Hello. Great was Thomas. Yeah. First time. All right. Esteemed. Ladies and gentlemen, are we ready to roll? Uh, Santa. Alright. Uh, it is 7-Eleven PM and I am calling to order the Hamilton Select board meeting of Monday may 6th 2024 Uh, we have an action packed agenda? Uh, but before we get started, I’m just gonna talk through

some board and committee openings, so everyone there’s so many folks here online and in person, uh, who I know, are dying to get involved. Uh, so the con com is looking for two folks or two openings. Oh you don’t have anybody on you don’t have to do B. I don’t think there’s anything on zoom, so we

need to do You want to do it anyway? Attendance anyhow, right? So. We’re calling to order with attendance from Rosie Kennedy, Bill Wilson and Caroline Bou. All present all present all present all present. Uh and if somebody does join us, I know we have some members who

might be joining by phone. Just holler at us when you arrive. Um all right Council on aging has two associate openings. The fin. Com, Uh, has one associate opening. The Historic District Commission has two openings for three year terms and two openings for two years. Terms, uh, one must be a resident of

the historic district, and one must be a resident realtor. Uh, the Human Rights Commission has one opening and the Planning board has one associate opening. Uh, and the zoning Board of Appeals has one associate opening. So if you’re looking for a way to get involved. Um all right, we will begin with, uh, public comment and just a

reminder. Public comment is three minutes on topics that are not on the agenda. Uh, so if you’re here to comment on topics that are on the agenda, we will certainly open for public comment. When, we get to those agenda items. Uh, but if anybody is here or online that has any public comment Please

come up to the podium or raise your hand and we’ll call on you. Yep. Coming up Name Street. Is this, OK? Perfect Uh Deb Safford 46 Maple Street. Hello. And. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today I was surprised and very concerned to learn at April’s town meeting that a possible $150 million school

consolidation project was coming next year to be voted on and that the sale of Winthrop for about 20 million would help to offset this cost. A 30 Year resident the idea of not having an elementary school near Patton Park in the community house was really shocking. I thought. How did. I miss that.

As. I started to dig into it. I wondered how it was possible that this was announced prior to the school building committee recommending their proposal. I did watch the committee meeting discussing the options two weeks ago and was dismayed to hear that because the town had not renewed the 50 year lease. The Winthrop Renovation option was

taken off the table, thus fulfilling the town meeting heads up. It all feels a bit conspired with Winthrop renovations taken off the table, the committee de facto vote was for consolidation. So. This decision to not renew the lease is a critical piece to understand and shows a bias toward a specific outcome. It also opens up the possibilities

for a fundamental transformation of our town. All done without the vote of the residents. It reminds me of a parenting strategy. I was taught when dealing with free spirited kids not wanting to go to bed. I would say, Do, you want to walk upstairs, or shall I carry you? They felt

empowered by the choice, but the outcome is the same. They were gonna go upstairs. This analogy is how I feel today as a resident, Do you wanna consolidated elementary school or do you want Winthrop and Cutler combined? Or. Do. You just not care about the Children. This is a false

choice because the third option of renovating the existing school is off the table. If. The decision makers were unbiased and sought the will of the residents. The lease could have been for 50 years with an option to end early if the residents voted for a consolidated school. The M BT a three rule three a breathing

down our backs is perhaps pushing this decision when residents understand that the consolidation is necessary so Winthrop can be developed into 700 plus units of multifamily housing, which isn’t affordable housing and voluntarily gives the state control over that zoning when they see that the town government is not fighting this state enforced fundamental transformation of our town.

Think about it. There’s gonna be push back. Preserving. The Winthrop application would have actually been a buffer for this, so I’d really appreciate it if someone could help address or point me to where the information is found. What did the school committee ask for Who and which committees made

this decision to change the lease from 50 years to five years. When was this decided? What criteria was used to decide to change this lease. And. Why given such a monumental decision was this done without a town vote or public comment period. And. Finally, I’ll just say that to reach residents of all ages and

technical abilities communications on these significant issues have got to be more proactive. We cannot assume that everyone checks the town website every day every week or that they’re on Facebook with no local paper, more visible, accessible. Communication strategies are essential if we as a town need to move forward through these critical stages, and I hope

that someone will help me answer those five questions. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mm. Good evening, Ellen Wright for Asbury Ave. Um, I moved here a little over three years ago. Um, I graduating member of the class in 96, and it’s amazing to be back. I will tell

you I lived in Lowell for 15 years, so to be able to move to this amazing town, it is such an honor. And. Um I’m just I’m so grateful every day that I wake up about the beauty that’s around me. The people here everyone takes care of each

other. It’s so amazing It’s so so amazing. I was the one who went this week to the Salem Evening news, and I did an interview about three A and how How. This will devastate Hamilton went up. It will cripple us cripple us and I’ve worked so hard to come up and out of Lowell to have the

privilege to live here. I can’t see this beautiful town go up in flames. The thought of it is just devastating to me. It’s devastating. Um Three A is so so dangerous and so many different levels and it’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day bustle and the Cutler talk and the Winthrop

and this and that and we’ve got jobs. But. This is what happens when voters are asleep at the wheel. This came in 2021, and nobody even saw it coming. Nobody. I have an office in Tewksbury, uh, in a satellite in Denver is I’m an I’m, an attorney. And. Um T Spry is

going bananas right now over this crazy crazy, um I. Just encourage everyone to think this through 731 units. All, right If. You assume that’s two people per household. That’s a 10% increase in our population. There are no guidelines on how many bedrooms can be stuffed in there. NN zero, none.

Occupancy. Family friendly. Let’s jam them in the more the merrier, and I find it very, uh, I. I shuddered the word. Use the word suspicious because I haven’t been here that long. I don’t even really know anything about the town politics here. All I know is is I heard about three. A coming down the pike

and then I got concerned. I don’t know any of the Selectmen. I. I’ve I’ve started to get to know to know some of the amazing neighbors. I live in Asbury Grove, but I meet some amazing people through this issue coming up, But I, I, you know It’s suspicious to me that this whole Winthrop Cutler

issue is surfacing right around the time of three a right. It’s Just. The timing is alarming. Uh, The M BT a it It’s. It’s It all smells like a scam soup to nuts. This is AAA bailout for the M BT A. Let’s Be honest since Covid Ridership is down 20% of the commercial space in

Boston is not occupied. People are working from home people. I’m an attorney. People still go to court from home that hasn’t even gone away. Give me a break. This is not about affordable housing. There is nothing in three a that talks anything about affordable housing, Not a word. It’s a

scam. The, only one who’s gonna profit off this is the developers and we are gonna suffer. I dab a little a little bit of bankruptcy. I will tell you. This is a recipe for a Chapter. Nine. Goodbye, Septic. Hello, Sue or open your wallets for that. Fire police crime

Every now and then I don’t lock my doors I used to in low Now. I’ve gotten a little lackadaisical because Hamilton win him is so nice and friendly and cozy and nothing really goes on here. Sometimes. I leave without locking my doors. I’m gonna have to start doing that again. Licky split I’m

aghast that this is even a question in this town. It shouldn’t even be a question. And. I look at what happened in Milton and again. I don’t know any of the Selectmen I. I think I met one Hello in passing at some committee meeting last week, But, I’ll tell you what

happened in Milton could happen here. It’s a cautionary tale for any politicians. What did Milton do they cleaned house? The Selectmen Let it go through, OK, the whole citizenry gathered together and tossed them out Goodbye. Could it happen here? Probably I don’t see it too much of a difference.

Does anybody here? Yeah. You know it’s funny. I did this interview and various people. Sorry. I just respectfully ask you. It’s now been five minutes if you could wrap it up. Thank you. Thanks. All. Good evening. And Lou, Terranova 54 Woodland Mead. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I’m gonna continue a recurring theme

tonight and it’s the topic is really a mass. Uh M BT, a three A, Uh, as you know, it’s been in the news. Um, we also know and I don’t know many of you people out there aware that the vote on MBM BT, a three a It’s not gonna be made by you.

It’s gonna be made by them and the planning board. Which is a violation of home rule. Are you aware of that? Have you read the law? Yes OK, how many pages are in the law? To specifically three a One half Yeah, not much. 40 pages. It came out of the Legislature with three Once.

We’re under three. A as mentioned earlier. We’re never going to meet our affordable housing number, because with this in this wave of 731 new units, we’re gonna be chasing our tails For years we will never be able to satisfy our 10%. It’ll be a windfall for the developers, many of whom

are from this town, and many of whom have already got their licking their chops over property. Next to the Winthrop Winthrop site. Three beautiful homes. Some of the owners are here. OK, uh, develop could go in knock those beautiful homes down and boom before you know it 90 units by law when you

vote for three a. You lose control. We think you think you can write? Write up the, uh, compliance to maintain control. It is specifically written in the law. You will lose control. This town will lose control of its land. It’s also become very, uh, very apparent that developing Winthrop has been your long range goal all along.

Using the MS B a process as a smokescreen. We also understand that this has been the plan for at least two years. We know it. This has been the game, right? We understand? We don’t like it. What you need to do Is you need to give this to the people to

decide. If this board and the planning board go forward with their plan to file directly with the state. This will be, uh, disaster. A train wreck for the town. Your compliance is not mandatory. If. You read the law. You will not That, the only thing that’s at risk is grant money, which is a lousy

$28,000 for the town of Hamilton. There’s a lot of misinformation and deceptive advertising being spread by people in town who stand to gain from this Developers. Housing advocates. The SJC is gonna rule on the constitutionality of this law in the fall. My advice to you

and I. I ask and many of the folks out there are asking that you slow down. You. Take your time you be transparent, Move slowly. And the citizens have to be the decision makers, not this board, not the planning board. It’s the citizens by the Constitution of Massachusetts. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I did just want to make a quick response. Um And. I think we should plan to follow up directly. I think that you had some very specific questions and there are certain things we can. I’m flattered that y’all think we can be so organized as to be conspiratorial. I will say that, um But II. I do want

to say that What I have learned in the last two weeks through the communications that I’ve received from folks. Um, is that there seems to be a binary expectation that when three a came in there was a group of folks that said, You should have immediately rejected it.

And. I will agree that that was never the intent. We never thought we’ll We’ll reject it out of hand and we will not go through the process. Um, because there are also equal advocates on the other side who believe believe in three a and want to see this come to our town. And so the consultant

that we just hired is was hired to go through this process and we have gone so slowly as to actually be behind in three a. We We have not put forth a decision in a timely manner and part of what that consultant will do. We’ll see to your

point, the grant money will or will not be. Thing that will affect the town and that will be one of our considerations. Um, I cannot speak for the entire board. I can speak for myself. There is not a pro three a board attitude There is a We need to identify what this would mean and what the

outcomes would be. And if there is an acceptable way to do three A. And, I recognize fully that there is a group of folks that say there is no acceptable way to do three a the same way. There’s a group at 133 that says there’s no acceptable way

to build there. And. There’s a group of Gordon Conwell that says there’s no acceptable way to build here. I empathize and acknowledge with that perspective, But the job of this board is not to go with the binary pole. It is to try to understand what the options are. And, those options may be

turned out in the end, but I would like to assure you that it is not a pro three. A action that you’re seeing. It is an effort to try to figure out if there is an acceptable compromise to which the answer may be. No. Hello, please. May I, please. My name is Lisa, Terranova 54 Woodland Mead.

I’m gonna ask three things of this board tonight. The. First thing is to educate yourselves because if you truly understood the three a rule, you would not have the attitude you have tonight, Caroline. It would be impossible. There is no middle of the road. This is the destruction. Other state. This three. A is unconstitutional.

It takes away home rule that became part of the Constitution in 1966. It affects 100 and 78 communities on the eastern side of the state, Western Mass is excluded. The Capon islands are excluded. Springfield is excluded. It is discriminatory. The state seeks and will put in a million new housing units in

178 cities and towns. There is no way that we Can’t afford this. These are the taxpayers. We have turf fields we are paying for. You want to 100 and 50 Million new school coming in. How in God’s name are we gonna pay for that? We do not have the in infrastructure as attorney, right said we do not

have the water. I Remember 30 years ago? A fire in Ipswich. On. A Friday night A husband, A father came home and he had to watch his wife and two young daughters burned to death in front of him. The entire fire department was there and there

was no water 30 years ago. How are we going to protect you Put those units in? How do we protect those people? We can’t even protect ourselves. I am begging you educate yourselves Because once you do, you won’t throw us under the bus. You should have been the ones sounding the alarm saying to

the entire populace. This is wrong. And. Anyone, Who tells you anything else do not believe them. You need to educate yourselves. We had a a meeting last Thursday with the people. The attorneys bringing the lawsuit for Rockport, to which Hamilton and Wenham have enjoyed themselves. You need to

get educated number two. I am requesting that this board file an amicus brief. With the court to add to the citizens lawsuit. As as attorney Wright had said, has said many towns in their uh, town meeting have voted down three a And as Milton has done, others are following suit.

They’re kicking out the select boards who refuse to listen to we, the people there is no harm in waiting until the fall when this lawsuit is to be adjudicated. There is no harm. But. Let me tell you you follow your three a plan with the state that’s supposed to come out of our planning board.

