comes like this. folks, it’s 9 o’clock not surprisingly, we have a quorum, so I start the preliminaries, um, you’re still checking folks in start any articles until Everybody’s been checked in, but I think we should get underway, so. Thank you. There’s 2 seats right here I’m not gonna I’m say on the

end because I, I know I’m not a sitter so OK, good morning Good morning. This is your first grade teacher said that means quiet down. Thank you very much. The Constable has confirmed that the warrant for the annual town meeting has been properly posted. The town clerk has informed me there is a quorum present this annual town

meeting of the town of Hamilton is now open. My name is Bill Bower and I’m the town moderator. Welcome to the April 5th, 2025 annual town meeting and thank you for coming. To assist me with the vote counting if necessary. Yeah. I have appointed Ed Weldon as assistant moderator in the

overflow. We’ll start as we always do with the pledge of allegiance to those who can please stay. And you may be aware, this is the we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. And The mass mother town meeting was very instrumental in the Revolution. So the Massachusetts moderators Association developed a, a,

brief statement that I’d like to read now. So Picture me in a dry corn hat. In our current practice of local participatory democracy we maintain and renew a tradition of self-government practice report and years by gathering together today, we honor and embrace the town meetings of 250 years ago.

They were the local democracies that by their nature taught Americans the virtues and responsibilities of self-government. It was through the conduct of town meetings that the colonial American public embraced the inalienable right of self-determination. Independent of the British Empire’s control, which in turn sparked a revolt and fueled the revolution. Voices then raised

actions taken financial support committed and lives and liberties pledged at many town meetings in the Commonwealth remain our worthy heritage. Thank you I’d like to start with some general reminders first, if you’re a registered voter in Hamilton, you should have picked up a voting clicker which looks like this. If you

haven’t and wish to vote, then I ask you to get one now. You do need, as will be explained why, you do need to designate. Where do you intend to go. From room or from the Or cafeteria. Uh, please turn your cell phone to silent. You need to take or

make a call, please leave the meeting to do so. We welcome non-voters to town meeting but do ask that you sit in the visitor’s area which is located in the back left section of the auditorium. So it’ll be easier to know who is able to vote and

back up in that corner able to vote and back up in that corner. Thank you able to vote and back up in that corner. Uh, I’d like to introduce the people who are sitting up in front, so you all know who they are. Tom McAneny, KPR, Town council. Corin kale, town clerk, Joe Deelowitz, town manager. Wendy Markowitz.

Finance director. Caroline Bolo. Selectboard chair. Bill Wilson, select board. To Myers select board. and selector. Rosemary Kennedy selector. John McGrathinpo chair. Alex Rendell’s and um. Chris Wolston and John Cruling and. I’ve asked non-resident town officials and those assisting the select board of Finance Committee to be present here. So they may be available to answer questions. Members of

the press and Video crew have also been allowed to be present. Hope you’ve all read and brought your copy of the warrant. If you did not, there may still be some extra copies up front. The agenda for the meeting is to warrant it was prepared by the select board.

To bring an item agenda item before the meeting. I’ll recognize a member of the sponsoring board, committee or individual so they can make a motion. If the motion is seconded, I’ll recognize the proponent to speak to you about it. Once they are done, I’ll open the discussion up to, I

Sure that we have an orderly meeting if you wish to speak, you must first ask me to recognize you to save time, I ask that you already be standing at one of the microphones, so they’re. 2 microphones at the end of each final year. If you’re in the overflow room, you’ll be able

to hear and see everything, but you’ll need to come in to the auditorium if you wish to make a comment and then returned to the auditorium to vote. So the area I’m sorry. Once you recognized, please state your name and street address. We’ll use the same rules in today’s town meeting that we use at

every town. town meeting time. You’ll have 3 minutes to make comments. To ask questions about the motion. When you have 3 minutes is almost up. I’ll let you know so that you can wrap up your comments if you continue to speak once your time has elapsed, my obligation to maintain a fair and efficient meaning requires that

