit for students, so I think that's a great policy. and that's all I have. Anything else from schools? Okay.

We are adjourned and we will meet again next Tuesday the 13th at 6.30. Thank you very much everybody and good night. Thanks Megan.