There is no going back. We will be bankrupt. The state is counting on it. It is counting on all of our cities and towns to go bankrupt. We go into Receivership. They will own our capital. They will own our property. They will own everything I have never never witnessed in my entire life

Born and raised and lived here my entire life. Such overreach of the state number three We are our direct democracy since the founding of Hamilton, we have existed as a direct democracy. We go to town meeting and we vote That means each and every one of us is our own legislature. You have no

right to take that vote away from us. In fact you have an obligation. To. Make sure we get that right to vote. Special town meeting in the fall. If you don’t put it on the warrant. We will and finally in closing. You all swore an oath to sit behind this table. It is your

legal and fiduciary duty to protect the welfare of each and every resident in this town. If. You are not willing to fulfill your sworn oath. I respectfully As that you stand down and allow those who will to serve. Thank you. Pardon? Yes. Go ahead. All right. So this is a

little out of order. But with the permission of the chair. I’m just gonna address a couple of things that you said there at the end. There is no intention to file a plan with the state without going through town meeting and that there never was a plan There was it was never. That was never the

plan. Set that So I was OK and and II. I. Respect that Thank you III I hear you. I believe you. I believe that’s what that’s what was said to you That said. That’s not accurate. The who the who? The I have posted multiple times publicly that I’ve responded to the emails that have asked that our

plan was to put forth something at town meeting to be voted on, and if it was voted no, we would not move forward. I have. I have said that every time somebody’s asked me and it would not. We’re Hamilton annual town meeting next for next spring. We’re not. We’re not even talking. No next

spring. That’s What y’all asked for was to delay until after the fall. I don’t have to file until December of 24. This is why we haven’t done anything. We’ve been waiting. Hiring consultants can I can I OK. Can? I answer the question. Sorry. Unfortunately public comment is supposed to be you make a

comment and we don’t say anything and we’re trying to answer some questions. We understand that you’re arguing, so just please give me a second All right last fall. Um, last summer Last fall, the town got financial assistance from the state to hire a consultant to come up with the the beginnings

of a plan for three a We didn’t like it. We sent it back to the Ask them to rework it again. It came back and we we again said this isn’t gonna pass if we bring it to town meeting so Working with the Hamilton Development Corp and the Planning board, and there’s a member of the planning board.

That’s part of this committee. We asked town meeting for 100 and $25,000 to hire a consultant in Hamilton Development Corp has given us at least $25,000 in May may offer more so we we went out and advertised. We hired a company to do what Miss ball You said earlier, which is to work us through a process that

will take at least a year. We have just signed the contract with them. They’re just gonna be starting here at the end of May, and we’ve already said we know we won’t get this done in time for the Dec. Deadline, but we want to make sure that if we do this, we do it the right way.

We are not trying to take anything away from the residents and the voters of the town of Hamilton. The. Uh, the plan was always to follow a process involve the public and beginning this summer in our meetings and to and to, if if something comes out of it that we can bring forward the town

meeting, bring it to town meeting and see what time meeting does. There was never an intent not to follow the process. My questions. I don’t know that I do And. I think that’s I Read it front to back. I have been tracking towns that passed that Didn’t. I’m in the

Facebook group the anti? I mean I’m. We’re we’re we are taking in as much information as we can. There just hasn’t been a there hasn’t even been a process of decision making, And. That’s where I I’m not trying to, you know. Say that you’re that there’s overreaction or anything like that. I. I am

watching the reactions happen and those are going to be part of the process, But and I. Say it again. This is not a pro three a board. This is a We’ve got a lot of fires that we’ve been trying to sort of tackle, and this has been the one

that’s in the future and I. I actually saw a video recently a lack of articulated focus is not a lack of interest or concern. It’s just in the priority list right now. We’re trying to get through some of these other things. We had the the 130. ZB a stuff coming up and what we’re going to do

about that We’ve had the school stuff that’s been going on getting through that. And when we say like, you know, it sounds like there’s suspicion or things are are are curious or what it is. It is normal people trying to keep up with lives. And these and these jobs and figure out which fires to

put out when and what the order needs to be. And I promise you that there has been no decision made to acquiesce to three A that has not happened and real quick. You were The questions I have about the Leafs in that land, How it how it can kind of

make people. Absolutely and I want to comment on that too. I mean I don’t know how we can get in discussions or not seeing its public, you know? It’s just three minute public comment. There’s been a ton of discussion on that. And if you go back and watch the meeting

where the superintendent came in and asked us, you know, we we we I was concerned about that. I said. If. We say one or the other, It’s going to look like we’re we’re biased and we wanna do something and over what there’s a What’s a Web page that they have for the building authority group, and

there’s a sheet and it’s documented and clear and they went through a rating system and voted and clearly they were leaning, Um, you know, towards the college school one where they wanted to do something, whether it was a new school or not, just on the Not a vote on their ratings and we were

forced to to for them to go back to the MS B A. They had to have a commitment from the town for at least a 50 year year and we were and we were skeptics about saying anything because we didn’t want to look that way. Exactly what you came up and and accused us of doing, But.

If you go back and what? No? I know you’re not. It was good, Deb. I mean I’m, But. What happened in that meeting was, you know, they said, if you wanna have a voice in any of this now is our only opportunity and we said all things being equal Then if you come through and you make a

decision You know we need to offset you know some of these costs that are coming to the town and the only way we can do that is in the downtown area and do something mixed use, and so if we had a vote, and all things being equal on what you

were going to do, we would prefer to do that. So. I just clarify a little bit too or add. Add to not clarify, but add to that a little bit too. The. The Select board had a a pretty robust conversation about it. They. There were members that didn’t really want to take a

vote that night, but one of the things that is important to remember is that the project the MS B, a project is being looked at right now. And is currently on on Hold because the school committee voted to do some poll local polling in Hamilton Wham. That process was started for a Cutler school.

Uh, Improvement or replacement. And The way the winter got brought into it was that In both towns. We had trouble identifying sites and Winthrop school site became a possibility. If you were going only if you’re going to do a consolidated school. So. One of the things was that if we voted to give a 50 year

lease of the Winthrop school, then we’re saying we only want to consolidated school. The site board didn’t want to make that vote at all. They wanted to let the vis the school Building Committee figure out which preferences you could do is consolidate school or college school replacement small school on that on the color school site, But.

You can’t do a public school. Replacement at the winter school site if you’re leaving the Winthrop school there, so the only real option was in this and they did say, too, that if the school building committee voted a different way they could come back and get a different vote from the select board. But. They were not

trying to prejudice the vote on the school. They only wanted to say that if you’re doing a Cutler school project, and it’s gonna involve the college school, we want you to do it in the college school site. And. If in that way there, you could do either a consolidation and a

big school or just a couple schools replacement. It was not meant to prejudice toward a cons consolidated it wasn’t meant to say you could do either one here at the Winthrop School site. You could only do a consolidated because it had to include the Cutler school. That’s how the how the town got into process with the Cutler

school. So you only thing you could do on in the current process with the MS B, a at the Winthrop School site is a large consolidated school. You couldn’t do a small school there. MS B A always drives this because they bring 45 to 50% of the money and that they do it in every community.

It isn’t just here. I hope that I can just get those questions Me, and I’ll come to you and get the specific questions that the option of renovating with B was off the table on the book. It wouldn’t be covered by it wouldn’t be covered by mass.

So if we do that, we just extend the lease and we pay for it as a town. It wasn’t part of that process, but there was An option that included us doing anything. Just on that site that we didn’t pay for. It was taken off the list because the school was continuing their process and decided they wanted

Cutler now if they wanted to renovate them, you know, we would have pulled that 50 year lease back on that one, too, and probably just gone with 10 years ago on both schools, because if we renovated nothing to leverage to go to the MSP a because we only have a fiveyear lease on win that was off the

table. So we did it on the that’s wrong. So II, I. You know I was I like I. I like and respect, Eric, but I think he There because quite frankly, that was not what the board voted in and and again. A, a replacement of just the Winthrop school is not an option right now, because the

school that got them into the process is the Cutler School. That’s the one that the state said That one needs work. We’ll work with you on it. All right. So when it came up, and they started talking about it. What are the options. Well, we could do Consolidated school from

Cutler and Winthrop and that allowed the Winthrop site to be considered, But the minute you got away from talking about a consolidated school and you you wanted to keep open the option to do a small school. It had to be at the site. Yeah. I don’t think that that’s There were just completely renovate an

existing school in the size that it is No. No, we know we know it’s moved on since then. But, But originally that was still on the table was a renovation or a replacement of the college school on the cut school site that was still an option until the school

building committee made their vote. So. Can, I say something. Um, I just want to make it clear this couldn’t this consultant that’s been hired is to indeed see if there’s some way that they can come up with a plan that the town will agree upon. And. The Bottom line is the select board does not vote

on that The Planning board does not vote on that. The voters. All of US vote on that Nobody is taking that right away, and if it’s voted down, it’s voted down. If. It’s approved. It’s approved. The reasoning. Yes, exactly. Yeah that goes that goes to the town as well. There are many, many layers to what

would have to happen in order for the existing Winthrop site to be one of the things we’ve had for new business, right? I know, but it’s worth it. I mean, they’re passionate and I love that people are out our new business in one of the things I was gonna talk about tonight is we need an information pushed

to everybody ourselves and the community. I want Joe to stand up a page on our website. My name’s done it, you know, and and lay out what the law is about what it means the impact Sheets, all that type of stuff. And then this consultant and I and I don’t like that.

It’s linked to three a A, although I knew it would you know it’s really just form based zone coding, which is smart on how we can define what that area is gonna look like whether it’s three A or whether it’s something else if the property comes back, we can’t wait. We need to have a plan and

understand what we might want to do with it. Um so I want to put that aside and and make sure you know this wasn’t you know something We thought about two years ago and OK, we’ll get to school. We’ll do the lease. We’ll have a consultant and boom we’re gonna have, you know

The downtown Lynn right on the train station. I have huge concerns. About three, a huge, um, the outreach. I mean the three A and 40 B. You know, we’re We’re not gonna have any rights on any of the property. So we’re gonna I wanna start the the Web page standard have

open forums, whether they’re through the consultants or meeting like this. We’re gonna talk about it, And. I wanna know the impact and I wanna have it in an open form? It’s not gonna be you know, the five board select person board that, you know, making decisions and then you reading about it in

the paper. I don’t know That’s never been the plan. It’s He’s been, You know we’re gonna devise something and go to town meeting like every other town you’re hearing about them. They’re melting. All of them had a a public meeting and it was voted up or down, Rejected or passed. That’s gonna happen

in Hamilton. My understanding is in April. Maybe. There’ll be a fall meeting thing, but that’s been my thought, because by December, we need to go file back with you just because you haven’t identified yourself yet. So. For. The record we’d like to we Trying to get into Oh,

sure. Where. They can go. It hasn’t come up to me. I hadn’t seen it. Sorry. Thank you. Go ahead. Name and street, please. Thank you, Steven M Porter. 18 Cunningham drive. Hamilton. Um I actually did some analysis. Was that it’s on here. It’s from the Massachusetts Building

Board, uh, and a few other meetings I heard We have to do things because there’s money. Uh, I just heard again tonight. Uh, that percentage of We. We have to go through with that, uh, application because we’re gonna lose that money. The. Money is not 49%. Uh, I did an analysis comparable school if

you were gonna do a Noncom community school where respect respect the board, I love what you guys do? Respect, the school committee board. I went to school. I can do math and I actually do consulting So. What my consultant. Spreadsheet tells me right now is that uh, Watertown, Massachusetts? That

would be considered a non commun school. It’s a high school and, uh, everybody from the town has to go to it. It’s specked out at $199 million And. Guess, How much money they got All in 29 million, a little less than 25%. That’s City school. So if you read the

regulations Hamilton is only gonna get 25%. 30. That’s What I just wanted to tell you and I’m gonna have all your school specked out for you. I’m gonna know what it’s gonna cost to replace Cutler. Winthrop. Buker as far as the remodel and I’ll tell you what a noncom community school will cost and

that’s without Um, solar panels on the roof in Watertown, those they didn’t budget that in. There were 25 million, and they only had 10 million to cover that. There are 15 million shortfall. Just I just wanted to clear that up. No, I. Appreciate that. Thank you. And the town will have the

opportunity to vote that up or down as well to spend for the schools that’s still coming. The the bond for that is the town could stop that in its tracks in April. I just keep that number. Yeah, and and you might be right. I don’t know.

I’ve looked at some. They’re 38 is what I was seeing in schools is telling us Upper forties? Yeah, please do, um But if they if it does go through, and it gets voted positive. I’ll take 25%. I’ll. Take something if the town says we’re gonna spend 100 and 50 or 200 million, um

that’s a lot of money to spend. I mean the things that are on the docket with the schools and otherwise, uh, is more capital spend than I’ve ever seen in this town. I’m gonna regret saying this on camera. Um, I think the the conversation that we probably need to have is

that we need to put in some form or fashion at least $100 million into our schools over the next 10 years. Question is do we spend 100 and 50 to get 100? Do we spend 100 and 25 to get to spend 100. Do we spend 100 and 99. I don’t know.

Um but just the renovation and repairs that have been spec for two of the three schools is 100 Million and that’s not covered at all. Which. I’m Sure You’ve seen, um to build a consolidated school is 100 and 50 of which we may be bonding 100. We’re going to be spending a lot of money on our schools.

Are we going to bond at 100 million at a time We’re going to bond at 50 million at a time or we’re going to bond it for repair and basic. Grades or we’re going to bond it for new schools. I don’t know if that’s the choice of the town. Um, but

I do think we need to be very realistic that there will be $100 million. Bo bonded in some way to this town for schools in the next 10 years, and that’s probably not even thinking about what’s coming in the high school and middle school. Um, that part of the conversation is is gross. And and true, Um I

think the conversation that the town is switching to is if we’re going to pay $100 million What are people’s expectations for what they get out of it, And that seems to be where we we are diverting as a town Is it basic upgrades and repairs to the existing community schools, or is it a brand new

school and and that I can’t make that decision for people? That’s an incredibly personal decision? Um, I have a son at Bucher We’ve loved. We’ve loved our experience at Bucher. I don’t know if it’s better than worse than or the same than a than a bigger school. I don’t know the answer to that.

But people will have to make that decision for themselves. But. The money itself is is gag worthy. No matter how you cut it. So this So what you’re saying the school spend is common, whether it’s the location and the size and location size grants those can all factor in, but just the

repairs If we just repaired all three. You’re looking at $100 million Is To For the 100. So 50. Renovate the existing two like that’s not what the boats. The, renovating. Existing two isn’t covered, so if it doesn’t pass, we just bring that in as a product 14 scenarios over the

last year. It can either be spending 100 and 50 You get some reimbursed. We’re spending 100 without the control of the government. Yeah. So that’s why you you would vote down the 150. Then somebody brings forward a renovation project. Me. It’s being presented to the town is New shiny school.

