00:00:00,000 S1: To the November 19th regularly scheduled Board of Selectmen meeting. One of the three selectmen, John Clements, is participating remotely tonight on this phone right here. Say, say hi to the audience, John. 00:00:16,501 S2: Hey, folk. Come here. 00:00:17,667 S1: Okay. 00:00:18,000 S2: I'm. I'm in attendance. 00:00:20,067 S1: We recognize this voice and validate the fact that it is John. All right. As we usually do, uh, we welcome public input for items that are not on the agenda. Emphasize not on the agenda. Does anyone want to come up to the podium and talk about something that's not on the agenda? Hearing none. We're going to go to a. 00:00:40,767 S3: Now we have a hand back there. 00:00:43,000 S1: Where's the hand? Oh come on. Oh, John. Oh, I missed your hand. 00:00:50,167 S2: I see my hand. Sorry. I'm waving. 00:00:53,167 S4: No different. Different job. 00:00:55,067 S5: John Fallon, 233 main. I just want to go on record to say, um, that, um, the fees that the town want us to pay for the fingerprinting, I think is, um, an overreach because we've already paid it once. So we've already, you know, had our fingerprints done. They're done electronically, so they haven't changed. So I don't I think, Harry, if just even for me, but for any of the licensees, you know, like a license or what have you. 00:01:24,667 S1: I hear you, John. So in that, uh, we'll we'll take up a policy review later, but we can't do anything tonight, okay? 00:01:33,267 S5: Just wanted to get it on the record. 00:01:34,868 S1: You got it. You're on a record. It'll be in the minutes. All right, we'll send you a copy. 00:01:39,267 S6: Thank you. 00:01:41,667 S1: I agree with you, too. So, uh, do you want to say something? Yes. Oh, no. No, you have to end up there. Look like. What's up? Yes. 00:01:50,067 S6: Just a quick point of order. If you can ask our remote participant to unmute himself. Um, when he's not speaking, because I can. The feedback will show up over the microphone. It'll make for a rough audio recording. 00:02:01,667 S1: John, do you hear that? 00:02:03,167 S2: Yes. 00:02:03,868 S1: Would you do that, please? 00:02:05,200 S6: Thank you. 00:02:06,767 S1: John. 00:02:07,767 S2: Yes. What did you want me to do? 00:02:10,467 S4: Mute yourself when you're not speaking? 00:02:13,100 S2: Oh, yes. 00:02:14,400 S1: In both feet. Just kidding. Mute yourself when you're not speaking. So there's no echo in the room or whatever. Whatever is annoying people. 00:02:23,801 S2: Okay. Sorry. 00:02:25,100 S1: Oh, you didn't know it. All righty. I didn't go to the announcements now. 00:02:31,767 S1: Uh, the Essex North Shore School Committee representative. The town of Windham is seeking representative to the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School Committee. Wow. The committee meets the second Thursday of each month. There's the Irish day Thursday. Please submit a letter of interest directly to Trudy Reed. Tom. Moderator at N Roebuck Roebuck at Wenham. Gov. Or call the town administrator's office at (978) 468-5520. 00:03:01,667 S1: Extension two with any questions or visit the town website for more information, including committee bylaws and a direct link to the website for past meeting agenda minutes. So we were talking about this prior to the meeting, and I guess that we would pass on to our town moderator, Trudy Reed. Um, whomever the applicants are for this to date, we have one already who is interested in this position. And then it goes to the school committee. Correct? 00:03:30,400 S4: Right. It's a joint appointment with the town moderator and the Windham School. 00:03:35,400 S7: And the Wenham members of the. 00:03:37,667 S4: Committee, the one, two members of the Hamilton one. 00:03:40,100 S1: So anybody interested in that? And by the way, I think we should thank, uh, Bill Nichols, who was last appointed 22 years ago to this committee. And thank you for your service all this time for 22 years. Uh, much appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, the town hall, Thanksgiving holiday hours. Uh, we'll be open as usual on Thanksgiving. The wrong line. 00:04:04,300 S3: Are you sure you got a mutiny happening here? You can imagine people rushing in the room. 00:04:10,000 S1: Town hall will be closing on Wednesday, November 27th, Thanksgiving at 2 p.m. and reopen on Monday, December 2nd as usual at 9 a.m.. Uh, everyone hopefully will enjoy their Thanksgiving on Saturday across America on Saturday, December 14th at noon, as we did last year. And it was the same day the town of Wenham will lay wreaths on our veterans graves simultaneously at the main cemetery, with participants at Arlington National Cemetery and communities across the nation. Please help by sponsoring a wreath for $15, volunteering or inviting friends to help. To learn more about our race across America, including a link to the online donations for Reese and Wenham, this is the home page at the town website. I'm looking around. I thought I saw somebody before, so this is a great event. Last year it was the first year we did it. I represented the Air Force, by the way, and that, uh, it was a date and I think it was a high 60s, low 70s. It was a wonderful day for December and that, uh, we had the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, uh, lots of people attending and that, uh, we laid. I wish I knew exactly the number of wreaths that was I think it was something like 150, and that this year we're hoping to lay wreaths in all of the veterans graves from the French and Indian Wars all the way through. Uh, the latest one. Uh, I think it's something on the order of 450 wreaths and that, uh, so the fundraising is going well. And we would encourage people who have not given yet to, uh, give just write a check out to the town of Wenham and passing in at the finance desk right here and simply put in the memo section of your check, uh, Wreaths Across America. And that way your donation would be well received. 00:06:08,667 S3: Jack, may I just add something to that? Um, because I'm noticing that we're not going to meet again. And there are deadlines for those donations. Is it okay if I just read those, um, the cheques in the form of a check? The deadline is November 25th. I think that's next week. Um, and online, there's an online way to donate, and that deadline is a little later, Monday, December 2nd. So get those donations in soon. That's my little plug. That's all. Thank you. 00:06:38,467 S1: Yep. 00:06:41,167 S4: Okay. 00:06:43,667 S1: Now this is our second meeting on going electronically. So let's see. 00:06:48,567 S3: I don't have a section for reports in here. 00:06:51,667 S1: Oh, I could have gone to this section right here. I didn't do that. Okay. Um, yeah. 00:06:58,167 S4: No. 00:06:59,868 S8: That's not not yours. Yeah, because I emailed to see if somebody. 