I move on to the next speaker. Your comments and questions must be within what is called the four corners of the motion. Please remember that we are in a legislative session for the town of Hamilton. Well, we can all agree that spirited debate is welcome recognize that being cordial and respectful is a

priority for the efficiency of the meeting and that every person who rises to debate a motion as an equal right to be heard. is sexually expected at this meeting, like an all town meetings, people will refrain from making remarks of a personal nature. On any town school officials or any person

who is in favor of or against the motion. And we’ll just comment on the merits of the motion. Again, to ensure that the meeting is run efficiently, and he comments or questions must be directed to the moderator rather than any individual or town official. I deem inappropriate and they ask

the person making the motion or another town official. To respond. relate to the question. Please no applause, cheering, booing, or any other conduct that will disrupt or delay the meeting. All motions to amend. must be submitted to the town clerk in writing. If you need assistance in framing a motion to amend town council some

assistance. No more than one amendment may be pending at the same time, the vote is taken first taken on the amendment and then on the main motion. As I mentioned, when a vote is taken, we will be using the electronic voting clickers. in all its Demonstrate the use of the clippers in just a moment.

I don’t like that we have trouble with the new. Technology Revert to the use of voter cards ask your I will then decide visually whether there is the necessary majority. 2/3. I am in doubt 7 voters questioned immediately after I declared the outcome. I’ll have the both counted but I No.

OK, sorry, um. now allowed show Deallowitz to demonstrate the use of the clickers. Good morning. Uh, for those standing in the back, we still have about 15 or 20 seats in the 2 for 2 or 3 goals, so come on down and find a seat. Next uh.

C. So All right, so you all have your clickers? You hear me? The button. Yes and no. I’m gonna ask you a question, and then you’re going to answer the question yes or no. Do you like vanilla ice cream when the moderator opens the voting, you begin to vote. Do you like vanilla ice cream? Voting is

now open 15 seconds. OK. OK. Voting is closed. Wow, very vanilla crowd here this morning. I love it. When when we get into the articles, um can you go go out front and they’ll give you a new one. If anybody had problems with their clicker, they don’t believe their vote

was counted. Go out to the front and you can get out of the clicker. We have. When we get to the vote, when we get into the actual articles, um, because with this larger crowd, which is great, um, the,, the,, the, uh, system does run a little more slowly, so I first few articles that are probably

likely to be no please Folks are asking how you know if you clicker is working. First and foremost, if you see uh a lot of folks will see like a, a network. Ion. Do you see a network icon that shows that there’s power and connectivity. Do we see these? Yes, and then if you click your vote, you’ll

see an A or a B or something will appear on there. That’s an indicator that it is that it is accepting the vote and that you can see it. If your screen is blank at any point, not at any point during the day, I mean, it may get tired like the rest

of us. Um, but if when you press buttons, nothing happens, that is a cause for concern, in which case just make your way to the back. Grab a new clicker, uh, from the folks at the desks. You do not need the press said if you’re an anxious person and

that makes you feel safe. I get that. You can’t press send. There will be not a negative consequence. It will not out twice. It’s just, you know, some of us eat a little extra something. Oh, as Joseph. Also, as you’re voting during the meeting, the the these grids will be up, it’ll rotate

through the different numbers of you can see the number on your clicker, you’ll know, right? what um, so on the first couple of articles that are likely to be usually a noncontroversial, I’m going to, uh, have a 30 minute time period to vote see about 32nd time period about I think I

just had the big one. And we’ll see how that goes, but when we get to the controversial articles, um, I’ll, I’ll allow a little extra time, so. Um OK, um, Before we, uh, get into the, uh, the warrant, um, we do have a couple of, uh, Folks from

town employees or board members who are retiring and we want to, uh, recognize them briefly. So, Joe Meowitz. I just like everybody in the auditorium, pleased to take a moment to appreciate our retiring police chief Stevens. You I guess. Thank you. And I recognize John McGrath. Hey folks, great to

see you we have a big turnaround. Um, I’m gonna ask. My buddy next to me to stand up. Uh This is John Coolidge. Um, he’s been on Fincom for 8 years, 9 years. Something like that, um, he’s decided to step down, so I just wanted to Thank him He is taught a lot of us, the

ins and outs of published town works, how the finances work. A great coach, great friend, and um. Happy to have served. Congratulations. OK, yeah, we’re ready to get into the articles, but I just want to. Oh, OK. I recognize Tom Myers. Morning, everyone. Tom Myers, Hamilton’s board. I’m gonna

provide a statement from the town as an update on the MBTA communities law or otherwise known as 3A. Uh, so just by some background information in January of 2021, Governor Baker signed into law, legislation known as the MBTA Communities law requiring community served by the MBT MBTA to zone for multi-family housing. The law requires municipalities to have