Consolidated 750 or not. You are love your kids and give them something and that honestly like that’s that’s community politic narrative. Honestly, it’s it’s because of the way it’s the way that this happens and honestly, a lot of that is driven not by the school committee itself. It’s driven by the conversations happening on

Facebook amongst amongst the community. But they didn’t just come up with that. Sorry about the light on me, but, uh, I mean this is for a year they’ve been talking about 14 scenarios, which were iron, rail or different locations or or keep the schools in renovate and they came to. You know this

scenario after a year’s work of meetings and school committee, and I mean that it was driven by AAA, you know, community input process. Well I recognize right in in all In all honesty. It was heavily marketed within the schools, and it was only when there was finally some Back that there was some

community input. So I. I have to agree that there has not been a wide outreach and hopefully now with this survey that’s going to be going out. There will be a wider community input, and perhaps they’ll rethink what they’re going to do. And and I’m very glad that

they opted to do the community survey on very much for listening to to people and gaining a consensus from voters. It’s not what Want and it’s not what the school committee wants. It’s what people feel is reasonable for their kids and what we can afford. Let’s recognize Our lease is not a

factor on this. The lease is not a driving factor that Oh. We don’t have an option anymore. Take it off the table. That’s not the case in general, if we can follow the head I wanna recognize? Go ahead? Name Street. That’s That’s Thank You um Ted Lovinger 345 Bay Road.

Um, I don’t have any prepared comments, but just listening to the conversation. I just wanted to stand up and and say a few things. I appreciate everyone’s time here and the fact that you’re all here, uh, serving on the select board and appreciate everyone’s comments here tonight as well. So a couple of

things. Um, I think there’s perception perception becomes reality very quickly in a small town. And. So on March 18th when the select board decided to only extend the Winthrop School a lease for five years, the perception became reality pretty quick in terms of what the end outcome of the select

board was. And so The School Building Committee was supposed to be this independent. At least it was positioned as an independent entity that was assessing what was best for the schools for the town of Hamilton and one of They started, I Think with 25 options. Narrative to 12.

Ultimately, there was five. But the S. This board decided for that school building committee. They gave them one choice. Hold on a five year lease at Winthrop to that school building committee. That School was not going to be there within five years. 300 or so kids from Winthrop needed to go to school somewhere, right?

Where do they go to school? One option. So this idea that this vote of the Select board on March 18th was somehow didn’t have an impact. It’s just an illusion. There was an illusion of choice that this town thought the school building committee was bringing forward that we never had There was one

option. The school of 740 kids at Cutler because Winthrop was not gonna be there any longer, so I don’t know how the select board doesn’t see that If. You look at the rating system. Pardon me if you will. It was overwhelmingly, you know, for the Cutler option. I agree. Hold on time out, Time out.

So. The Cutler option had multiple options. Yes, it did. The school Building committee could have said, And. If, They say Still. We want a school of 280 a new school 280 kids or a school of 430. For some reason that option was taken off the table as well. They could say 430. Then this board needs to

go back and give Winthrop their lease back. So. Why could this board hold on? Hold on five would return to 10 in a heartbeat. But. Why. Why make the decision beforehand. Why not hold on was a file back with MS B A. They had a show commitment with the talent and Cutler could have had that.

Cutler could have had that and you could have held your tongue on Winthrop. You. We did. We did not make a comment on what they did not vote on. It was not a five year lease on Winthrop. They didn’t vote any extension at all on what they

said They were only going to do color. That’s all that was required to show the commitment to the state that this town was the elector was going back a new school that would do a 50 year lease on the color site on whatever option that they wanted, but we couldn’t do that wanted to do a consolidated

school at Winthrop, they would come back and ask for it, and they’d give them a different vote. But they were they They were they Definitely so this this may be where perceptions become reality because it sounds thinks that there’s so there’s there’s not a five year lease extension because I

thought I saw that somewhere that you could. Yeah he did say it. I think it’s what’s remaining on the lease. So that link is up in 25 the approval that we did. On. April 22nd was only Cutler March 18th. I thought. Sorry march 18th. I’m Sorry I was looking at the minutes from I’m looking for

him. That was we committed to a 50 year lease and part of the reason we couldn’t actively extend 50 years to Uh, Winthrop was a because we were told that there was never going to be a plan whereby we could build a new school at Winthrop because

it wasn’t part of what we’d filed with with with the mass school building, but also in the event that we did go with a consolidated school, not because we were pushing for it, and we then decided to go through the path of creating new zoning for a mixed use or something within the the

district. We we would not be able to do that for at least 1020 30 40 50 years, So we just delayed having that conversation because I think there is record of Eric, saying that it was a five year lease for win and I’m, not the only one saying that I can’t speak to what Eric said. But the

minutes that are going to be voted by the select board tonight from the 8 March 18th meeting the chair, Farrell mentioned the lease could be extended on both the Cutler and Winthrop school sites, but he would prefer not to do that. Attorney Mcenany clarified that the board has authority to

prove up to a 30 year lease more than that requires approval at town meeting discussion continued the possible outcomes and the options for renewing the leases on both Cutler and Winthrop. Board agreed that extending a 50 year lease on the Cutler site. Oh. It does say a five year extension. I, don’t I

Don’t Remember that five year extension for the Winthrop site is the preferred option. Yeah. Well, because we couldn’t do 50 because if it became a full if we did move it, we would not be able to do anything on Winthrop at all. We’ll We’ll just Well, we noted, noted that that we

made that error. So, uh so and this is all tied to the M BT a housing plan. So. That’s. That’s the perception in town we needed to vacate this space, so we have the flexibility to do what the state wants and so and that if I could offer an prior to my getting here, so

I’ve been your time man for about 5.5 years, Um, I came in. And, Uh, the the fall of 2018 prior to me getting here the town’s lease with the Cutler with the Winthrop school site had, uh, expired and the select board at that time extended,

not a five year But I believe it was either 10 or 15 Year lease. It was before I got here so that it would coincide and be up at the same time as Cutler. Because the select board at that time. Like I said. I’m not sure if it was 10 years or 15 years ago. Bill might

know because he was around. The intention was to get the school department to make a move and start fixing the elementary schools and get us on a page where something could happen with one of the sites somewhere, the first site that got accepted into the MS B a process was the Cutler school.

They put both. They put letters of intent in on both schools and the MS B a came out and toured both schools. In fact, they even toured the Buker because I was with them. I went through the site, Um, with the MS B A and They wound up saying

that the cut school was the was the school in most need to repair. So. That was how Cutler got added in That happened after the M BT, a commuter community housing law passed in 2021, which again The town of Hamilton signed on to a letter with all the other municipalities around us trying

to call out the problems with the with the three A, um, zoning law. We talked to the state. We had joint meetings with town administrators and select board members in the uh, executive director of housing and economic development at the time we kept pushing back on these are the These are the problems and the issues with it.

The State passed a law anyway. So that became what you normally do when the state passes a law as you try to figure out how to comply. Is there a way to comply. That is what we’re doing. We haven’t put forward anything that said that we’re going to comply.

We haven’t put forward a plan to you yet to the voters at town meeting to adopt zoning The plan is to do that next April. Again 3 to 4 months after our deadline. We’re we’ve already planned to miss the deadline. I mean we don’t love it, but it

is what it is. And the the goal is to have community meetings with you all and everybody else in the town. Get your feedback. Get your input. Get. The ideas from you from the consultants who’ve been doing this Not not three A, but just doing community planning for a long time and see if there’s a way

forward. The best plan forward, and if it passes a town meeting it passes if it fails a town meeting. It fails we when we we go from there, Um To preemptively. Just tell the state No without trying to follow a process. I think You know was in bad faith. You should you should at least try

to comply with state laws. So Yeah. Oh, yes, All of it. I mean, really, It’s all I. We’re gonna have a community forum. I think we’re when we were meeting Wednesday morning to try to figure out when it’s going to be and the the goal is going to be to do an interactive meeting here.

That’ll be, uh, videotaped by HW Cam and then rebroadcast multiple times in advance of the, uh, consultants starting to work in the community and asking questions and getting input. So again. We’re at the very beginning of the process. The the narrative that exists on Facebook that the town is

already planned to do something that we’ve already made our decision. None of that’s true. Where the very beginning here. So that kind of the the train has left the station without us. Unfortunately, we have been trying to keep this slow and and, uh Planned on purpose and Folks. I, you know, rightfully.

Looked at the law, and they got scared by it. We’re scared by it. We knew what the original consultants that the state sent us provided to us. We knew that wouldn’t pass. So. We said. Well, we can’t we can’t put that forward with the five year

lease, and not that So Have to be discarded as an option to renovate Winthrop. And then not so I watch that meeting. It was very clear because it was on the screen with all the Renovate. He said. Those All of Because now that it’s a five year lease. We It. Tell you look at the recording. I.

Think everyone here. We’ve heard that from back. Yeah, so if there’s a way to unwind that since I don’t think that was your I. I think that process has already been. I think that process has already been unwound because that what I mean I mean we? We can certainly talk to Eric. I mean I think. And maybe this

was a misunder. Yeah. We’ll talk to Eric. Yeah If you don’t come to the mic, the the folks on Zoom can’t hear it. The question was whether we can go back now and extend the lease to Allow more breathing room within the process For those

options. I think the answer is we can Yes, we can go back and have that conversation. I don’t know that we can actually change the the course of this, But we’re meeting on Wednesday. We can have this conversation with Eric. Um and I. Think one of the things that I need to clarify is that my

understanding was because this was a Cutler school project we could none of the options that included small schools were covered by the grant, and that’s what we were voting on was what we could do with the money from State within a project, and so if we decided to completely renovate Cutler,

that would be out of our own pot or Winthrop that would be out of our own pocket. And. We could do that separately, but that this conversation was either Combined school at Cutler or complete renovation of Cutler. That’s ultimately the what’s being asked, because none of that money goes over to Winthrop. It’s not covered.

Yeah. But. Also. Also the reality is the MS B a will only accept one project at a time at a time. So. So. That’s. That’s the reality and and I Think. Ultimately. Cutler was the option. Whatever happens there happens, but but if if the option for a consolidated

school is, um, voted down The kids will need a place to go so there will be at lease renewal, right? We would we would have to do that. So, so I don’t think people should get Too worried about that in in the sense that we can only do one

renovation at a time and the Children will have a school so Boy. They? Yeah, I was gonna say I’ve lost complete control of the point, though. I think I’m going to do I Wanna Make Sure. This board is clear with Eric and others that the lease is not a limiting factor here.

Yeah. Which. We were not the discussion I was at, and I just simply agree that we there’s actually language in what we approve that said, This is not an endorsement or or preferential to any of the options. It was literally we were just and so again. I apologize if that you know was

part of what where the S Rev. We have a meeting on Wednesday with Eric. We will absolutely chat more about that. And, then I know Tom’s not here. He was on that committee. I. Wanna see the rating sheet and each of the scenarios were rated in the percent and I Wanna, you know,

because Was not ever part of that from in my understanding if that was said in a meeting Oh. It’s off the table now and we were the scapegoat, maybe or whatever. I’m not saying scapegoat. And. So, You know I’m going to stop us here? Um, Who says town government isn’t acceptable. I would like to get

all that information and dedicate I’m gonna. I’m on fire right? You are on fire! This boy is on fire! Is there anyone online who has been waiting to speak this entire time? Who feels the deep frustration of zoom. I don’t see any hands up, OK? Um, respectfully, if anybody has anything, new I

welcome you to the podium. If it’s just a rebuttal. I. Hope you’ll just send it to me in an angry email. Yes. Can. You, Go to the microphone, please. Thank you Ellen Wright for as where have I just have one final question about, uh, the consultant that’s been retained

to do a feasibility study or whatever it is with regards to three A. So if the consultant comes back Arguably and says, Well, you can do 450 units. 731 isn’t in the crystal ball. Your plan is to go to the state and say This is what we can give

you. Our plan is to go to the town. First and say, Do y’all think this is a good plan? And. If the town says Go pound sand, Then We go to the state and say We got nothing. We’re not doing anything. The state polls whatever they poll, whatever that is, If, the town says.

We love this plan. Then we would file our three a plan with the state based on what the town voted for. But It’s gonna come Right. It’s too late, right? We are now 700. I mean this Right? But the but but what I’m hearing is if we do nothing,

they they come back and tell us what to do. And. If. We do something! They come back and tell us what to do. Well. So, uh and that, And now that we have this, I think we can absolutely talk to town Council and see I understand that but I, I also have to represent that.

There are as many people who believe in three a and want it. No, they don’t Where. Are they in our own town. Where, are they? Where? Are? They. Where, are they? So is No. I and I’m y’all. I know I, am we? We don’t we don’t doubt you. II.

I I 100% understand and empathize, Agree and again. I’m not trying to represent a perspective here. I’m, saying the journey to understand whether or not this is a a ubiquitous decision that the town wants to make to join this and defend a lawsuit or whatever it is that we need to

do that has to come from the town if we’re going to be part of a lawsuit that costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to challenge the state that is a decision of the town. Not of this, But I. You cannot tell me to slow down and

tell me to speed up at the same time. Well, I mean, Which we are we are actively doing But this the like. This is diametrically opposed to say slow down. Take your time. Figure out what we wanna do. Don’t rush this and then say, hurry up and do something Those

are that is feedback that is difficult to process. Well. Uh, I don’t really see any language in the law and maybe I misread it that allows for negotiation of the 731. So. If the town, the consultant said, came back and said, Oh, yeah. 450 units will work and the town was like, Hm. Sounds good. Let’s do it

450 units. You go to the state with that, but we’re also talking about waiting until next April, and I just heard from this group that what we think is that this is going to be made unconstitutional in the fall. So again. You’re spending How much on a consultant, one 25,000, which is not for three.

A. It is a form based code business Overlay district consultant who also has the purview to look at three a and help us with this process, and how much of that time is allocated to three A. I have no idea it’s It’s still money. So. My point is, it’s all for naught. They’re not negotiating

for whatever they come up with two units 450 If. It’s not 731 it. It doesn’t make the bank and oh, by the way, West Newbury, This is Interesting to statistic they have a greater land population than us Yet a smaller population there adjacent community the state told them to put in 85 units.