00:07:04,801 S4: Reports up the agenda. 00:07:09,400 S1: This is town administrator. 00:07:12,501 S4: Thank you. Jack. 00:07:15,200 S1: I just I've written notes. I've got my iPad in front of me. I've got the people to my right and whispering, how about this? I'm sorry. That's all right. 00:07:24,667 S3: Because that wasn't there. There was no page. You were never going to find that page. 00:07:28,601 S1: Welcome edition. 00:07:29,367 S4: All right. It's a work in progress. We're getting there. So my report is in the packet that's online, but just a few things that I wanted to highlight the LED lighting project, which was made possible through a Green Communities grant of $127,000. Plus, um, the all the buildings have been done with this building being the last to be retrofitted for LED lights. As you can see, these, uh, these actually can go much brighter. The LEDs a lot brighter than the conventional lighting, but we're hoping to see a cost savings throughout all the town buildings of $19,000. And also, it really reduces our carbon footprint footprint by 111,000 kilowatt hours. So it was a great grant. And, um, producing those types of savings is fantastic for the community. Um, this past Saturday, we had the one, um, Congressional Town Hall with, uh, Congressman Seth Moulton was here. We had an opportunity for some local, uh, appointed and elected officials to meet with the congressman for half an hour before. I thought that went very well. Um, and then we had about 50 to 60. Turnout for the at 3:00 in this room. So good turnouts of some great questions. And, uh, we're appreciative of Congressman Moulton bringing this to Wenham. And the last thing that I want to do is I want to welcome our newest employee in town, uh, Sherry LeBlanc. Sherry comes to us from the town of North Andover, where we pilfered from our friends over there. But Sherry is going to be the assistant treasurer, collector and the payroll and benefits coordinator. Um, Sherry's here, so I'll just call her up to the to the podium just so the board can see a face. 00:09:26,467 S3: And the whole community now knows your face. 00:09:29,200 S7: Yes, I do have a perfect office for that. Thank you very much. Town administrator. Selectman. It was great meeting you. I know I didn't get a chance to meet John, who's on the phone. But I just wanted to say I'm incredibly grateful to be here. I live in born and raised in Beverly, so this commute is much, much better for me. And I believe with all my experience, I've been in Salem for the city of Salem. I worked as a payroll coordinator. Then I was the assistant treasurer there. So I think with my experience, hopefully it'll be a smooth transition within the finance department. 00:09:59,667 S3: Great. 00:10:00,100 S7: So thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. 00:10:02,300 S3: I'm happy to have you here. 00:10:03,300 S9: Thank you. 00:10:04,367 S1: Very happy. 00:10:05,000 S4: And and one last thing. This being Patty's official last meeting with us as the finance director. I just want to thank her on behalf of the town of myself for everything that you've done for the town, Patty, for the last year. It was truly a pleasure working with you and wish you could have been longer, but I understand how these things happened. So. But thank you for your service. 00:10:31,167 S3: Thank you very much. 00:10:33,567 S10: Very much. 00:10:34,400 S1: We'll miss you. 00:10:37,767 S11: And that's it. I want a paper agenda to follow. 00:10:41,100 S1: No. It's okay. 00:10:41,868 S11: All right. 00:10:43,067 S1: Uh. 00:10:44,067 S3: I might you could change your mind. 00:10:48,000 S1: All right. On to new business consent agenda. Consent agenda. 00:10:51,467 S3: We have none. No consent agenda. 00:10:53,000 S4: New business. 00:10:53,901 S1: So I consent to the consent agenda. All right. The next we have the audit committee. We have a three person committee. Yours truly is a member. Uh, rich Jones is a member. We've both been a member for several years, and we have a vacancy. And we've been searching for somebody for quite a while. And we found somebody, actually, a neighbor of mine, Marty Croyle, who's agreed to serve in this committee. Uh, a three person committee. Uh, he's a CPA and own his own accounting practice and auditing practice and merged with a larger firm recently. So, uh, we're pleased that he's been willing to join us and that, uh, it's not too heavy lifting, usually because the audit goes very smoothly. Or it has anyway, under our finance director and the town accountant and others. So the appointment is starts July 1st of this past year and ends June 20th, 2020. So I'll read the motion and move that. The Board of Selectmen appoint Martin Croyle to the Audit Committee for a term beginning November 19th, 2019 and ending June 30th, 2020. 00:11:56,467 S3: I'll second that. 00:11:58,501 S1: Any further comment? All in favor? 00:12:01,567 S10: All right, roll call. 00:12:02,667 S1: I roll call, John. Okay. 00:12:05,667 S3: Hi, Catherine. Yes. 00:12:07,100 S1: Okay. Three of us. Madam. Clerk. Okay. That was that one. Um. 00:12:20,367 S10: Okay. 00:12:21,467 S1: Do you want me to do the public hearing? 00:12:23,367 S4: I think it's the interim finance director. Last, last meeting, Mr. Chairman, we we had just need to sew this up with a more formal motion, so I included the motion up there. Um, appointing Chris as the interim finance director. I got it. 00:12:39,667 S1: Okay. I have to scroll about five screen. 00:12:43,267 S3: And actually, that's a different one than you have on your screen. 00:12:46,167 S4: Yeah, I did change it. Yeah. Did you read the one on the screen that's. 00:12:51,901 S3: So difficult. 00:12:52,601 S1: Well, okay. I can read that one. Uh, we, uh, we are promoting, uh, on an interim basis. Uh, town accountant, uh, Chris Holloway. I'll move motion, uh, move to the Board of Selectmen, appoint Christopher J. Holyoak, who's not here right now. And interim finance director, effective November 25th, Thanksgiving through June 30th, 2020, at a grade six with an hourly rate of $40.24. 