at least one zoning district of reasonable size where multi-family housing is permitted by right. In the assuming months and years, the state’s executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities promulgated associated regulations that include specific requirements for each municipality regulated under the law, including the minimum size of the zones. The law has been controversial since its

inception and was challenged in court by the town of Milton in which Hamilton filed an amicus brief in support. In January of 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the MBTA community’s Section 3A law is constitutional, that compliance with the law is mandatory and that the Attorney General has the authority to enforce the law on

municipalities. The ruling determined constitutional questions surrounding the law and clarify that noncompliance is not second result in a loss of some grant funds, but also enforcement actions brought in superior court. Governor Healy and Attorney General Campbell have vowed to aggressively pursue the enforcement of the law. The Supreme Judicial Court

also ruled that the laws associated guidelines were not properly established in order that the state adopt regulations through the required process mandated by state law. Shortly after the ruling was issued, the state issued emergency regulations that largely mirrored the previous guidelines, but with new deadlines from municipalities not yet compliant with the law.

The town of Hamilton submitted comments on the draft regulations to the state requesting modifications to account for conditions unique to Hamilton and similarly situated small communities. Those comments are posted to the town website. The town also submitted an action plan for compliance as required under the regulations, subsequently approved by the state.

Hamilton is one of 54 municipalities that submitted an approved action plan. Approximately 119 other municipalities have already adopted a zoning to meet the requirements of the law that have been approved or under review by the state. More recently, the state auditor in responding to requests from several municipalities determined that the law to be

an unfunded mandate, but there’s been no determination yet of the cost associated with the compliance. The town in parallel with compliance efforts. It’s working with town council to receive adequate compensation from the state. Importantly, town council has advised the town and the state auditor herself is stating that this finding does not maturely

impact the town’s compliance with Hamilton’s law, with the compliance with the law. So Hamilton’s response. The town is dedicated to providing residents an opportunity to have their say on this important matter to the consideration of the potential zoning amendment to obtain compliance with the law. The select board has scheduled a

special town meeting for Thursday, June 26th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. for this purpose. The town is also committed to advancing a proposal that does not overwhelm the ability of the community to provide a high quality services and which is not fundamentally alter the existing character of Hamilton. Several municipalities that have adopted MBTA communities

compliance zoning, including our neighbors Manchester by the Sea and Tops Fields have not received any new applications for multi-family development under MBTA compliant zoning, despite these provisions being in effect for many months or even years in some communities. In the meantime, representatives of the select board and planning board are working with the town and the

town’s consultant to draft an initial proposal for 3A compliance zoning, the proposal will be submitted to the planning and select boards for a public review process, including public hearings to occur in April and May. It is likely that the proposed zoning will include 2 to 3 areas in town where multi-family zoning will be allowed by right,

subject to sighted review, conformity to design standards in the town center in conformance with other requirements. include a review and approval of Title 5 subject glands. We hope that you will lend your voice this important process and be sure to reserve June 26, 2025 for Specialel meeting on your calendars.

Thank you. You Um, I see that our state representative Kristen Kastner is here. Uh, would you like to The. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Very briefly, um, good morning. I’m Kristen Casner. I’m your state representative and I’m also a fellow Hamilton resident. And I’m proud to have supported, um, and secured funding for this district on many items of

public safety, education, water, um, water infrastructure, other infrastructure, um, as well as the arts, um, and as well as getting the recent tax senior tax deferral enacted last session. Um, this session we’re just beginning the FY 26 budget process as we are here locally today and there’s a lot of

uncertainty looming above, but we also know that all local budgets are very much stressed and we will do all. we can in our control to pull the levers to ensure that we have vital, um, vital local age student per pupil student funding as well as um provide full funding for circuit breaker. Um, so thank

you all for being here today. This is the biggest town meeting I have ever attended in the time I’ve lived here in town, and thank you all to all the boards and committees for preparing, um, us today. Thank you so much. And my door is always open, please reach out.