More land, smaller population they get told 85 we get 731. And you’re gonna hire a consultant. Go to go try to reason with the state If this town thinks it’s a good idea. We’re hiring this consultant to better understand the options available to this town for a multitude of things. One of

them is three a at which point it will go before the town and if the town says absolutely not. This is not something we want then it then we will not I. I’ve I’ve already said that we we expect to miss that we expect to miss the deadline. We’ve set up our schedule and acknowledging that we’re going

to miss that. We’re we’re not We’re not gonna make it. You know we’re we’re gonna We’re gonna let the state know we’re doing it, And. We’re gonna hope that They pushed it already once they pushed it once and again. A. Lot of this is the I mean I feel like I’m hearing conflicting things, which is

that we expect that it’s going to be ruled unconstitutional and there’s there’s all this stuff so they may be a negotiating position Come April, the state may may be backing off and saying, you know, relative to the needs of towns. I don’t know, but what we want to do is say if we were

mandated by the state to come up with a reasonable plan for what we could do with space that was available, of which there is zero right now. There’s zero space available right now. And if we depending on what happens with the schools, there may still be zero space. There’s the G and developers. Only, but they have

to buy available space of which, you know, I understand what you’re saying. If. I’m a homeowner. If I’m an owner, I’m gonna sell for big money three times the value of your house. Absolutely. Yeah. Of course they are absolutely in a minute except except except that from a business perspective that

doesn’t work Developers are in the business to try to make money and paying you two or three times the value of your property to get into the game puts them behind the eight ball to begin with. I do I I and you’re right. I’m sure they’re getting the state will come back with grant money for

developers. They’re gonna open the space and then give the money I and Boston’s exam. No. One mentioned that. Why are they exempt? I didn’t hear that I heard everywhere else, But it I’d like to try to close this, please. I love that. So Lou Toronova 54 Woodland Mead.

I. You know this has been a very interesting and very informative discussion tonight and I would request vehemently that the Port really tries to take control of everything that you just said. The reason why there are a lot of people out there that think that three A is wonderful is and all you

have to do is go on to Facebook, and it’s the usual chattering masses. Um, a very vocal minority that’s pushing an agenda and it’s seizing the initiative from this board. They are dictating what the public opinion is. You have to take charge. You have to really think about how you control the

narrative on this. You’ve heard a number of people tonight. Speak. To, what is really going on out there? It’s Trust Me. Facebook is a bubble. It’s. It’s an echo chamber. This is your reality. Please start taking control of the narrative consistent to what you’ve said to us tonight and what’s Come to you tonight? During this

forum. Thank you. Thank you. Pretty I will say that in my two plus years I’ve never seen more than five minutes of public comment, and it’s like we just brought it all tonight. Um at the, um It’s about time I I the last thing I’m gonna say

actually is not really to. It is thing, but we did approve budget for a communications. Manager, Um for the town. Um, and part of that is is the very real need to find better ways to distribute information. And. Um, there are many ways right now. Some folks do know some

Don’t There’s the Town manager report. You can get on an email that you were updated every week by our good friend Joe here. What’s going on every other week. I apologize. Um there, you know, we it’s you know, we say, but I will say, we say there’s a town manager report. People don’t read email.

We say it’s on Facebook. They say they’re not on Facebook. We say it’s on the big board outside the fire station. I Don’t read when I drive. We. Which Good idea don’t text either. Um It is a very, uh, you know, to take a phrase in my childhood, You know a lie

gets all the way around the world before the truth can put its boots on and and that is very true in this town, and I do try to monitor the conversations as best I can, uh, mostly online And when I’m at Crosby’s and people corner me

in the produce section, Um, but we are doing our best. But if you have constructive ideas for how to distribute honest information while please email us and let us know um, because it’s really challenging. We tried using the Red alert system once half people Half. People thought it was a violation of their text of

their their phone. It’s just very difficult to find solutions that work for everybody, and it’s actually I find harder in a small town than a larger town where there is better infrastructure for communication. Um But. We do our best to respond to emails. If. You, send us an email. We’ll try to get back to you.

Please share your conversation. I know Bill has asked many times to have a dedicated, uh, three a meeting with the board where we download information. I definitely think we just link that folks like y’all that are you know, experts in this should come And and defend the position If you think it’s being misrepresented? We only

do the best we can, with the information that’s given to us And I will say that that information sometimes is subjective. Um Or presented to us as as objective and ends up being subjective. Um, but thank you for the conversation. Um, I am always grateful for folks who bring thoughtful, you know, dedicated, engaged perspectives.

And. So, thanks for for coming and being here And with that I am going to close public comment for this meeting. We got Thank you. Thank you. All. Right. Next up, I will entertain a motion to you can leave without feeling bad. I It’s OK, I’ve been there.

Um Next up is approval of our consent agenda. I will entertain as I move that we approve the consent agenda as outlined Second Awesome, uh, any discussion, anything we need to talk about here? Um, your Ping Pong table you should put on buy nothing. Uh, All, right. I will take a vote.

Uh, you don’t need ro of you all. Oh Sorry. All in favor the eyes have it rats. Well. Here. We are at 813 beginning our agenda. Um The First item tonight is to approve the issuance and details of the loan from the mass Clean Water Trust for the recently approved septic loan program, Uh, folks who do not

remember the septic loan program that’s essentially the loan program that we, um Approved so that folks in the town who need to Uh, replace their septics can take out a low interest. Is it low or no. To low 2%. I think we agreed on 2% 2% interest loan? Uh

directly Through the town but through the state, and so this is, um The issuance of the lien of the and the details of the loan itself. So, Yeah. Caroline nailed it. It’s already been approved by town meeting and by the slip board and proposed by the F and the Board of health and what acceptance of these

documents allows us to get the health Department to start making the program available to the residents who need assistance with fixing their septic systems. Uh, this has the benefit of helping us make sure that people who may be short of money but need to fix their systems have access and,

uh to inexpensive loan to be able to fix those systems. They repay it, and it goes back to the state. Um, this is for $500,000 The reason you all need to vote in favor of it is because it sets up like it’s bonding. Uh, we we had to go through basically, credit check.

This is basically authorizes that and says that everything is in order. And. There’s no cost or interest of any sort on this to the town. This is that we’re really connecting two programs we do take the in the interest is ours, though the 2% belongs to the town. We get it right. We get no cost.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. It is absorbed by the administrative $500,000 loan out. It’s not. It’s not like it’s gonna make a time. A lot of money. It’s just so we can pay our expenses for ministering the program. Um I will entertain emotion. I move that we approve the issuance

and details of the loan from the mass Clean Water Trust for the Suffolk loan program. Second Any further discussion, so I’ll just have a question. We will just keep that on the books here Or does that stay with the state? It stays with us and into our bank account.

It’s kept on the books here by the treasure and, uh and and 500,000 expended. We’d have to go through the process of borrowing it again. OK, Great. Thank you. All, right? Uh, all in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi you guys had it? Who who made the motion?

I did that would that would be our friend. All right now for the main event Director, Sean Timmons. Pardon. Yes, nothing. Sorry, my bad. Doing the best I can here, buddy. You’re doing great. I apologize. I’m hot. I haven’t eaten dinner. Uh, good evening. Uh Sean Timmons Hamilton winner, our cation

director, Um so I have, uh two items one or two items on the agenda, I. Guess. Uh, one is just my, um, department update. Uh and then second, um, you know, obviously, uh, Tim, uh, the DPW director is here as well with me to talk about Patton Park a little bit, but just to, really I’ll be super

brief, Uh, on our update. Uh, we had a lot of things. Obviously. We’re kind of gearing up for the summer. So. We’ve been, uh, incredibly busy. Um, so you know the last time, um at the end of the summer when I spoke to the board. Um we sort of talked about how we

how my department. Our department was gonna update and, um sort of change our registration for camp since we had such a, um, A, you know, a a pretty, um amazing, uh, response to our camp. Uh, registration last summer. Um, so this year we did make some changes. I thought they were

fairly significant changes from how we’ve done registration in the past. Um, I think you know, for the most part, things worked out. Well, uh, especially for, uh, community members that Of multiple Children across multiple age groups. I think it really gave them, um, the basically the

same ability to to register for a camp. Um, as anybody else. Um, so we definitely you know, I definitely saw, um, you know, positives out of that, Um, you know, Still, unfortunately. Uh, you know when we hit our max number, we hit our max number.

So our max number for camp. Uh, each day is 226. So once we have 226 or, you know, spread out across our eight groups. Um we just physically cannot take any more kids down there. Um, you know, in a safe manner. Um, so you know, there are weeks

for a camp registration and believe it or not, if we took everyone off the waiting list, I mean we’d be pushing 303 100, You know 333 140 kids, which, um, is great which you know, II, I. I’m happy that folks are interested in and wanna take

part of the camp program. But, um you know, at some point, um it just becomes a little too much. Um, we are working on our staffing. Our. Staffing is all set for the camp of Where we’re employing proud to say we’re employing over 50 seasonal staff, Uh, at the, uh, at the for the summer camp. Um, which

does include a lot of, um you know, local high school and college. Uh, students, so always nice to see for the camp. Um, really quickly on the pool cover comes off May 21st takes about two weeks. 2.5 weeks, uh, when the cover comes off to get

the water, uh, to be swimmable, um, we do a lot of work down, um, on the deck and in the lifeguard. Office once the pool cover comes off, but we’re planning on, uh, June 18th opening, uh, which is consistent with the years past. It’s the third Saturday in June.

Um we are, uh, just about finished with our staffing, so I was getting a little nervous there. Uh, if you ask me a month ago, I’d probably, um, you know, probably have a different answer about our staffing for the pool. But. Um, you know, we’ve been working really hard. Um, and our

current staff has been working really hard for us trying to recruit staff. Um so we hopefully or we will be, uh, fully staffed for Um, you know the one thing that we’re going to strive to do again is stay open through Labor Day or to Labor Day. Uh, we’ve been able to accomplish that, Uh, three

summers in a row now, uh, which is great? Um, but again, you know a lot of that, You know it’s tough to tell at this point, you know, obviously, a lot of that has to do with you know our employees, their situations going back to college. Uh, we also hire, um, a lot of high school employees

that might start fall sports or things like that, Uh, that can, um you know, that can kind of put a a wrench in that. So. Um the hope is to be open to Labor Day. Um and we’re gonna do our best as as we’ve done the last three summers, uh, to get there,

so that’s really quickly on the summer. Um, couple of things that have been just recently did And we have, you know, upcoming as I met with the Hamilton CO a board? Um, last week. A lot of fun. I had a lot had a a nice discussion with them, So. We’re working on different, uh, opportunities

and recreational opportunities for members of the C A or just seniors in general. Uh, In the town, So. We have our pickle ball program. Uh, for those of you don’t know we’ve we’ve done a free a free Pickleball program for the seniors indoors here during, um the bad weather, and we’re moving outdoors to

Patton Park next week. Um, but it was really great to meet with them and you know, we have some kind of special events and little things that we’re thinking about doing, uh, so more info to come on that, uh, the community Block party Saturday June 22nd as always, the town sponsors the fireworks,

So That’s always a great event. So that is, uh, set Uh, for that day there. Uh, next starting. May 23rd we have our Thursday night Music series at the patent homestead. Uh, so Holly’s been working really hard, Um, getting bands lined up for that, so the bands are all lined up. Uh, for that.

That is free. Uh, we are, uh out of the four weeks we are, We do have something a little different this year. That’s gonna be on June 13th and I’m sure there’ll be more info to come for that. Uh, but we’re doing sort of a, um You know a

benefit, uh, to help raise funds to kind of get across the goal line for the pavilion. Uh, that will be down there. So. We have some local bands. Um, some younger local talent, uh, who are in bands that are gonna be there to, uh, to perform? Uh,

we’ll do some ticket sales. Uh, small ticket sales, uh, just to try to kind of get past the the finish line. Uh, for the pavilion. I think we the That is my is should be coming up on a on an upcoming um Becoming, uh, select board. Uh, agenda

with the, uh, with Pat Inc. Uh And. Lastly, uh, really excited about this, Uh, we did it last year for our first year. It’s our ride and, uh, ride white ride or walk to school day. Um so we, uh it’s on Friday. May 17th we meet, um prior to

school opening over at Pingree Park, Uh and it’s really geared for Children who don’t have the opportunity, uh, to ride their bikes to school or walk their bikes to school based upon where they Uh, so we work with SRO Bertelli. Uh, the Hamilton and Wenham police. Uh, the Ed fund this year are gonna donate,

uh, T shirts for our kids. Uh and, uh, Abby fellow bike shops, which is a local, um, kind of mobile bike repair. Uh, will then go to each school. Um, we work with the teachers in the school, so the kids will be at Pingree. They’ll ride their bikes or walk, uh, to their each individual elementary

school during the school day, Abby Velo bike will go around to each Will school and tune up every single kid’s bike. I think, uh, Gunther who, uh, who? Gunther and, um, Karen, I think they did over 225 bikes last year in a day, So? Uh, it’s really amazing. Really fun.

Uh, but we have that coming up. Uh, on may 17th, So. That’s always a fun, uh, fun event. And. That is all I have. That was a good reminder that I was in charge of signing up for bike to school day and I didn’t so I’m just gonna do that. Do it right

now, while we’re here all free, I think right now we have close to 70 to 75 Children, depending on how many you registered between 7073 Children, uh, registered for the bike to school, So. It’s really a great event. Uh and it’s really a lot of fun. Awesome. Well, we say it every year, but, you know,

our, um Our summer program is the envy of of folks across the land. Um and I think you you do a great job. Um And II. I haven’t explicitly Ask anybody about the new registration, But? Maybe the fact that we didn’t hear about it is the best news of all because I know that typically, that’s like, you

know. The running of the Bulls to get to get your kid in the to camp. It still went very, very fast, but, um, the prices stay the same this year, so we did. I mean just like anything else. I mean? We do ride, you know, increase our prices year

after year, Uh, minimum wage is actually stayed stable. This will be the first back to back years. So, maybe six years at minimum wage has stayed stable. Um, so that helps, So. I think after this particular summer, uh, we’ll be able to stabilize a little. More of that.

But, you know, in six years, minimum wage has gone from 950 to $15. Or it might that the numbers might be incorrect, but it has gone up in, you know $7, probably an hour in the past, you know, five or six years, So it’s you know, that’s always, you know, certainly challenging.