00:13:23,667 S3: I'll second that. 00:13:25,267 S10: A roll call. 00:13:26,100 S1: John. 00:13:27,200 S2: Hi. 00:13:27,901 S10: Hi. 00:13:28,868 S1: Yes, hi. So I have a commentary on that and that, uh, let's not talk lately about the. We had this under classification called reorganization, the last meeting. But, uh, going back and we're losing Patty after tomorrow, I guess this week, Friday noontime, something like that. Okay. Uh, we've had a lot of turnover in our finance department over the last 5 or 6 years. Uh, uh, many of you remember Sarah Johnson. Uh, who was with us a long time, and she left us for two reasons. One, she was working 70, 80 hours a week and was substantially underpaid. So he left for another job where she had to work a normal hours and was paid a lot more money. Uh, subsequent to her leaving the selectmen at the time, uh, our predecessors decided they would outsource the finance department director's job, uh, to some two people from the town of Uxbridge who had full time employees of the town, but they would come here at 5 or 6:00 at night and fill in. That didn't work out. And that, uh, and indeed they had some problems with the door. And Uxbridge in that. So when I got on the board, I convinced. Who was ever on the board at the time that we should at least go back to. Hiring a full time director? We did. We hired a full time director, Angel Wills, and that she did a wonderful job converting our accounting systems from linked Excel spreadsheets to a software system designed for towns and cities. Unfortunately, she left for two reasons. One, to guess she was working many more hours than she had bargained for and was underpaid, and she quit and went someplace else. Her successor? Same thing. We promoted somebody who was her assistant, and that she left for another town locally after about 15 months, 18 months for much more pay and fewer hours. And here we are again. Petit is leaving us for less hours and more pay. And so lastly, we've been looking for her replacement. And after searching high and low, we have the total number of zero applicants for the position. So that's troubling. So anybody thinks that we're doing something in the finance department just to please the people in the finance department is very, very misguided. I've just gone through a litany of people we've hired and left for the work we've done, worked load and as well as the the pay. Fortunately, you've just met our new assistant treasurer. That was a part time position before. It's now a full time position that's going to alleviate some of the time problems we have in the department, but it's extremely important that we have a full time director of the finance department and we pay this person appropriately, which will probably have to adjust the pay because we've had no applicants, as I said a minute ago. But there's been some scuttlebutt around town hall that, you know, we're doing this just the pleasing employees of the department. Not true as I just went through. And so we need a finance department. That's a, uh, as every town does. And so we've been asking these people to do more work in a regular scheduled meeting time frame than it's the workload is much more than a time allotted. And we've been underpaying these people. But thank you for staying for a year and a half, Paddy. You actually being underpaid and working more. You didn't hear all of that, by the way. 00:17:11,567 S3: We changed it with a this latest position. 00:17:16,501 S1: But for those of you who think that this is anyway. Um. All right. Thanks. Tax classification rate hearing Steve. 00:17:26,868 S3: So I think in this Tom's. 00:17:28,868 S1: Flip a coin. When do you come up? Both. 00:17:31,467 S3: Since this is a public hearing, I think that we need to formally open the public hearing. Yeah, and it's my my. So I'm formally opening the public hearing. 00:17:41,167 S1: But wait, what does it say that it's like. 00:17:42,701 S3: Well, it doesn't exactly say that, but I think. 00:17:46,367 S1: I'm looking here. I'm looking here. 00:17:47,667 S3: Well, there's. 00:17:48,367 S1: A get the clue on that. 00:17:49,467 S3: Well, there's. It says the motorcycle will hold a hearing on classification. 00:17:54,100 S1: How do I know it's yours? Okay. 00:17:55,501 S3: Thank you. Oh, it's on the agenda. 00:17:58,167 S1: Yeah, I can get back to the agenda for that. 00:17:59,767 S3: Yeah. Oh, and it's actually. 00:18:02,100 S4: It's on your motion. 00:18:02,868 S3: On you. It's when you if you go to. 00:18:05,000 S8: Uh. 00:18:05,367 S4: A yellow sheet. 00:18:07,267 S3: My initials are up in the top. You didn't tell me this one B letter B, Katherine. So we have Tom Tanis, chair, our board of assessors, is that right? That's correct. Um, to walk us through a presentation and for the public hearing. 00:18:25,267 S8: Steve, you come up here as well because you are the one that created these. 00:18:28,767 S3: And. 00:18:29,467 S1: Made a mistake. It's your fault, not Toms. 00:18:31,467 S3: And I believe just so that we're right about this. I believe we're supposed to read the posting, the public hearing notice, so I will do that. The Wenham Board of Selectmen will hold. I'm going to to many land use meetings. Clearly, the Wenham Board of Selectmen will hold a hearing on classification of real estate for taxation purposes during the meeting on Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. at the Wenham Town Hall, 138 Main Street, Wenham, mass. The purpose of this meeting is to determine whether the town shall establish separate tax rates for business and residential property owners, or continue one rate for all classes. So that's the notice that was posted in the newspaper. Salem Salem news. Okay, now we're ready. Take it away, Steve. On the housekeeping service. 00:19:20,267 S5: The, um. 00:19:21,701 S12: The point of this is simply to go through the options that are available for the community regarding a tax rate. And. If I may paraphrase Jack, from years past, we've always had one classification, one rate, and there's absolutely no reason to change it. Uh, it's it's this the whole purpose of the opening it up to having other rates is if you've got a diversity of property where there's a significant amount of commercial or industrial, where you create a different tax rate for them, and that leads to all kinds of discussion and so forth. So it's a small town. We have, I believe, 18 commercial properties. Uh, if we were to double the tax rate on those commercial properties, we would the average taxpayer of single family residents might, might save a dollar a year, something like that. So it makes no sense. So I'm just going to skim through this stuff. 00:20:27,200 S1: People out of town perhaps too. 00:20:28,567 S8: Yes. That's the biggest danger, right. 00:20:31,767 S12: So I'm just going to skim through this. Open space doesn't apply. Oh, the residential exemption community like Somerville, Brookline has residential exemption because if you live in your three family, you get a discount. We don't have that issue here. It's also big in places like Chatham on the Cape. Let's say you have a lot of rental properties. So again this just explains and this will be available on the website if anybody wants to read through it. Uh, it's just it's a small town uh, small commercial exemption. Same thing. It doesn't really apply to us. We don't have enough commercial property to do anything about it. And this is just the detail on it. Um, so what we would recommend the Board of Assessors recommends that we have a rate of, excuse me, one rate for all property. And that's the point of this meeting. 