Thank you. Um, apparently, uh, folks in the cafeteria or having some difficulty hearing, so please keep your conversation to a minimum and uh we should all, including me, speak up when you’re at the microphone. Uh, we’re ready to get into the agenda, but I just, before then, I just want to

check where we stand in terms of checking people in. I think OK. I think we’re Ready ready to begin. Yeah Article 2025. 41-2 reports. Recognize Bill Wilson. Good morning everybody. Mm OK, there it is. All right, good morning, everybody, and thanks for coming. Uh, what a great crowd. Just a reminder,

the select board does meet every, uh, the first Monday and 3rd of every month, you’re all welcome. Um, let’s get to work. I move that the reports of town officers and committees be received and placed on file. Is there a second, this is a fairly standard article, uh, it provides that the town pay for

prior year bills, uh, prior year ended on June 30th. OK. Sorry, I take it back on my head. No discussion. OK, are there any questions or comments? Uh go to a boat, I’m going to allow 45 seconds to vote and see how that goes. Voting is open now. Which one And Mhm

Right to allow a few more seconds since we’re uh Still a bit away from the number of check-ins at this point. I know Even if it’s not a question that you care about, you make sure you’re voting. Apologies uh through the moderator. OK. Well, if you just remind people to vote even if it’s a question

that they’re not that they don’t care about. I know some people said they’re only voting for one thing, but we are checking the numbers. For clickers. OK, but, but I, I, I just want to be certain that OK. Voting is now closed. Excepting reports tends not to be controversial. Let’s get it’s not about the controversy, me,

me,, me, me, I’m Ma’am, ma’am, I haven’t recognized you. Let’s get moderator, No, no, I’ll, I’ll recognize you when I, when I’ve completed the, OK, thank you. OK, uh, So. OK, the voters 6:40 a 39A, the motion passes when I so declare. OK. I recognize his boat. This is Ron, I was not suggesting that the

vote was controversial. I was suggesting that people have said that they’re only voting for one thing and we’re looking to make sure that the number of clickers that have been brought into the room are represented on this vote to make sure. That we know that they’re all online.

So I was making sure that everyone was voting, even if they didn’t care about it so that we could see if we got to the total of 800 clickers that have been checked in. I think it’s, I think we both have the same goal, and that’s my job to

do that, and I’m tempting to and all comments. Go through the moderator. And so, OK, um, No So Mr. Moderator I recognized I don’t speaking to a microphone. I don’t think people can hear, can hear you. I recognize you ex post facto. Thank you so much. I just want to confirm, you said we had 800

clickers that had been registered. Have checked in. My question is, we have 679 votes for this current. Motion. Are we certain that the other 10031. Is that correct? No, 21. Sorry, guys. Um, are simply deciding not to vote on this, or do we need to make sure that the, the

votes being counted in the other room. Everything’s all set. Well, that’s is the purpose of extending the vote. I mean, we can’t go and ask people individually, um, did you vote? And if not, why, why not? I think The You know, you, you have the same issue. Well, we had electronic voting.

Some people didn’t vote on or whatever. She’s right. Yeah, we’ll, we’ll scroll down. All right. OK. OK, now, OK. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Yeah, I, so scroll up. OK, that, that’s your, your 3 minutes is up on that. What I want to make sure of is that no one here is going to challenge future votes

because of clickers not being in service. I want to make sure that everyone feels confident that they’re. You’re right I had to go 13 article for consent motion. Um I will now read the list of articles to be taken up and voted on as one motion. If you want to ask questions or make comments on

an article. Shout out hold as the list is read. Any the article that is held will be deleted from the consent motion and taken up and considered according to its place on the warrant. Articles 2-1. Oh In Article 2-1 is hold. Article 2-5. Article 26. Article 27. Medical to their shade.

210. Was nice Article 3-1. Article 3-3. And Article 3-4. Uh, just before we delete, uh, Article 2-1 from the list that was the wrong one sorry. I’m. No, I thought, OK, well, uh, what, what, what. Uh, one. So, let’s start, let’s start over. The list. OK, ma’am, just let me so we want to be just so that the

record is clear here. And The proposed articles to be held. to be taken up under the consent agreement are 2-1. 2-5 2-6 27. 28. 2-10 3-1. 3-3 Mhm 3-4. there a hold on any of those. No. OK, uh, I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. Good morning, everybody. Thank you all for being here. I move that the

articles included on the list of articles for consent motion for this 2025 annual town meeting, a copy of which has been delivered to the town clerk to be filed with the minutes of this meeting. By one vote, each motion to be deemed a separate action under the warrant article having the same

corresponding number. Accepting those motions held. Is there a second? I OK, Ms. Kennedy. Discussion. OK. As we typically do in every town meeting. We seek to include a number of routine but necessary articles that are not controversial in one consent motion. This allows us to limit the duration of the meeting so that we can give

more time to issues that are more likely to engender debate. Thank you. any questions or comments. On the consent motion. To a vote. Anyone from the if you were in the Cafeteria, the overflow room, you need to come into this room if you have a question or comment, so I’ll wait a few seconds to see if