No great programs. I think the camp programs outstanding. Um, I get a lot of positive feedback on that. You mentioned the poll. Yeah. I was curious how membership is on that and also coupled with it with the CO a great you’re doing programs with them. Do they have times with the pool for

just them that are quieter. So. Um, basically so one on memberships. Uh, memberships are typically a little bit slow at this time. Uh, we offer early bird discounts so that starts kind of end of May. So like anything Else you know when that discount is about to go away, you’ll get that big influx of membership

registrations right prior to that. Uh And. Yes, um, this year in years past, and I’ve actually worked with Rosie on this a bunch. Um, we’ve sort of kind of took a long time to kind of find the right time or the right, uh, spot to do it. Uh, but this year, um, this particular summer? Um it’s

Saturday mornings 10 to 1045 and that is senior You know Hamilton or Wenham Seniors? Um, swim, you know, get to go into the pool for free. Um, it’s 11 to 1145. I did that at the CO a meeting. You’re right. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it’s 11 to 1145.

Thank You, Uh and, uh, man, that’s twice. I think I would have remembered, Um 11 to 1145 on Saturdays. Yeah, and then we are working. You know we talked about maybe doing like a pool party for the seniors or something on on a different time as well. So All right if I can really quickly introduce

the next item, um you’ll remember a couple months ago, the board voted to extend $250,000 to add to the sidewalk improvement fund, uh out of arpa and then as well as $100,000 for patent park improvements. We had suggested that there’s still up money that we need to dedicate before

the end of December and that there might be room to do it in Patton Park. Uh, the board asked for a little bit more of a plan. Um, a little bit more of a description of what was gonna be needed there. And so we charged Tim and Sean to work

with the consultants who helped us come up with the patent park Master plan a couple of years ago to come back to you if there was gonna be a need for an additional request, so They are here. It gonna be sorry This is coming out today that will be included online. Uh, for everybody at, uh, the the

consultants had trouble with actually making their schedule to meet with Sean and say there was Just here. All. Right. So. How much is there we had allocated 350. There’s a remainer or or does this include the 350? So you There’s still money left, So there’s you allocate the last, maybe

250 for sidewalks and 100,000 for that money is approved. Then they’ve come to you. Now I think that they’re gonna talk about phase a one here, um, which would require additional funds to complete all of it? What’s left in Argo, though. I will look for that while you I can’t wait. OK, thank you.

Yeah. So Uh Tim Olson DPW director, uh, with Sean here, um, trying to, um move forward on some of the Patton Park master plan that we had. I think, uh, last year almost a year and a half ago, probably was put together. Uh, so phase one A is, uh, the in kind of beginning of the

large plan. Um, So what you have in front of you is some, uh, conceptual costs we haven’t done and obviously any design efforts or anything to this point, But we have, um some conceptual costs as well as a plan on the second page. Um, The first part is one of the biggest priorities was, uh, the

drainage in the park near the playground area. That is kind of your first Uh, bold, um, total that includes obviously getting a contractor in here to do some drainage work and some earth work. Uh, test pits and things like that to see what type of sub grade and percolation rates and things.

Uh, what type of soil we’re dealing with, I guess, uh, easy way to put it. Uh and then obviously doing the physical repair to that area to get that area to drain. Uh, much better than it is today. The second piece, the paving furnishing site improvements. Uh, there’s a listing there. Uh, main piece

of this is some new pathways to the park. Uh, we are concentrating more on the tennis courts Basketball courts playground area that side of the park and not necessarily the pond side. Um, so that gives us some if you look at the second page, uh, the area that is kind of Um, black

hashed or dash lines, I. Guess. Um, is the pathways that is included in Phase one. A, Um, the red Hash is the drainage area. Uh, so that’s what those two areas are on how they relate to the costs, Um, realizing that that is quite an expensive um, piece there,

there may be ways to me, I guess, minimize or limit the pathways to the park. Maybe. There’s some higher priority paths to connect one, maybe one parking lot to the other. Parking lot. Maybe, uh, a way to connect to the gazebo. Um, way to connect to the, uh, gravel. Uh, road on the other

side near the park, Uh, playground or near the, uh, ball field. So. There’s ways to maybe look at that plan, and, um Consolidated down or or I guess limited decrease it down to a budget level. That is, uh Appropriate. For the money that we have, Uh, Also part of that is looking at some park signage.

Uh, that was a big, um, priority as well as that came out of that plan. Um and then some plantings, Loman seed things like that around anything disturbed. We usually, uh, restore it before we leave. Um So that is kind of a all loaded cost. Uh, that includes

the engineering the in behind it in design, as well as any type of overhead profit with the contractor, uh, coming in with a bid number prevailing wages are included. So that’s why it seems probably a little bit high, but being a public project we have to include wages. Um So the one thing that

I wanted to point out. It does include, like concrete pads and benches. Um things like that that could possibly be done at a later time. Uh, there is a series of plantings on the bottom on Phase two that we think Sean and I thought.

Maybe if we set the guide kind of the ground rules if you want to call it that we create the infrastructure, then maybe we can come back at a later time. Maybe that will provide people some more visual of maybe either donating a bench or donating a tree. But, giving

them a sense of where that Infrastructure would be placed and where it should be placed. Um so we think the best bet is to move forward with just creating that first. Kind of phase of the park. Bringing connection points, Uh, connection together with points that are currently there. Um And, then, uh, seeing obviously,

uh, some improvements with the drainage, uh, prolonging that area, maybe even being able to do something more in that area, uh, that gets flooded. Uh, so more to come, but just basically creating that first. Kind of infrastructure improvement. As that plan stated. I want to know about these $10,000 signs? That’s exactly what I was just nudging.

How. Do we get benches that are $2300 in signs that are $3300 I. I find a hard time I have a hard time with that This is great work. I should have started there. Thank you I. I think what happens is you go through, Um and you kind of

build a budget based on what is, uh, the the Max Max you you would expect, um they did. None of this would be purchased without a procurement process that we would expect. And. We can also, uh adjust You know, based here. Based on what you’re willing to offer for the project and Going through the

procurement process. They could pair things down. Yeah and we can once we develop a plan. It’s these are allowances, so they’re just basically saying, Hey, you know, we have maybe budget 10,000 at the Max. Uh, four signs generally, right? And and if you only need a few sides, then you’re obviously

not using that allowance. So, um And that will all come when the design plans get a little bit further, along with what we are actually looking for signage and what makes sense to Uh, but sits size appropriate and things like that. So what’s currently available for the board to consider is about

$235,249 of our funds that are not yet encumbered. There is potential down the road before, uh Uh, probably through the summer will determine if some of the money that’s previously been encumbered. Uh, if this left over that you’d have to then reallocate. But at this at this juncture, what is

available for our funds that hasn’t been encumbered? And obligated to this point is, uh About $235,250. And. So I’m clear is that the are these dollars already encumbered in that 2 51 50? No, This is incremental. This is incremental. And you’ve you’ve allocated $100,000. So, uh, which hasn’t been spent.

So. You know if if you wanted to do this and say, you know, we need to get the number under a total of $335,000. Well you you have 316 There’s the max of Phase one phase a one that would be under that three total of 335. What was the what was the 100,000? Plus? Yeah? What? Was

that 100 gonna do it was, you know, so if you recall originally was part of the, uh, capital improvement plan from the previous year, and we had all we had always said that it was going to come out of our but we just never taken the

boat to do that. And then the plan was to have Sean and Tim do what they’ve just done. Got it. Got it, OK you know, so the total right now if you want to do all of phase a one, the total estimate. And again, the As. You go through planning it

and preparing it it the the numbers will firm up but as of right now, the estimate is 3 16 5 98. And with the 100 you’ve already given you’d need another 2 16 5 98 to be able to do that whole plan and we have 2 35 35. So. So, Tim, um regarding the side trap, Miscellaneous geotechnical

exploration. What exactly is that? Uh, that’s just looking at the current soils and what we have to if we have to excavate them, Uh, to get that area to drain better. Yeah. OK. So. We Got that so it’s It’s the Kind of the testing slash design of what we actually current conditions.

Existing conditions. Yeah because, I I definitely would think that, uh, repairing all that flooding is top priority. Yeah. That’s where the 100,000 kind of came. That was the highest priority was the drainage issue there, uh, for a variety of reasons. Uh, we also the pond is, uh, significant plays a significant role there with the drainage.

Um so we wanna make sure that, uh, The network of pipes and drainage pipes is flowing and and moving the water. Appropriately, so that’s part of that whole initial 100,000. And, then the trees. Of course that’s I know, I know you’re gonna bring up the tree, so Yeah. Yep. What about do we Did

we already do the roof on the gazebo. We did now we’re just waiting for the lawsuit. C PC. Oh C PC is gonna OK. That’s something that we I mean That’s that’s part of this plan, and I think that might have been in one of the I might even be that next phase. Um, I have

basically about probably seven page uh, summary call summary, um, that I’m sure it’s in there, but, uh, something that we can probably even tackle sooner than that. Um, if we go even through capital something like that it it’s not a large cost compared you know to to that roof put together, but I just

wonder like the town to attack the roof as part of some phase we can You can play around with it. This is just coming out of what the Patent Park improvement plan had, Uh, so that was that would be my next question, which is There’s there’s sort of the tact of ruthless per prioritization

right, like do the things that have to be done and get them done, Whereas I think this is sort of a blend of like nice to have and need to have Um And. I think that it’s a small blend. Um, I think the the important part. As. You know when we

looked at this and really, this came out of the master plan, which we you know, did surveys for in community input and things like that, Um, we’re really you know, in this first phase, um, to really identify things that would sort of like Tim sort of said to sort of set the groundwork of Where the, um

I guess the nice to haves could potentially go so for us to make the park accessible. Uh, Us to make the park not be underwater for you know, in the spring time so we can, then you know in in the future. Look to do things like, um, you know,

maybe like memorialize a bench program or but now we have that kind of framework laid out to saying Alright. Well, if we’re gonna do that program, these are where the benches can go. If, we, You know a lot of folks want a lot of shade structures down there, or just shade places. All, right. If, We’re

gonna do a shade place. We gotta be To make sure folks can get there first and get there in an accessible way. Um, you know, in those types of things typically, um you know, the nice to haves or the things that, um are more usable than I.

Guess. Just like the the kind of like the site work are things that are a little more easier to fundraise for might be a little more easier to you know, I, don’t wanna say naming rights, but just find more creative ways to fund than just, you know, we need to fix the Flooding. We need to set

accessible pathways. Um, so I think that was sort of the idea was, you know, Let’s identify this. Let’s get this done. Let’s kind of lay it out. So in 10 years from now when someone wants to, you know, put a bench at Patton Park. We can point and say, All, right? That’s fine, but it’s gotta go right

here because we kind of have it all mapped out already. So. What is what is the ask for next steps is it to approve the funds for Phase one? Is that what we’re doing tonight? Or is it to Take this under advisement and come back. What are y’all? Well. I have, uh some other things to consider

as well. So. Yeah. This is a question before you get off the this I love it. Um, I do And I love the idea of tying it into benches and and people have been able to donate memorials and stuff. Are there any use differences with the, uh athletic fields that are gonna go into high school with the

with the the large area That’s the the ball field, I guess. So I. You know I. It’s tough to say, Um I think there will be some, Um, certainly, Uh, you know, I think you know we have to kind of wait to see how that plays out it. You know it.

I guess there’s gonna be one baseball diamond as part of the You know the upper field at the high school. Um Our lights gonna go up there. How Long, Can the lights be on there. Can. They play back to back games up there, can they? Not If? They can then it changes this this year. I mean it’s really

something else, um, between the high school and our Babe Ruth program like a 13 to 18 high school teams. Um There’s like seven baseball teams that right now are using two diamonds. So, You know all those uses. I think in the long run, will try to figure out but I think until it’s done. I mean it’s still

done. We’re kind of living it. It’s really tough to tell. Yeah. People can come to games. I just I. Bring it up only because if we have all these pathways, is there ever a concern of a high fly ball hitting somebody? Yeah, so I think we did. Look at the, um, kind of the the distances and

things like that. You know we were originally looking at potentially doing a pathway that maybe went all the way around the pond. For people to walk or or we I don’t know if we have enough room for that, but I think that too Remember like we were kind of looking at it from a conceptual like, you

know, a Google map type of look, But with this in this first phase is more of that real kind of design work where we can really get down there and really, or the consultant or the the architect can really get down there and we can really say, like, all right, well, this is gonna work or you

know what, Like maybe from a Google map. It looked like this was going to be OK. But. Once we’re down here. There’s no way that we can pull this off. Love the idea of a path around upon that Nice. Alright, So, uh course So the second, uh, packet I’m gonna give you is?

Fortunately Pound Park’s not my only project I’m working on, um So. What? I was asked, uh, a few weeks ago is to provide some type of general estimates for the, uh, road projects that we have coming. Um I have a contract or a consultant. Uh, we did meet. We did do some field visits. Um, they put

together this conceptual estimate based on The listing that I gave them. Obviously it’s a lot. It’s not something that we’re gonna do, Uh, year one, but it gives us I. Guess. It just provides you. Uh um Maybe a good, um, a magnitude of cost, uh, of what road projects do cost. The town.

Um, and the money that we currently get from chapter 90 is minimal compared to what we really need. Um, obviously, I’m very fortunate to get some, um Some. I guess some money from town meeting as well, Uh to, uh, supplement to chapter 90, or to add to it. Um, but just one

project alone is is, you know, just under $500,000. So. It’s these are projects that I’m working to these are on the list if you want to call it the short list, But these are projects that have been brought to me that the roads are degrading. They’re getting unsafe, Um, sidewalks that are

on the second page are have been sidewalks that we’ve About for a while, um that there repairs to the sidewalks or they’re in areas where there’s new sidewalks. Um so it just provides you? I. Guess, a sense of, um The amount of money that we potentially would need to get these projects. Done.