00:21:33,300 S8: Tax factor of one. 00:21:35,000 S1: Factor of one. 00:21:36,000 S8: Yes. Okay. 00:21:37,767 S3: Let's make a motion. 00:21:40,100 S9: On that. 00:21:41,868 S8: One. 00:21:42,501 S3: I move that the Board of Selectmen vote pursuant to chapter 40, section 56, to adopt a tax factor of one for the town of Wenham for fiscal year 2020. 00:21:53,200 S1: I'll second the motion. A roll call, John. 00:21:56,100 S2: Yes. 00:21:57,400 S3: Yes. Catherine. 00:21:58,300 S1: Yes. All three. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you very much. You can go back and sit down. I'll leave for whatever you wish. 00:22:03,767 S9: Thank you. Thank you. 00:22:06,667 S1: Same thing. The next item is the, uh. 00:22:10,167 S2: That's on me. 00:22:11,367 S1: Yeah. But, um. 00:22:13,701 S9: Okay. 00:22:14,367 S1: I think you'd be better off to have Anthony take this, since you're doing remotely. John, you're not here. 00:22:20,701 S2: Um, yeah, I was just going to read the motion and let Anthony step in to bring us up to speed. 00:22:26,667 S1: Yeah. Do that. Please. 00:22:28,167 S2: All right. I move that the Board of Selectmen, um, the Board of Selectmen, vote to approve the engineering services with Bayside Engineering, Inc. to provide 25% design. 00:22:51,167 S2: And cost engineering for the rehab of the three intersections 00:23:01,767 S2: along route one. A corridor based upon the alternative. Number four. Aye. 00:23:14,767 S4: Okay. 00:23:16,267 S2: So, Anthony, if you could fill in any current details as to now where this engineering firm is with us. 00:23:24,100 S9: Sure. 00:23:24,767 S4: Thank you. So it's been some time, I think, since the residents of one of have talked about this. What's gone on since the last meeting in December was that the cost for to bring this up to the 25% design was $180,000. As the community should be well aware by now that thanks to Representative Brad Hill and Senator Bruce Tarr, we got an earmark in the state budget for FY 19 of $150,000, of which we contributed $30,000 about chapter 90 money towards this project. So all of the approvals have come back, finally from MassDOT for both of those funding. So we had contacted Bayside, and Bruno is here, and he's going to go through a little presentation on just where we are and what the next step is and looking for the the board to execute the contract so they can begin work and get this project moving and get it up to the 25% design so we can get in the queue and have this completed in five years. So. 00:24:41,100 S3: It'll be a good reminder for all of us to yeah, get us back. 00:24:44,868 S9: We're both from this side. 00:24:48,901 S4: Just hit the down. 00:24:50,501 S9: Okay. 00:24:55,467 S8: Yes. My name is Anthony said. My name is Bruno Campion, and I'm with Bay City Engineering, and I'm here with Norm Brown, who is the principal at Bayside Engineering. And we were selected as the design consultant for this project. Uh, I'll give a just a very brief summary, uh, as to, uh, I guess how we got to this point. Where we're at and where we'll go from this point on. Um, that's the agenda. Uh, I'll go over the project limits very briefly on the project history, and I'll cover the improvement alternatives that were evaluated, and then just also a review of the design option, and then provide a, an overview of the tasks and the timeline to complete the project. Uh. 00:25:56,067 S8: The project limits, uh, involve the three intersections of Cherry Street, uh Monument and Arbor Street. The project limit will probably start somewhere uh, several hundred feet south of cherry, and it will include all of the roadway, uh, approximately 4 to 500ft, uh, north of Arbor Street. The project limits will be set. Uh, you know, based on the alignment. There's some turn lanes, and it depends on the taper. And when we can get back to the existing, um, the town initiated, uh, this project by contacting MassDOT to undertake a traffic study for improvements in the downtown area. Uh, MassDOT suggested to the town officials that they consult with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and they, in turn, in coordination with the Central Transportation Planning staff, undertook a comprehensive study, uh, for the area, which was completed in 2018. Uh, the technical memorandum for the three intersections. The memorandum summarized the analyses that were performed. The improvement strategies for the whole corridor area. I do have. 00:27:34,167 S8: Anybody wants any reading material? This is a complete, uh, uh, report. That report, uh, it's quite volumes. Yeah. Yes I think. 00:27:45,667 S3: Yeah. 00:27:46,100 S9: We have. 00:27:51,100 S8: The. As I said, the report studied a number of different improvements, and they narrowed those down to several different options. The alternative one signalized Arbor Street intersection and only the Arbor Street intersection with Cherry Street and Monument Street. That would be reconstructed and upgraded with all the latest standards. However, they would remain stopped sign controlled. The second option was to analyze Cherry Street intersection, and again Monument Street and Arbor Street would be reconstructed and they would be upgraded, but they would remain stop controlled. The third option was to signalized and coordinate Arbor Street and Monument Street intersections, and Cherry Street would be reconstructed, but it would remain stop controlled. 00:28:57,267 S8: Then there was alternate four and four A, which was to signalized and coordinate Arbor Street intersection and Cherry Street intersection and monument would be stopped controlled. There's an alternate for B, but that's just a variation. The geometry of it's a variation of foray, but the only difference is the geometry actually is the same. It would just be that on the alternate for B monument would have left turns prohibited. 00:29:37,767 S8: Alternative five was to signalized and coordinate all three intersections. By the way. By coordinate I mean that the three signals would be interconnected. So they they operate in synchronized manner. And then alternative six was to install a roundabout at Arbor Street in Cherry Street. 00:30:00,567 S3: That was really popular. 