Um These aren’t big numbers, obviously, so there is a competitive bid market that may bring these numbers down. Uh, we are seeing better numbers coming in, Um But. It just gives an idea. Uh and that’s what it is and and more so wanted to say, I. I believe there was 100 and $50,000 that

was from Arpa Money la, Uh 150. Right 2 52 52 5250. I’m sorry 250 this year from capital improvement, So, Uh, you get a total of $500,000 Just 500, right? And. So if there was, um when I was basically saying is that if there is some ARPA money left over, Where do we

want to best use that ar for money? Do. We want to put it into roads and sidewalks? Do we want to put it? Park. Do we want to do a little bit of both, Um And, and that’s more just for your, uh, information at this time. Um And, uh, for a

decision, I guess if you guys are ready to make the decision, I, just wanting to know how much money I do have to spend so I think, um, it’s a lot of information for you. I know that we just were able to get these to you tonight. So I if

the board wanted to wait and vote a subsequent meeting, I think that would make sense to give you the opportunity to get input from, uh, the other two members who were unable to be here. Is it or have you? Is it possible to, uh, probably prioritize some of this list?

Oh, yeah, I mean, Yeah. There’s affordability thing, we would we would attack it. This one. Yeah. There’s different ways to definitely prioritize lists. I mean, Obviously everybody’s gonna have The their number one project, or, um, you know if you go off cost benefit, there is some of the major roads that need repairs that are the more

highly traveled roads. There are sidewalks that are connecting points that need to be repaired, or there’s sidewalks that need, uh, to be, uh, a brand new sidewalk, uh, that’s connecting communities or neighborhoods. So. It’s It’s one of those, It’s a hard thing to prioritize because somebody’s something’s gonna be left off the list, right? So.

They were buckets like these are safety boom of the total and Are, you know, connection Nice to have sidewalks that aren’t safety, but You know somehow that where we could help you help Allocate mon money towards a a program that might take a couple of years. I can tell you that the roads on

this list are pretty much those roads that are listed. I did take a few off. Those are more safety. OK and drainage. Issues, um, sidewalks. Uh, the higher priorities would probably be Essex Street and, uh, Highland. And Asbury. But there are a list of like, lowest area postgate. Those are all neighborhoods that have a lot

of people in there that the sidewalks are in just tough shape. Uh, they’re inaccessible in some areas, um, covered over in some areas broken up and Um, hazard. So It’s um Just We have work to do. You’re doing a great job, so right now towards this, Joe, did I hear you say we have 500,000 allocated you

500,000 allocated right now. We have 100,000 already allocated here. We have 1,000,000 already allocated and then we have this 235. And. The question is, is it 235 Go here, or does it Disappear somewhere in this form. 4 million Hm? Yeah. So I mean again it all you can do it.

You can’t do it. 35. This is a naming opportunity. I can put a bench on it. Yeah. You can put a bench on it if you want to pay for it, I mean the roads and sidewalks not a year. One plan. You know it’s not. It’s A.

It’s a five year plan. Yeah I’ve had. Well I have laid out. As for funding. I have an idea. Uh, it just depends on how much extra I do get. I mean that could be If. I don’t get it. How much are you Don’t ask that question. Don’t ask that

question He’ll ask for all of it. I. I’m of two minds. I Two personalities OK that as well. I have two as generous, generously low. If Extra time will create extra thoughtfulness. I’m happy to wait. Just Extra time will not create extra thoughtfulness. I’m certain we could probably make a Rough decision, but I

defer to you, too. I had just out of the gate ready to speak. I just had an opportunity to look at these things now, and I need to conceptualize. For instance the sidewalks I’m trying to think of where they are, and I just need a little more time. Yeah. I would I would prefer to just Um, look

at it a little bit more. So. Let’s just let’s just for the next meeting. Everybody put it in your calendar. The drainage pattern is something we should do towards uh and moving on that and then really, it’s from whether it’s Paths and pattern and other things, or safety is

my big go to like, if if you came back and said Here’s the bucket left Joe and your team told you these are the priorities of safety, that’s probably gonna you know. Cuz we could cover the drainage with 100,000. You already have but you’re not holding up on that right? Because you? No, No.

That’s what I was gonna say is none of none of your decisions. Take your time. None of it’s really holding me up because even the road and sidewalks I have a consultant. I have the money set aside to continue designing these because I think that’s just a good idea to do as well. Just get them designed.

Get them ready to go, Um, and then we can pull them off the off the plate it if we don’t have the funding for, uh but they’re already designed. We’ve already got to that. Point just to set the table up. Same with the park. Tim. Tell me what the

acronym say. Is indicative of Oh. That’s just That’s just a estimate. It’s kind of like safe, say this say about this price. OK. That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to. What is H MA? Hot mix as well. OK? And which ones of these sidewalks are will be new

sidewalks do, Can you, um the new sidewalks are the um Essex street from school to forest. Essex Street from school. So connecting We have a sidewalk all the way to Essex Street from on school Street, so this would connect school street to forest and that whole neighborhood. Uh, to bring them that neighborhood safely

crossed, Uh, Essex street and then down school street down towards Bridge and Just connecting that neighborhood together. Uh, the other new one is, um out on, uh, Asbury. So. It’s from the Asbury, the Outer Asbury intersection out towards Sharon Road. Um, that direction which one is that is that it’s

the third. I believe that one’s the fourth one down to Asbury north. Yeah, that is the two Asbury connecting the two Asberry together. Um and then the Asbury Street. North is the one that goes out towards, uh, patent residents. That that direction So that’s those Highland is the one that people

so Highland is existing. Uh and that is what we do get. Uh, some concerns here. That. One actually goes from high. Uh 50 Highland, which is down closer to I. Think Linden Street area all the way to Asbury. So. That’s the whole Highland stretch, So. That’s quite a bit

of south part of highland going, uh, you know from when I towards Asbury Street What’s the one that splits going to Appleton farms that we always get the emails about where there isn’t a sidewalk, whereas we’re where Asbury and Highlands split. No whether we were doing a speed study there

in one way, made potential in a good hue. It’s like right by the gas station. Is that right? Oh, that’s Highland that goes out toward towards Pingree on. Yeah is that just at intersection? Uh, there isn’t any roadway to make a sidewalk out there is there on down Highland. There’s Not much there. Uh, I think power poles

are in the way. I think most of that area through there, but Um A lot of these Also. If you’re gonna do S, uh, New sidewalk. We. Look at drainage issues. Uh, because right now, they could be, uh, country drainage. And then if you put a sidewalk in,

you have to put a curb in You now directing that flow somewhere else, So you have to make sure you can you have adequate size, infrastructure and location for the drainage to so so there are lots of reasons why that wouldn’t be ideal to put a sidewalk on island. All the way down to pry,

OK? OK, All. Right? Well, we can Table for Yeah, table this To be somebody who like to say the word. You. Just say this word right here we table I would love to table this. And maybe if I think because I want you I love, they have a road

map. Um I just would like I know we got 235 K. I think there’s a timeline on that. I’m Not? Sure, Joe, but it has to be obligated. It has to be obligated by December of this year have to be spent by this year, but it has to be

obligated. You know the leaders in your groups. Here’s how we want to allocate it. I mean we have time. I think if we were going to do any road project, it would be in the fall and then finish it up in the spring so we could clear obligated

means you guys voted, and then we have a contract in place that says where it’s going. So if I don’t have a contract by December 31st we’ll we’ll lose the money so we’ll have we needed a decision in time to be able We can also structure our

bid to have a base bid for money that we currently have and then add like an alternate. If money, More money becomes available, so we get a contractor on something more comes available. We can then add it to it if we want to do it that way. OK? Right? Thank

you? Yeah. I just wouldn’t want to stand in the way. I mean, I would tell you that we’ve got 235 to play with If you got I would even be fine saying based on your decisions on where to go within these lists, you guys can decide the order. And timing, But. Yeah. I think, I.

I think part of our question is do you want us to spend it in patent park or on sidewalks or do you want us to split it or, you know, and you know, that really is I. I know the board. The previous board had talked about, uh, we spent a lot of

money on, uh, a vibrant money on infrastructure. Uh, a big portion of it went to the, uh, second treatment plan out out of the treatment out out of the water treatment facility, and, uh, there was some desire to do something that the town residents could feel good about and see. Um so we were asking

you. What. Do you think they’ll see it more sidewalks or Your choice depends on whether you use sidewalks a lot. So I mean drainage and trees if if it was a perfect world, we’re gonna get you a shirt. It’s gonna start drainage, drainage and trees, please. Waters, the trees. All right. Thank you

thank you. Do. We, have we have a member of the public asking a question? Absolutely. Come on up the public. Uh, Hi, uh, Steve Osowski 156 Wall Street. My sidewalks are great. Um, I love that for you. Um I’m, uh, on the recreation committee, and, uh, one of my fellow

committee members asked me to come by tonight to say something. He is a grandfather and he is disabled. Um, it’s not cause and effect. Um he, um, he has attempted to go to see his grandchildren play little league at Patton Park, and he is unable to park close enough to be able to get out of his

vehicle to get to the fields because there is no Handicap spaces at near the restroom. Mm uh, there are some by the 10 courts by but he’s It’s too far away for him, So. I’m just bringing this up because he was planning to come here tonight, but he couldn’t make it. He’s not feeling well. So. Uh, I.

Just wanna bring that to the attention of any renovations that are done? Uh, I mean the the W board completely supports the, uh Patton Park project. Uh, but we really need to do something about handicapped parking near the restrooms. Usher. We just I just wanted to let, um Several phases of that

project. One of those phases was paving that roadway and establishing parking the one that goes back to the the with the potholes in it. It’s not It’s just part of the project. It’s not part of this phase that I put forward, but it’s something that Sean and I and the consultants did discuss as

part of that plan. Uh, the tricky thing is now is it’s a dirt road, so for us to make it AD, a Accessible or, uh, handicap parking spaces or something like that. It’s it’s nearly impossible to do that. It’s not really You’re putting a sign up. That’s basically

what you’re doing, Uh, but it’s really not, um, made for that as a gravel road. Part of that plan was to pave it, uh, looking at, and maybe, you know, that’s something we talked about. But if that’s more of a priority, uh, you know it’s in

the plan. So. One of the meetings. I was at the issue of paving came up because having Lived here for 36 years and used those fields. I can tell you that the last thing we need is that thing to be paved so that people can go in there SUVS 40 Miles an hour, right?

That’s right right where we’re just talking about that side conversations we can we can you can pay it Put speed temporary sign now at near the men’s room $80,000 used to be, um, I mean we could talk. I mean I’ll talk with the police as well. I mean, obviously, they’re enforcing.

Like a temporary sign. I think that’s a great idea. I do see lots of grandparents down there and would it be, do you? Does he drive or is it because I was talking about possibly having like a drop off like, uh, you follow in You Drop them off.

Then you go park, um and dedicating an area for that patent airport. It’s a I. I think that’s a conversation that doesn’t need the S boards and what we can actually have the conversation off. My. Yeah, that’s I appreciate you bringing the perspective, though. I think that’s valuable.

I think the pathways that mobility of the park too. Get down the road, so that’s important. Um All right. Thank you did our citizen arrive. Uh, is Eric memo available online. He’s not in the I know he’s not in the room. Eric, you here. Uh, I do not see him on the zoom.

OK. I Will. Would Somebody like to, um People. The discussion Yes. Yes. Well. Uh, I request that we table the discussion on the citizen, uh, plus shelter for for tonight. We’ll pick it up next time. Thank you. Um, the The next item is really just a a topic of conversation.

Um I’m. I. Don’t. I assume that y’all have been engaged in it at least a portion of the number of conversations and emails that I have, um, about the the 1 33 40 B, um and in light of the ZBAS decision to invoke Uh, safe harbor. We just

wanted to give ourselves time to sort of talk through, Um You know what this sort of means? Um And and what the The Next steps are, um As. I’ve said to folks that have reached out to me or called or emailed. The developer does have I mean at this point, it’s been a week so

they have another week. To appeal is that to appeal the The safe harbor. Invocation. Um There was a so they hired outside counsel Dan Hill was there representing, uh, the the decision to invoke to recommend invoking Safe harbor. There was some disagreement between Dan and our council as to, um

whether that would hold, uh, in appeal. I think our counsel had advised us that they did not think that it would hold an appeal. I think Dan feels strongly that it will hold good news is not our decision that will come back. You know, I think they have 30 days after the appeal to come back with a

decision about whether safe harbor holds Uh um, II. I Believe it was related to to the safe harbor that they ultimately decided upon was related application related to the, um The, Uh, litigation. That’s Yeah So We We invoke Safe Harbor based on related application, which was one of the two ways we could do it.

The. Disagreement was whether payment in lieu would be upheld as And a and a sufficient within an application that included affordable housing Our council had felt as though uh, payment in lieu would be sufficient for them to deny the invocation of safe harbor. I. Think, uh, the attorney that was brought As outside counsel

outside outside counsel did not felt like it would not. Be lost an appeal that we would we would gain safe harbor. Um and again. We just have to wait and see. The. Other part is that the ZB a while they did invoke safe harbor. They did they did not vote to deny the permit.

So. The public hearing continues, and so they’re sort of parallel things happening right? Like, they will continue the hearing to either approve or deny the permit while also invoking safe harbor at the same time, if if the applicant decides to decide to go forward, um so there’s a lot of sort of gray area there

that Again not necessarily related to us. I think what has come up many times is the question of whether or not uh, we want to continue to work through some form of MOU in the event that the application is approved, Um In the spirit of working on behalf of the town.

I will say that I. I have received zero support vocally for continuing the conversations around MOU. We continue to get, uh, encouragement from legal counsel to go down this path to have something in writing. Um That said. I mean the the time for it has sort of passed.

We’re now sort of past the process. No decision was the decision ultimately for the select board. Um And. I think that in in light of the conversations that we saw today were perception becomes reality. And if we do this, it looks like we’re supporting the project versus not If. We want to just back away from any

Continue negotiations via MOU. That can be what we decide to do, But I Give the conversation over to y’all. Well, the MOU the purpose of that MOU was to endorse. A 40 B. Correct. Yes And. No. It was to get something in writing that if it went forward, we had conditions

that lived outside the permitting process. The problem is the optics of it was that we were endorsing the project and truthfully, from a legal perspective. We were just trying to protect a set of interests because they could not be protected as a part of the 40 B permitting process.

Um, and the developer had sort of said that he was sort of open to us, continuing that conversation as the rest of these things went on, Um I think that I’ve had very reasonable and thoughtful conversations with people about That and there still is not support for us to engage in anything that appears friendly.