00:30:01,868 S8: I was I'm sure that was um, so all of those options were evaluated based on different criteria. Objectives such as reduce traffic congestion, maintain desirable traffic movements, improve the town's emergency response, improve traffic operations, improve pedestrian and access and safety, improve bicycle accommodations, reduce traffic conflicts, maintain convenient access to wall traffic movements. Minimize right of way impacts because those are always in there and they're very important and also based on cost. Though all five, all seven actually, uh, alternatives were evaluated. And the selected, as you can see, based on the high improvement, up down to the high regression. Actually, alternative foray rates the best out of all of them. And that is the alternative, which was selected by MassDOT. It was recommended to the town. The town did approve it. And it's the alternative on which we've been retained to implement. And MassDOT has approved the funding on that basis. 00:31:49,267 S8: This is the alternative for a it's just a schematic. Um, it's essentially one lane in each direction, but in the northbound direction, each of the intersections has a short left turn Uh, slot so that, um, through traffic, uh, can bypass any left turn movements as indicated. Cherry Street and Arbor Street will be signalized. Uh, it's kind of difficult to see, but the red area here is there will be a sidewalk on both sides of the street. Throughout the project limits, all of the, uh, pedestrian crossings will have, uh, accessible wheelchair ramps. Uh, the signalized intersection will have pedestrian crossings, and there will be, uh, a shoulder slash bicycle lane on both sides also. 00:32:57,667 S1: Uh, before you move on. Can you entertain questions? 00:33:00,367 S9: Sure. 00:33:01,367 S1: Go back to the last slide presentation. Uh, I come up monument Street all the time, and so do a lot of other people. In fact, I saw about 15 cars backed up early tonight, so I was surprised that alternative three did not rate higher, which would be signalized accordingly. Arbor Street obviously definitely needs it. In Monument Street, more people come up monument Street than Arbor than Cherry Street, taking particularly the left hand turn coming to Town Hall as opposed to a right hand turn. So the problem is coming up on the street and taking a left to come to downtown, to Hamilton Town Hall, any place down here. So I'm looking at your greens and reds and so forth. You can't see it on the board. I was surprised that, uh, this refreshes my memory that that wasn't a superior alternative to for a, uh, since there's more traffic coming up monument Street, in my opinion, than there is cherry Street. Got me. I know you're not a woman. Might. But you want to take a. 00:33:59,501 S8: Well, it's not so much. And I'm not trying to get out of responding to your question. I think once I get into the project, I'll be more than happy to sort of answer that. 00:34:14,167 S1: Um, is it too late? My question is beyond is it's too late to even bring it up because the states already looked at this stuff, etc., etc. is that right? 00:34:24,767 S4: So on all the direction that, uh, was forwarded from the town was alternative foray was the desired. 00:34:32,667 S9: Uh. 00:34:33,367 S4: At the public hearing that was held last the November December there was. 00:34:37,701 S1: My family wasn't there though. I'm sorry. Just kidding. All right, well, go ahead. 00:34:41,567 S4: So, um, so that was the recommendation from the state. So based on that, that's the proposal that was going forward. 00:34:50,100 S9: Um, that's. 00:34:51,100 S4: The point right. 00:34:51,767 S9: Now. 00:34:53,000 S3: And I think looking at this chart and trying to remember the conversation, it had to do a lot between 3 and 4. A with the fact that foray was better at reducing the traffic conflicts at Cherry Monument intersection. 00:35:06,100 S1: Well, it says, but, you know, I mean, you have to someone who does it all the time. And you too. Catherine. 00:35:10,567 S3: Well, I actually come from Cherry Street. 00:35:12,067 S9: So I think. 00:35:13,367 S8: That's. 00:35:14,767 S13: About it. Easier if you come to Town Hall, come up Cherry Street and make your left turn rather than trying to go across one egg from monument to Town hall. 00:35:24,467 S9: Yeah. 00:35:24,767 S8: Looking at. 00:35:25,501 S1: Point. Look, it's difficult to take a left hand turn on a monument. That's the point. 00:35:29,300 S13: So I don't. 00:35:29,767 S9: Do it well. So that's. 00:35:32,868 S1: Exactly why I bring. 00:35:33,868 S9: It up. 00:35:35,267 S13: To go up Cherry. 00:35:36,100 S9: Street. 00:35:36,701 S1: Um, yeah, there will be. 00:35:37,968 S3: So this is based on data that was collected. 00:35:40,567 S8: If you if you look at the evaluation of three and four A, you'll see that they're all very close. 00:35:47,667 S1: Yeah, I do that. 00:35:48,501 S8: Uh, the one difference is this line right here, reduced traffic conflicts at Cherry Monument intersection. I read that and that the difference there is, um, the fact that, Um, I would say that, uh, foray eliminates the left turn there. So that's one way of eliminating the conflict. 00:36:15,267 S9: Yeah. 00:36:15,701 S1: Let me read that again. 00:36:16,701 S3: Uh, you know, for a doesn't eliminate. 00:36:18,767 S1: No, for B does. 00:36:19,701 S8: For B does. 00:36:20,667 S9: What would. 00:36:21,167 S1: Happen for a just, uh, there's a green half green and the other one is half red. Right. But, uh. But I'm so unlike Harriet. I come up on the street and take a left, uh, which is difficult. And she comes up, Jerry, which is easier. I guess I'll have to come up Jerry from now. I don't. 00:36:35,501 S9: Know. 00:36:36,367 S13: I frequently when I get to the intersection of Jerry and monument at our end and I have this little game, I watched another car go up. Monument. I do two and see who. And I always win by going up. 00:36:47,767 S1: Jerry, if I see 2 or 3 guys, I think I go up. Jerry. If I don't see any cars go up, I go up. Uh. 00:36:55,000 S14: Full operation? 00:36:56,400 S8: Yes. Um. 00:37:02,267 S8: Three signal rises. arbour and monument and four signal sizes. 00:37:10,667 S9: Cherry. 00:37:11,467 S8: Cherry and arbour. Therefore, monument is going to have under this scenario. Monument should get the benefit of a number of gaps created by the two signalized intersections on either side. 00:37:32,000 S1: Yes, it will both. Both with both cherry and monument wood. They both would benefit from that because the cars are coming up and taking a right hand turn on Arbor Street, and it's hard to take a left hand turn on either cherry or or monument because of the people coming out of it and also coming down Main Street. Okay. Go ahead. 00:37:53,000 S13: I wanted to the other point you made was about in the center of town. There'd be bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. Is there enough room considering the Civil War. Memorial and fence you can't touch based. 00:38:09,267 S8: Based on what we see right now. The answer is yes. We have what we call a typical cross section of what the roadway should be. And in that area, um, I believe that there'll be some infringement. But the monument. 00:38:28,467 S13: No, the the the fence. 00:38:30,367 S8: The fence. 00:38:31,267 S13: Is is critical. It's historic. And we spent a lot of money on it. 00:38:35,868 S8: Okay. 00:38:36,667 S13: You can't touch. 00:38:37,467 S9: That. Um. 00:38:39,167 S8: There's there's a number of things that, um, that could be done. And right now, see everything right now. I mean, we haven't, uh, started any of that yet. Uh, so we don't know where we are with that. Uh, until we start, until we stop putting some lines on our plans and see what the widths are and exactly how much room we have. 00:39:12,501 S13: We talked to the December hearing about the fact that this is in the center of the historic district, and you said you'd had some experience in what? 00:39:21,601 S8: Well, we we just got through doing three very tight intersections in Lowell, uh, right down through an historic area. And one side was, uh, Kittredge Park, which obviously they did not want us to, to touch. And we had to do some extreme things over there in order, including building some little masonry walls similar to the ones you have out there right now in order to avoid both touching the park as well as some of the other properties. 00:40:00,000 S3: So can I. 00:40:01,300 S8: As far as submitting to the one of the things when we get started and we see where we're at prior to the 25% submission, we do have to contact the historical right. 00:40:13,767 S3: If I can turn back the clock a little to remind folks because of this, it's reminding myself at the time that you were here last and presented the original. I've forgotten what it's called. But this proposal, um, there are a lot of people and there were a lot of comments. And so you we got all of those and I'm sure they're recorded somewhere. But at that time, the Board of Selectmen did recommend that we have even before you begin, your is a 25% design, which we thought was going to happen a lot sooner. But whatever that we have some very focused focus groups, um, before the public hearing that we're required to have when you're done. But for that particular reason, there were certain people here who had sort of direct interests. One of them being the historic district. Some folks who live on front court, some folks who live on monument, who just want, we acknowledge that they had that particular interests and we wanted to hear them, and they might help inform your work. And maples and the maples, I have a list of them somewhere. So I'm just reminding people of that and suggesting that perhaps if that still works, that we go back to. 00:41:28,701 S9: To. 00:41:29,000 S3: A plan. 00:41:29,767 S8: I believe we're aware that that it will probably take place when where MassDOT requires us to make the initial submission of 25. But at 25, the plans are at least 50 to 60% complete, because we have to investigate that that far in order to be able to determine that what we're going to show is feasible to construct. So we have to actually develop the drawings that far. And I believe what we had agreed that we would make a public presentation when we got not at the 25, but prior to the 25, when we were certain as to what the alignment was going to look like. And we actually had something that we could show what the impacts were going to be. 00:42:21,901 S3: Okay. And that wouldn't be too late to change something that someone brought up as a. 00:42:27,467 S9: Big issue. 00:42:27,868 S8: Because at it we would be at a point where we know what the impacts are, but we won't obviously have the design anywhere near complete, and we'll still have time to make any revisions before going to MassDOT with the submission. I mean, we're not going to we're not going to submit anything that the town doesn't want. 00:42:48,367 S3: Well, true. I guess I'm just trying to preempt a change very late in the game that would incur time and cost. 00:42:56,567 S9: To. 00:42:57,300 S3: Time for you and cost to us. Um, and we had talked about it before and we envisioned it a little bit differently. But the way you're suggesting, I think is fine with me. I just thought, well, we do have some specific. 00:43:08,467 S8: You know, anytime sooner than that, we wouldn't be able to give you some definite answers or some definite impacts. Okay. So we have to get to that point. 00:43:17,901 S9: Okay. 00:43:18,868 S3: So we'll wait to hear back. 00:43:21,167 S1: Jackie has a question back then. 00:43:22,701 S6: Well I just had a comment. I'm sorry. Because, um, Anthony wasn't here last year when we were, you know, getting the we had the public hearing and the process. Um, so, Catherine, just as a point of process. Um, so as, um, as described by Bayside Engineering, the process that he just spoke to is the process that we discussed last year where as we got closer to 25%, design was when we would have those smaller community meetings with the maples, the business community, the historic district, so that we actually had plans to show those groups, because I think the initial public hearing was very conceptual and had so many options. And so it was to give Bayside a little bit more time so that we could actually show them the potential and as, as discussed the impacts. So that was, as we had discussed last year, that it was closer to the 25% design process being completed, that we would have those smaller, community focused groups so that it's on track for at least where we had discussed it last December. 00:44:18,601 S3: Not exactly my recommendation, my recollection, but it makes sense. So I have no problem. 00:44:22,400 S9: With it that she's wrong. 00:44:24,868 S1: Please continue. 00:44:27,400 S9: Uh. 00:44:28,767 S8: This is just a very quick overview of the tasks and the timeline, um, 2019, which is almost all over. Um, we've, uh, as stated earlier, essentially, uh, completed the obtaining the, uh, the funding, uh, and the survey based plans have been completed. Bayside engineering completed those, I believe, by the end of the summer, whenever it was. We'll take a quick look. Shortly after this, uh, starting in year two and three, 2020 and 2021. Uh, as we just said, we'll begin and complete the 25% design submission. And that is a long process. 