Well. I would absolutely agree with that. I. I think the the overarching principle to that is, um, looking at the work that the Planning board did over a two year period and extremely thorough and thoughtful review about this project. There were hundreds of people on the, um TOB. So Woods

co coalition who were adamantly against that and had a multitude of experts. Um, speaking for them, they themselves talked about the degradation of the land of their neighborhood of the noise. And so I strongly Would disagree with doing it MOU knowing all of the time, energy and effort and passion that

these residents contributed to preserving that area, and not just because they like it, but because they are real environmental risks as well. If we compare, um Bridge street to, um, Tobacco right? Bridge Street just took off the side of the hill. And. There is a mudslide waiting to happen.

It is appalling and If. This were to happen on on the, um 133 Essex Street. It would be catastrophic and nobody knows the, um The, Um, up the opponents of this program were denied the opportunity to have a hydro geologist. So somebody who would give us more of a probability and we don’t we

don’t have that information and I do not believe based upon what the planning board discovered throughout its, um, analysis. I don’t believe it would be prudent for us to say. Yeah, well, we think that Project. Based on what this developer has said he’s going to do for us would be good for

our town. Because If, you look at the, um gives that he was promising. Um, there were 49 waivers that he was expecting, including, Um, a performance bond. That’s that doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing. We. Give away everything for minutiae In return We give away our most pristine, um, forest land. Um, our our water supply

and the needs and Passions of people who live there, so I absolutely would not endorse an MOU as a friendly 40 B for this project under any circumstances, I think it’s antithetical to a town standing together in the best interest of its residents. My comments. No, I appreciate I mean I. I.

Absolutely appreciate that, Um And and again, I I Hope that In making this decision and again I. There are folks who stayed here all night are our legal counsel. And again. Dan Hill has brought another perspective. I’ve I’ve listened to him Speak I. I appreciate our legal counsel

does not feel as confidently as as Dan that we will have a favorable outcome. Both In the, uh, the invocation of safe Harbor but also in if we deny the project that it will come back to us. I think the Pembroke example was that there’s like, you know, 250 standard considerations in the

Pembroke denial. They took away everything from the town when it was when it was approved on appeal, including, like Third Party Review. All of that went away and and so we have continued to sort of get counsel that We Do. They are council does not think that defending the original, Um

Appeal. Is as cut and dry as it’s sort of been positioned, and they do not know that there is a way for us to a path forward for us. If the 40 if the 40 B is denied by the ZB a and goes to appeals court Now, we can sort of wait and see in

each of these stages. We’re waiting for the safe harbor. We’re waiting for the ZB, a And. So again, The MOU was simply to say. Ignoring that it’s called friendly. Do we want to put something in writing that says, If. This goes forward. These things are preserved because I

think we’ve sort of heard they will not be on the table. Otherwise the trails may not be public access. At that point they will be considered restricted private property, and no one will have access to them. Um So III I hear and agree with your sentiments and I just before we put it

completely to bed. I. Just wanna make sure that we’re OK with that? That By doing so we are optimistically, assuming that this goes the way that we want. Because if it doesn’t we have we no longer have Anything you come up to the like. Thank you for letting me speak and for, uh, hearing our concerns

Heather Unsworth for Villa Road. I just wanted to say I, with all due respect to our town attorney, this is Dan Hill’s area of expertise. He specializes in the laws around 40 B, So. I think we can take that input seriously as a town and part of his statement

around that is by standing firm and letting the safe harbor play out. We’re actually as a town in the driver’s seat as soon as you step out of that position and start the negotiations with the developer, the developers in the driver’s seat and those of Who have been involved in this now for how

many years Uh, Don’t have a lot of trust in this developer in following through with his commitments, So I think you could make some negotiations with him which are minimal. Thank you, Rosie for what you said. Compared to what we lose, and he can rescind them at any point And, I do think as this,

the person said earlier perceptions matter and it would really look not only to the residents, but I think to the ZB A that the select board is in some way approving this to let it go. And. We have grave concerns about the impact of this for the town. Not only in terms of the environmental

damage. Water is a crucial issue. Why would we contaminate our only remaining water supply, but also, as John, McGrath said. I think the financial issues for the town are huge because whatever gain we would get out of this development we lose by the liability of what happens if that watershed is damaged

that impacts Essex and Manchester as well as Hamilton. Thank you? Thank you, Heather also for your continued conversation, I think, um one more comment about the appeals that are in the courts, both for the stormwater management and for the application itself. I mean the courts. Look at this and have been loath to make a

decision so I don’t know if we can say that while the courts Are, perhaps not looking upon this favorably. I think importantly, you need to stand your ground for what you believe in and I have followed this project all along. Listening to the planning board hearings and attending many of

them. I think it’s important to stand your ground as as a town standing standing together for what the town believes is the right thing. And yes, uh, we Are losing out on some tax money. But do you know what you lose? Is so much more than that,

And so Money. The bottom line is not just money. It’s our quality of life. It’s our water supply. It’s what makes all the things um, desirable in in our town, so And, uh and in my other life, I’m a nurse, But I’m, also an attorney. I understand everything is a risk benefit. But if you don’t stand

on what you believe is the right thing for your town looking at the whole picture. Then you have nothing. Yeah. And so, um, I agree with that I I’m with you said I. Don’t Look at this as Um, trying to get tax dollar and gaining tax revenue. There, I look at the approach that Caroline was

describing as trying to mitigate something that could blow up and be a lot worse. I think that’s where the MOU is coming from now, with saying all that I don’t think the MOU is worth it. To be honest with you. I don’t feel like our back

is up against the wall. I also feel like we’ve got two public boards, you know that are telling us otherwise right now and follow the path with his EB A that it’s on now. As for the appeal. I mean I’m curious where we are at with that.

Does that mean that picks up What, have we? What is the town spent on it. What is the time committing to spending and continuing on it. I’d like to kind of understand, since I wasn’t on the board when that was going on, you know what type of what have we committed to? And? What is what might

that look like? If this takes the appeal path. Is that gonna keep going. I just wanna know it’s it’s on a stay right now. So it’s on a stay right. But. If. This doesn’t go through that Stay goes away and right and it’s still an option. And. Does that mean a lot More legal.

EXP If. He drops I if he drops the 40 B and goes back to the appeal, then that could be picked up again. Right. So, then does the town support that financially? We already vote we voted to to defend the planning board decision, so that’s so the current appeal on the books is authorized. The Funding is I.

I mean authorized the funding? We we agreed to defend that decision. The question. I think the next conversation will come if the developer appeals safe harbor Uh, we could still not do anything until the ZB A makes a decision about whether or not to approve the permit if

they deny the permit. And. I’m saying Just. We’re putting all the options on the table. The question will then be where were there legal and lawful grounds for denial of the permit. And if we believe that there were then we would be authorizing the town to defend another lawsuit or not, or not.

Yeah. I mean, Yeah, I, I think Yeah. Yeah I. I just wanna know I wanna get caught up on what’s been spent What that cost would look like through that. And right now. I think that You know this is more of a an FYI conversation, because until we

know if the safe harbor is going to be, uh you know, there’s gonna be appeal and or the hearing that goes forward with the ZB A, um You know the ZB, Unfortunately, and this has come up many times does not have the process of the planning board had for 40 beat.

It’s A very short list of Does it do XYZ. And If. The answer is yes. That’s the grounds for approval or denial. Um, and so if they choose to deny the permit Rosa to your point to to sort of just make a stand and say we’re denying it.

The developer. It would then go to H AC, and that’s our concern. Is that they the H A has been ruthless. In In their return on these denials. Um, but they’re also case. There’s also case law where the denials have been upheld, based on um I can think

of two cases off the top of my head where these have been upheld, based on environmental specifically water issues, so Yes. It is it is a risk. But. You have to do what you think. And. It’s a risk that that honestly Mm. We collectively can decide to take I think right now. I am waiting to find

out what’s going on with the With the challenging of the safe harbor and what what’s gonna happen there two weeks, right? He has he has two weeks and then they say that typically a decision is returned within 30 days. Um, so we should know within the next I mean six weeks from last week,

but, um, I I mean there’s no nothing for us to vote on here today. But I. I think at this point Um we so sort of stay the conversation around an MOU. Um, I’ve certainly heard enough. Not. I don’t mean I’ve heard enough. But. I’ve heard I’ve gotten a quantity of feedback about you know, the sort of

benign nature of what’s in there that I don’t think anybody is supporting that, please. Yeah come up to the To the mic. Very quick comment. I Can Whittaker, president of the safe Chebacca, Woods and Watershed, I would advise you to very, very closely take a look at that agreement. It is very one sided to the developer.

There’s lots of escape clauses in it. It really ties your hands. Uh, there are a number of different ways that they can walk out of the agreement, even if they are allowed the permit, so I would just advise. There’s some really very one sided and what you’re getting is very, very limited. So. All, right,

so the same discussions We started out today with three a right M BT a. Is that gonna or is that a similar path for us where we’re squeezing our ability to influence properties in the town? Well, I Think. I had this conversation with you the other day. I was like, you know, ultimately what

everybody’s asking from all sides is defend a lawsuit against the state and I’m like. Oh, God. OK, that’s a lot of lawsuits against the state. Uh, for for various things, but You know again. But is it similar? I’m asking. Maybe, Joe, you know, so with the 38 is like

planning board comes out. We have our form base. I don’t know how much authority that gives us to rule anything just because we say it or is it the state just right away. I don’t care what you’re form, Base says, And. It’s ZB a again Is It ZB a again through that process, the state the state

Know Planning board, It’s Planning Board Planning board have to have hearings on on three zoning on the zoning and its form base code and the state has shown willingness to work with form based code as as it pertains to three a compliance so But you know, we’re trying to do something a

little different than most communities have. But. The state has shown a willingness to listen to that. We’ll see where we get on it. It’s a process. I just wonder how much I want someone to convince me we have teeth at that point, Just, wait and see what happens with Milton. And, then that

will give us a little bit of guidance on Thursday. No. Milton has already voted today. Oh sued. Yeah, OK. So Milton’s being sued by the attorney general. And in Rockport, a group of citizens, uh Basically sued the state, saying that the law was unconstitutional, which is essentially what’s happening with the 40 the 40 B stuff.

The challenges are Challenging the right of 40 B to bypass environmental, local environmental bylaws and regulations. Um So. It’s not town versus developer. It’s town versus State for a B law. So. That’s ultimately what? What we would be taking on. If. They deny the the appeal. President Zuma has a question.

Let’s hear it. We. See you you can eat 00. You did and then you didn’t There, we go. There, we go. Oh, you know, OK Hi, Um Karen Angeli for Postgate Road. Um I don’t know if this is the right place to ask this, but we’re talking a bunch of about a bunch of different housing

projects and I’m wondering if we’re having a co ordinated effort to actually get ahead of 4040 B more than the three A, But. Um, we did mention something about Gordon A as well. But. Are we working across the town to like, address it proactively. Yeah. It’s a great question. Um I don’t know if you were here for

the public comment part. Um And and three A. No. Yeah, on three A, I think. Yeah, The Short Answer is yes, there’s always an effort to try to, like, Be mindful of all of these things, you have to be careful of, as you heard earlier is that it

starts to sound like a conspiracy when you try to be thoughtful about it, you know? Joe walked this developer. Through the Gordon Conwell site. When. He was we had we had them to walk. We had the Yeah, we had them walk. Gordon Conwell, Uh, when this, uh, development

was being proposed. That was not the site that the developer wanted. You know it wasn’t for lack of saying we have space here that you could use or what about over here? It’s this property owner with this plot of land with this developer That wanted to go there, and I think you know we are behind on

our housing plan for affordable and I think that has put us in sort of a an awkward if not precarious position whereby the perfect storm is now happening, and that’s not because we’re not thinking about this all the time. It’s that it’s incredibly difficult to coordinate these types of things in the way that

we imagine right which will people will say. Why. Can’t this development go on the Winthrop site. Well, in order for it to go to the Winthrop site, you have to consolidate the schools to Cutler and people don’t want to Consolidated school at Cutler. You know why can’t it? Go on Gordon? Well, it wasn’t asked

to go on Gordon. Then. Gordon wanted to do a certain type of housing and so it it is the conversations. I are ongoing. It’s It’s that there is There is a lot of vocal opposition. Everywhere we turn. Right. It’s like death by 1000 cuts in each of the projects is different.

Um each of the proposals different they all come from outside towns don’t generally. Municipalities our size. Just don’t have the Resources resources and expertise to be able to, you know, initiate a development proposal, so we have to respond to what comes to us. So Gordon Conwell says they want to sell their student

housing. Well, we have to follow a certain process to help them do that, Um, develop comes in and says they want to do it as it’s been elusive. Originally, they wanted to do a market rate. Um, project out at 133 Essex that went through that process. It failed.

Now. They’ve come back with a 40 B project that has a different process that has to follow the three. A zoning is a zoning change. It’s and that’s The other thing we need to keep focused on it is not like Oh, you have to do this and establish 3 731 units. You have to create zoning that would

allow that if the right developers came in And that would assume that they could, you know, do septic for 731 units that would assume that they could acquire enough land and within the 49 acres to do all the so there’s a lot of different things that would have to happen in order for

three a to even be implemented in a town like Hamilton, Uh, one of our big complaints before the law passed was you’re asking us to adopt something that Would probably never actually happen because there’s no actual way without the state coming in and building sewer because developers don’t build sewers.

And. There’s not enough places to do septic. Right it becomes, you know, you’re asking us to a job Zoning That doesn’t make any sense on its face. Um, that was my my push back to the state and they didn’t listen to us. They just said that when we

want you to do it anyway. Well, you know, I, we’ll add something that uh, that 0.93 acres at 63 Willow Street. Um, it is amazing that 18 apartment units and 2500 square feet of commercial space fit on 0.93 of an acre, so and I don’t think But would have believed that that would have happened

because all we heard was Oh. That was a AAA Fish bowl and it’ll never go well, there it is. And, So. I think the reality is If. We Zone it somebody said they will build And. So II. I think we should not think about a wing and a prayer with this. We need to

have a concrete plan as a as a town and and look at. It’s a definite possibility, and that’s not to say that 700 apartments would be in one spot, but Developers are pretty, uh, cost creative, and that’s why we hired the the consultants because we they can actually help us. Envision what We want

the town to look like and really. It’s. A Town Center plan with a form based zoning code. So is it within his scope right now to, uh look at the other two properties that we talked about and think strategically as a whole time plan, not just that, or is is he really just tasked with the

three a specific task with specifically the area? You know that would be impacted by potentially three A. Um, it’s it. It was the RFQ was for a town center plan with form based code. It was not for three a specific but understanding that three A is in play with the state. We want

them to understand that and help us understand it, but it was not looking at other sites, uh, away from the town center. We can’t plan for land We don’t own and that’s that’s been a tough con. I mean we we don’t own the Gordon Conwell site.