8 to 12 months, we anticipate, could go, uh, perhaps shorter, but should not go any longer than that. Uh, upon completion of the submission, uh, once given to MassDOT, all of the various sections of MassDOT will review it. Uh, construction will review what, uh, uh, Ada compliance traffic, uh, all the various. And we will be getting comments from all of those sections at MassDOT. We'll need to take a look at those in detail. Determine whether we agree. Disagree. If we disagree, we can discuss them with them and make a final determination as to what a final design that we can agree with. And once that's done, that's when the design public hearing will take place. Uh, and once the final, uh, once the design public hearings takes place, uh, will go directly into the 75% design. That's just a further development of the plans we anticipate those items will take, uh, year two and three, year four. Once we've made the 75% submission, MassDOT will again review those documents and, uh, make comments, which we will need to address. And once we've addressed those and responded to all those comments, we go into the 100% PSN that's plan specs and estimate. Those are the contract documents that MassDOT needs to bid the project out for construction. 00:47:10,767 S8: Once those are complete, MassDOT gives a final review. One more review, and we anticipate that will be during that year for 2022. 00:47:25,767 S8: Once we have MassDOT has the PSC. They will advertise the project, which we anticipate that would be the the winter of 20 2220 and the beginning of 2023, so that by the spring of 2023, it's anticipated MassDOT will a water contract and then construction will begin during that spring. Continue through that year and will probably extend through the following, uh. Construction season. And just to clear it up, I think we discussed this, uh. During our last meeting year. That does not mean for 18 months there's going to be a contract of working out there on a continuous basis. There'll be periods when he won't be doing much going on. And the other thing is that, uh, a lot of times they'll, they'll do a lot of the construction. Uh, one of the last things to go in will be the traffic, the actual traffic signal equipment, uh, because they get all the alignment roadway, curving sidewalks, all of that constructed first. 00:48:48,200 S8: Uh, these are the base plans which I refer to that were completed by Bayside and. 00:48:58,000 S8: This is a detailed scale plan of everything that's out there, both above ground and on the ground. And this is what we, uh, this is the Cherry Street. Uh, this is the monument area, and that's north of Arbor Street. Uh, there's right now that's for, uh, base plan, what we call base plans, because everything is developed from these, but from these, we develop construction documents which show everything that needs to be constructed. We do the traffic signal plans. There's grading plans, there's drainage plans, there's traffic management plans. There's Details. By the time we get done, starting with these four sheets, I anticipate that the final set of contract documents will probably be. My guess is a minimum of 60, 70, 80 sheets up two by three. 00:50:10,467 S8: The last thing is just a quick bar chart of the way we anticipate the 25% design. Right now we're over here. That represents. I know you can't see at the beginning of December of 20, 2019. Hopefully we can begin. It goes all the way to the end of May of 2021. We anticipate by the end of this year submitting the 25%. There's the review period. And we anticipate that Perhaps the design public hearing will take place somewhere near the end of May. Beginning of June of 2021. 00:50:58,501 S9: Okay. It's a good thing. Thanks. Other questions? Questions from the board members. 00:51:05,167 S3: I have no questions. 00:51:06,167 S9: Thank you. That was. 00:51:07,767 S2: Uh. Yeah. Just, uh, back to, uh. I think Catherine mentioned this, uh, the public input. Um, I can't emphasize that enough because we've had so much attention by the residents that have to access these roads and have lived with the chaos. So we need to take their consideration, them, their input into consideration. 00:51:35,767 S9: Right. 00:51:37,167 S8: Very good. 00:51:38,367 S9: Yeah. Great. 00:51:40,100 S1: Thank you very much. No other comments from the board? 00:51:43,300 S9: Okay. 00:51:44,567 S3: Um, we did have a motion, though. Right. Okay. Yeah. Um, move the Board of Selectmen vote to this. This is my motion first, before I move to the Board of Selectmen. Vote to approve the engineering services with Bayside Engineering, Inc. to provide 25% design plans and cost estimates for the rehabilitation of three intersections along route one, a corridor based upon alternative for a. 00:52:09,901 S1: I'll second that roll call, John. 00:52:13,801 S2: I. 00:52:14,601 S1: I. 00:52:15,300 S3: Catherine. 00:52:15,801 S1: Yes. A unanimous for thank you very much. 00:52:19,367 S3: You spend that money now. 00:52:20,968 S9: That's it. 00:52:22,167 S3: Yay. Thank you guys. Thanks so much for coming in. 00:52:25,167 S4: And then I'll shoot them over to you. 00:52:26,767 S9: Very good. Forward to working with you. Thank you. 00:52:30,000 S3: Thank you so much for coming out tonight. Thank you. Thanks for waiting around for us. 00:52:34,667 S9: Not a problem. 00:52:37,901 S9: I get to the next thing here. 00:52:39,267 S1: Okay. This is me, your business finance department. Uh, let me read the motion to, uh, a board of selectmen. Uh, move to approve. The treasurer collected job description, which is different than a present one, as amended. In place the said position in grade six. Salary range 65,578 and $0.66. Do we have to have pennies on this or something? 00:53:07,267 S9: Yeah. We do. Yeah. Yeah we do. 00:53:08,968 S1: 81,009 73 and $0.32 with the compensation classification system for the town of Windham. Non-union employees. That's the motion. 00:53:18,367 S3: I'll second the motion. 00:53:20,300 S1: Uh, this is, uh. So we're revamping this. So the finance director is going to we're just going to have a treasurer collector as opposed to the finance director. Treasurer. Um, comments. John. 00:53:32,701 S2: Um, I'm all set. I've reviewed it, and I think it's the right thing to try at this point and see how it works. 00:53:39,667 S1: Okay. All in favor? 00:53:41,467 S2: I I. 00:53:42,801 S3: May I just have a question first? Yeah. Um, so this range that's proposed in here, we just talked about the fact that, um, our salary ranges are somewhat difficult and we're having trouble getting applications. So is this salary range? The range that's been advertised? 00:54:00,267 S1: Yeah, probably insufficient, but you know. 00:54:02,667 S9: Right. Right. 00:54:03,167 S3: So that's my question. So this should we be addressing that before we prove it. 00:54:08,267 S4: Here's the current chart right here. So we have the finance director position. So by uh not having the finance director treasurer collector, what we did is we moved the treasurer collector with the town accountant position. So the next slide would show that there now would be on par. Um, and then according to the town bylaws, the finance director can come from 1 or 2 positions. It's either your town accountant or the town treasurer. So right now we'd be appointing. What you did is Chris would be the interim. Now, the answer to the question, with that rate, we advertised at that rate right now, and we had total submissions of one. And I would uh, uh, concerning that, we only have. 00:54:58,701 S9: One. 00:54:59,100 S4: Right now. So it's a good question that I think we need to a lot of the times people submit the last week. So, you know, we could have 20 applications roll in the last week. Um, we may be coming back in another meeting and saying we need to relook at this because we didn't get any or maybe we didn't get any that we feel are qualified. So, um, this is a start. We have a couple more weeks left or, well, a week and a half left on the job posting. And, um, we have to see what happens. 