Um and so you know, it’s we don’t own 130. We don’t own 133. Essex. You know these are these are I Not ours. Um And. I, and I think that’s also you know, one sort of, uh, parallel, uh, finding I think if you go back and look at the school building,

um Planned at the very, very beginning. A lot of that was like, you know, feasibility on site. Where could we put a new school and II? I remember being part of the conversation of like there’s so many places you can put schools go look. Well, It. Turns out there’s just not that many places you could go

to school when you look at, you know, there’s a lot of wetlands. There’s a lot of, you know, uh, drainage issues and blast. It’s It’s sort of everywhere and and it quickly took a list of 25 down to, um you know what we currently have? And? What what

I will say about the Hamilton, the current Winthrop site, for better or for worse is it’s the land we own. Mhm, you know, And. So. What. Whatever conversations we we have about it and and I know that they can seem, you know, you know, insensitive or developer friendly or any of those things,

and I and I recognize that narrative, but it happens to be the land that we own. And. So when we have a lot of these conversations about opportunities And the fact that these things are connected, You know if we don’t want 40 be over here we have to find another place to put 40 B.

And. If we the only land we own. Is This. This thing that currently has a lease that might be consolidated Or might not it sort of it. You know the house of cards is is tough, but that’s it, And. I’ll say it a million times If anybody has Thoughtful. Answers. Please either help them to me. I would

I would love to hear them, Um But. Well, if there’s um you know here, I here, I said. I didn’t even go down today. But if there is a working group that’s a proactive working group, not a bunch of people screaming at each other and did a workshop or something. That would be nice because there’s

not it seems, you know, I’m preaching to the choir, but very black and white, and there’s things we need to do and things we should do as citizens of the North Shore. So, um so I would be up for helping. I don’t know who I will reach out to, but Karen, if you could

reach out to me, send me Um, my Web. My email address is on the town website. You can send me click on it and send me an email. Uh, how to reach you and we can have a conversation. Uh, we are working to put together a group. Uh, that will work

with the consultants and then also, the consultants will be doing very public staff surveys public meetings as well. So All right. Well, those I. Appreciate your hard work. Thank you very, very, very much. Thank you I think if you come and made me that Yes.

Good. Thank you and and while you’re walking up, I think too with if we do get safe, Ireland But, if you if you the the problem is the folks at home can’t hear you in the zoom. Uh, Brad Hill. I Don’t live in ham. I live in Essex, but I have a very deep

injury. His trails and and it’s uh off trails. On foot. Almost 30 years. Um The sanctity of the woods, particularly these woods and especially with land that is Undeserving. Be developed Now. There is land that is deserving to be developed. And I understand that But. Um, just a thought

comes to mind. A lot of the Obstacles that? Yeah I’m Sorry, sir 1st 1st of all Typically, public comment is for residents of the town of Hamilton. You are not one and the gentleman just said that they can’t hear you because you’re because you’re not at the microphone.

So it. My suggestion might be a little naive. It’s Brad hilt, but, uh, give it some thought, Uh, this town is loaded with some very successful World class attorneys. Uh, there’s to me because the the legal system at large is making it increasingly difficult to make. Progress on critically important issues, so Why not do

a little research. Uh, do some reach out to some of these cracker Jack attorneys. They may not have a moment of time to spare, but, uh their firms might have some resources that you could tap into. Um as a, um As, a gesture of goodwill being a resident of the town of Hamilton, But. There’s a lot of

legal resources. I think that are available and don’t necessarily have to command top dollar. So with that, I’d say their state bidding laws we would not be allowed to allow somebody to work on this, uh, pro Bono. We would have to go through a process and turn and find attorneys. We don’t have

to go through a competitive process for procurement. But for attorneys, we have to hire them. We can’t allow people to work for us for free hiring suggests the exchange of competence. The delivery of some compensation. Um That can be creative, too. We can get a task force together.

Loaded with some skilled people, I think is what he’s suggesting which we do have a lot of very smart folks that that that we could leverage for all of this, but I don’t know we keep shifting. 40 B three A and you know they threw 15 units. It doesn’t really get us back towards our master plan.

It’s not I don’t look at that as a major win for affordable housing and tobacco. I do look at you know, a dorm for act could be And if we get safe harbor then maybe we can sit back and look at our options and try to Agree all right.

Um, in the interest of my deep hunger, um I’m going to move us on from this, but I think for folks listening about you know where the select board is is going from here. We will await decision from developer Um On the Safe harbor, and then I think we’ll continue to have this conversation at select

board meetings moving forward. Um, but at this time there will be probably no further discussion of the MOU. So so we got two weeks or a week and 30 days, basically OK, Um all right, uh, I, am I? I’m gonna go out of order. I’m going to ask if it’s OK to table, the

regional school. Yes. Um do we need to have this conversation tonight? I move that we table. Is that OK, Ok, um So the agenda setting schedule again, Um With the folks, not here. Bye y’all! Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming out. Have a good night. Thank you bye bye

soon soon. Um The agenda setting schedule is here, but, uh, a portion of the folks who would be impacted by that schedule or not here. So I also think that this is not just just for your it just a rotating schedule built off the last one we had. It’s just It’s the same cadence. Right cadence.

Everybody goes once you know, once through the term and then you start over again, Um, we began with, uh Chair as the as the Oh. Do I not have to come to these. You are at all of them, because you that’s what I thought. OK. I thought you were

saying? It started with me. It starts with the with the vice chair and then goes to clerk and then the other two members and then start goes back to the vice chair and goes through again. I need to put this on my calendar. It’s the new kid on the block. Yeah so basically for setting agendas like about

every other week, you know Joe, Caroline, and then we rotate, you know, every fifth time you’re doing it, You know a third person goes in and you set the agenda like we did for this and the the date the date that’s set there as as the date

that we would do it is is always in flux because things come up and maybe you’re not available on the Tuesday before. So you do it on a Wednesday or the Monday before and that’s always a conversation that starts on the Monday before when I send out a text to the chair and whoever’s up and say,

Do, you guys still want to do this on Day. What time and then we go. Yep so just for clarifying the actual date that you would be on the hook for Scheduling as the date on the right the far right, um And again. That’s flexible within just, uh, allowing us to the agenda. Yeah. Do. We need to

vote on that that you know you don’t need to vote on it. Um, I. I have it as a possibility for you. I put vote when when there may be a vote, and I don’t want people to say that we didn’t know Well, I would say could we just I would entertain a motion

to continue the rotating schedule? I move that we continue a rotating schedule to set select board agendas all second Uh, all in favour. Well done. Um, OK. The Last bit is the um horse trading the horse trading Um, is the yes. The horse trading on the, uh Liaisons. Uh, I have already

told folks that aren’t here that they don’t get a say, uh, in the things that I assigned them or that they told me, but I will just for the two of y’all. Um is blank is is that correct? I? I have it. I have it here? I did no, no, I have

yours. So for you, Rosie. I have, uh, Conservation Commission. Council on aging Environmental Impact Committee. Mhm Public library trustees. And I have open Space committee, but it says it’s actually defunct is the open space. It’s not It’s Just. Not currently active, um, they they haven’t met in a while. OK should it

come back into Being used. You want somebody that would liaise with The Conservation Commission CAE IC in the library Trustees. Yes. Uh, that’s comments. Is that. How does that feel? I was hoping to, um maybe do the either the planning board or the, um ZB as well. These are. These are great. These are all mostly.

Yeah while they’re environmental concerns, which they, um Conservation Commission, the E IC great COAS My Love library trustees. I’m happy to do. Um I can give you ZB I love the ZB. OK, How about that’s a big one right now. Yeah, that’s that’s a big one. For you It’d be a great learning experience as well.

So. That would be super. Do you want to give up one that you have, or do you want to keep all I’m happy to keep them unless you um No? That’s why somebody was somebody was gonna get six and unweighted once we get it out, and it deserves the

right to a job for some will require more time than others. I think Yeah. Uh, Bill. I have you on cap. Um Yeah. C PC. Yeah. H DC. Yeah. Uh, school Committee. It’s a big after tonight, I want it and Master plan. Yeah, which is wrapping up but I think I’m gonna follow it through the planning board

and stuff is that the intent or do I Yeah. Do. We need the master. Well. I was gonna say Yeah just whenever you’re whenever that sun sets, you sort of go so Yeah, Ok, Um and then I’m going to keep Board of health I’m gonna keep fin calm. I’m going to keep affordable housing trust. I took Housing

Authority and Cultural Council. And then a good mix. Yeah, Some of those I already had, and some were. It was really distributing, Sean. Uh, Bill. I have on, uh North Shore or Essex Tech. It’s fun. Uh, Hamilton Historical Society. The community Access board. Uh, The Planning board he would

like to maintain that and the patent homestead. That’s a good Um, but I’m happy to horse trade Patent Homestead If somebody wants to A. And, Then Tom is board of assessors. Chewbacca Woods Land Management Committee. Historic District Commission, Human Rights Commission. And the wreck board. Tom’s a little light cause he has three Children. That’s fun,

the rec board. So does that if I do the school committee does that put me on that? Building committee, too. Is that a process or is that already winding down on that right now, and it’s now in this sense, there’s gonna be a lot to do on

it. Um, but that was, um that’s gonna go. Through a review process with the school committee, and I’m sure Everybody heard that the MS B a did not require that that committee to be approved by the school committee. But, the school committee has an internal rule that did so

that’s gonna be going back to the school committee process. So. Uh, if you have interested in that bill that continuity in history, so I have no problem not, but Tom may also be looking for a way out, too. So. You may want to talk to him and see and then let me know And.

We can have Eric. Uh, Let Eric know what you want? What you all do. I. Think. You’re a good communicator, and you have to keep that conversation very cordial. I mean there might be good connection with the two, but I. Honestly, I do think it’s important. He’s got such history. I don’t know what he

wants. Maybe we should I’ll circle with him if you want. I guess he was very open to you taking it. I. Also. I also thought because the H DC is involved in some of the stuff happening. I just think it might be good to have oversight. Of all of that in one place.

Who’s the H DC Hamilton. Oh. That’s great. Yeah. So I thought School Committee and H DC. Maybe Given that there is a definitely a connection here, so Um OK to be busy with But is that does that is? Are? You Feeling? Overwhelmed? Um, no, because honestly, I think I’ve

transitioned that spreadsheet I created and they may be If. You weren’t so competent. This wouldn’t be a problem that you weren’t so competent. This wouldn’t be a problem, Please. You must be hungry. You’re trying to rush. Um and we don’t have to vote on this. It’s. It’s more to sit with it. I’m gonna send, I’ll send an

updated list to the folks that weren’t here and then, But. I will. I mean I’d wanna know when the next stuff is. I don’t know if I can just show up. I do wanna get up to speed on everything on it probably makes sense. Um All right. Uh, any

new business Three A. I think we need we have got. I mean, I Think. Certainly the the, um The conversations that came up today about the you know, updating folks on the this that and the other, but I know that, uh, there was, uh, an event

held at the, um The Legion this week last week. Uh, that was very well attended. Um, I’m grateful that community members are getting out there and and speaking about it, But I again. I think we We need to either be in those conversations or part of those conversations? Um And.

Maybe it’s a matter of having counsel come and talk about the law. I think we’re we’re planning to do that. As I said. We are having a planning session for public community Forum about three a about the school feasibility about, uh, you know, Kind of like everything that we’re we’re

facing. We’re gonna try to focus that agenda a little bit and may wind up needing to be more than one meeting. Uh, we, You know several years ago, we did one about water. Um Water planning, and it was well attended and well received and kind of quelled people’s concerns that we weren’t paying

attention and didn’t know what we were doing. So, let’s We’ll try to do that with some of these other items. So do you know I? I think it’s a really good idea to have community forums about the three A. I also think That. It’s important that we present um multi Um, opinions, right? III. I know

where the select board and we’re rep. We’re here for the town, but I think the town can have just like can you can have more than one opinion of saying, OK. Here’s a lot. Here’s what we have to comply with. I think we need to think about. So. What does it mean if we comply?

What are the financials. I Think John? McGrath came to that, Um, meeting that was held last week, and he To be well. He talked about the, uh um Benefit risk benefit reward cost analysis and I think that’s important. So. If. We present something to the community. We should present

the whole picture. Working on it. Yeah and I and I think one of the valuable things that’s come from the conversations over the last week is because of the way the process works. It doesn’t immediately. Occur to us to just say no. Right? And. I think what the public is expecting is a spectrum whereby

one of the responses is Absolutely not. We will not do this. And. What does that entail? And? Then there’s all the way over to. Absolutely. Yes. What does that entail? And that’s the you know, I think the scare tactic that we’ve sort of seen. And. Then there’s the middle. Now. I recognize that the middle there’s a

sentiment that the state will not negotiate, but I think we’re seeing through form based coding. We’re seeing through some of the challenges that they might and so I think one of the things we have to talk about is how we present out those options and no can be an option, right? As long as we

know what no means and also point out the financial Cost to the town if we decide to go along with 731 apartments, I mean it’s not just 731 people. It’s three times that And What. Does that mean for our resources, and what are the

costs to the town? Um, but what are the risks to the town if we don’t comply? So, so I think we should present a a full picture? I think sometimes I get a little cranky, thinking that we’re going to be just a goody two shoes. Who were gonna say

what we have to do. I mean that that would be my request for any form that we put on. All, right? Um I would love to entertain. I, a And. I’ll second, that all in favor I. Good night, everyone. Thanks for coming before you leave my