00:55:32,868 S1: It was zero yesterday, so we got one today. 00:55:35,200 S4: We got. Yeah we got. 00:55:36,467 S9: We got one. 00:55:37,000 S3: So I'm sorry. What? When is the deadline? The date of the deadline. 00:55:40,601 S4: December 2nd. That week. 00:55:44,267 S9: Okay. 00:55:45,467 S3: All right. Just like I said. You said that you were concerned about that, and we were. 00:55:49,601 S9: Approving. 00:55:50,267 S3: A range. So I guess we may have to be revisiting this some later. 00:55:55,267 S9: That's right. We wanted to start. 00:55:56,567 S4: The process of at least throwing the advertisement out there and see what we got, um, and not delaying the process. You're going to be leaving. We do have the interim coming in for, you know, ten hours or so a week. Patty's going to be hanging on coming in on Friday. So, um, we really need the it's still going to take, you know, even if we did get a bunch of qualified applicants by the time we interview, and they have to give notice. We're really not looking at somebody coming through until January. So, um. 00:56:29,868 S1: But Katherine's point and mine as well, this may be insufficient. 00:56:32,467 S4: It may be insufficient. 00:56:33,467 S9: Yeah, absolutely. 00:56:34,000 S4: And so please, we may find. 00:56:35,267 S9: Bring it forward. Yeah. 00:56:37,367 S3: Yeah. If you're not getting applications and you determine that the reason we're not getting applications is primarily due to our salary range. Jack and I agree anyway, that we should relook at the salary range given our history. 00:56:49,567 S4: This will certainly be on the agenda on December 3rd for an update. 00:56:54,300 S1: Okay. 00:56:54,767 S9: Okay, so I'm sorry. 00:56:58,000 S1: I had a motion. 00:56:59,300 S3: And it was. 00:56:59,701 S9: Seconded. Yep. 00:57:01,167 S1: All in favor? John. 00:57:02,667 S2: Hi. 00:57:03,367 S1: Hi. 00:57:04,167 S3: Catherine. Yes. 00:57:05,100 S1: Unanimous roll call. Vote. Catherine. Okay, let's see now. 00:57:11,868 S9: Oh. 00:57:13,167 S1: Okay. Who's got this one? Probably you. 00:57:14,567 S9: Catherine. 00:57:14,868 S3: Me and I, I think so this next item, agenda item is discussion and potential approval of the loan agreement between the Wenham Affordable Housing Trust and Harbor Light Community Partners, Inc.. I think this can be a fairly short discussion. Um, only because the Affordable Housing Trust has met a week. Last Wednesday, I think, and had our second reading and discussion on this loan agreement between the Trust and Harbor Light. And I'm going out on a limb here, but I believe unanimously approved the. It was slightly amended from the first reading, but has approved this um, uh, loan agreement. So given the fact that. 00:58:01,367 S1: Why do you go out on a limb? You don't need. 00:58:02,767 S9: To. 00:58:03,000 S3: Well, I don't remember whether it was unanimous, but I believe it was unanimous. I'm 99% sure that it was unanimous. Um, to approve the slightly amended, as I said from our first reading, the Windham Affordable Housing Trust, it was certainly a vast majority, um, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly approved this, the latest version. And thanks to Jackie and others who got some input and cleaned it up a little bit for us. Um, so the one I'm Affordable Housing Trust has signed, I think you actually have we have the signed document in our books, and I think it's fair to say that they would recommend that the Board of Selectmen approve it as written as well, so I can. Shall I make that motion? Please move that. The Board of Selectmen approve the Affordable Housing Trust Fund loan agreement with Harbor Light Community Partners, Inc., as approved by the Windham Affordable Housing Trust on November 12th, 2019. 00:59:03,267 S1: I'll second with the comment. This is the last leg, at least the last leg of the so-called Maple Woods Harbor Light Project. The executive director of Harbor Light basically said that he would only go forward with the so-called Maple Woods Project if he received $1.2 million in funding from the town and town meeting last April. Based upon the CPC's recommendation, the town meeting approved $750,000, 00:59:39,300 S1: um. Funding for Maplewood. And this is the second leg of this and that. Uh, uh, this 1 million. Even so, I didn't say a million. He was. 00:59:50,267 S9: He's too. 00:59:50,868 S3: Well, he's had a minimum. 00:59:51,868 S9: Of a. 00:59:52,200 S1: Minimum, a minimum of $1 million in that. Uh, so this 250, uh, which, uh, Catherine just mentioned that the Affordable Housing Trust, which she serves on, approved the other 250 after debate. So we now have with the motion, uh, uh, about to be approved by the Board of Selectmen, uh, which all funding from the Affordable Housing Trust must be approved by the Board of Selectmen. Uh, Harbor Light and Mr. France has his 1 million minimum requested funds. So we'll be looking forward to hearing how he's going to proceed expeditiously. I hope to go forward, because we're still, uh, at risk here for, uh. Would he be? I want to say so anyway. John, do you agree? 01:00:37,000 S2: I yes, I do. 01:00:38,367 S1: Okay. So you vote. 01:00:39,267 S9: Yes. 01:00:40,100 S2: Yes I do. 01:00:41,567 S3: And just a quick breaking news. I looked at my packet, the motion. These are from the minutes of that meeting. The motion carried unanimously 500. So just yes. 01:00:51,868 S1: My vote. 01:00:52,467 S3: That's a change today is. Yes. 01:00:54,601 S1: So it's a unanimous vote. Roll call. Vote. John said yes, I say yes. 01:00:58,767 S9: Catherine. Yes. 01:00:59,300 S1: Okay. A unanimous is the Board of Selectmen. Good luck and we'll be looking forward to hearing a progress report on. If you're watching on YouTube tomorrow, uh, how are you going to proceed in the timing, other matters that may not have reasonably anticipated the chair? No, I haven't gotten it. Okay, I move that we adjourn. 01:01:21,100 S9: Second. 01:01:21,400 S2: So moved. 01:01:22,601 S1: Second. 01:01:23,467 S9: Second. 01:01:24,367 S1: All in favor? John. 01:01:26,267 S9: Hi. 01:01:26,701 S1: Hi. 01:01:27,801 S9: Roll call. 01:01:28,667 S1: Okay. We're adjourned.