someone comes in. OK, I think we can move to a vote. I’m going to allow a minute just to see where we are. So voting is open now. OK, I I Voting is closed. Before I announced the vote, I’m going to check with the assistant moderator and the

uh overflow room to see if there’s been any. editions. OK You know. Just And That Well, there’s no expiration date on that one. No, but if everybody votes for that. school a OK right Yeah OK, um, The vote. I 664, yes, 37, no. The motion passes, and I so declaire. Um OK, so going forward, Um Told

that there, there’s still, there are issues of, um, folks in the overflow room. Can’t, can’t hear too well, so when we come to the vote, That they can see. They can see me for better or worse. I’m gonna, when I, when I announce that voting is

open, I’m going to raise my hand. And then um Go to raise it again when voting is closed. So we’ll see how that. That goes OK, Article 2-2, prior year bills. I, I recognize Bill Wilson. OK. I move that the town transfer from free cash, the sum of 15,000. $132.73 to pay the following unpaid bills.

The cellar waste 3760. While our Office of Jonathan Whitton, 30355. Meridia, 4500 National Grid. $1,701.96. Robert E. Puff, $1000725. Russell Camp,, $90.77. Is there a second? Uh, I just know, uh, the select board and The finance committee both recommended favorable actions unanimously. Uh, Any discussion Questions, comments. A fairly

standard article, um, it was not in impact uh impact any tax rate it is paid for by free cash and just allows the uh the town to pay for invoices that were not received or processed by year end. Any questions or comments from the Meeting OK, this, uh, cause. Prior year bills requires a 4/5. Uh, in

favor. So I’m gonna now allow a minute to vote. Voting is now open. that Yeah Yeah Thank you Like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Voting is now closed. The vote is 739 yay, 23A. That’s more than 4/5. The motion passes and I so declare. Article 2-3. This is our annual general town and school on the bus appropriation

article. I’m now. Um OK, yes, I, I recognize Eric Tracy. Superintendent of schools to report on the school district budget. Mr. Chasey Somebody Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Moderator for the opportunity to address the citizens of Hamilton. I’d also like to thank the members of the school committee, town manager, selecting finance

boards and the many others who have helped to prepare the school district budget for you today. I’d also like to thank our assistant superintendent of Business and Finance, Vinnie Leoni, for his tireless efforts to develop and present a detailed transparent budget process. The overall increase in the operating costs of the school district budget this

year is 4.53%. The school district and town boards have continued to improve transparency each year through joint meetings of boards and chairpersons so that each entity’s needs are in the open and fully understood. Next slide. Several items to highlight within the FY 26 approved budget, which was approved on February 6, 2025.

This budget returns 773,000 back to the towns for the fourth year in a row, plus an additional 1.3 million to offset increases in negotiated salaries for our staff. It also allows a $300,000 deposit into our OA or other post-employment benefits, uh, employment, uh, account. This year we see more than $400,000 increase in special education course costs

specifically for outer district tuition and out of district transportation. Our Essex County retirement contribution has increased to 146,000 and our health insurance premiums are up 8%, which sounds like a lot, but many of our surrounding communities are in the 20% range. Utility increases of 40% and the budget also continues to reduce

athletic user fees for our families. We also incorporate an assessment shift for the first time in many years of 138,000 towards the town of Wenham. And then, and finally a reduction in the Hamilton debt service of $108,000. Next slide. This slide provides an overview of the operating budget and breaks down the major components, not only not

including debt service. As we have noted, we are committed are committing to over 2 million to reducing the assessments to the towns. Next slide. Here is a more detailed look at the FY 26 budget, including debt service. We use the total operating expenditures of $46.5 million and at our debt service, which is currently $1.96 million.

Then we subtract our offsets and other revenues, giving us a final total assessment for the towns of $38,94841,115. Next slide, please. In 2022 we established a capital stabilization fund with the voters’ approval and now are required to report annually on the changes. This fund can be used to offset related capital expenses. To date, no money has

expended since it was opened. In April 2023, we added $1.69 million to the fund, specifically for the athletic facilities improvement project. As the project comes to a close early this August. We will expend the money in the next few months. The balance at the end of the last fiscal year, FY 24 is $1.7 million due to a

gain of just under $70,000 in interest. Next slide. This chart represents the budget as it’s presented to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It shows a better a breakdown of the 4.3 gross increase in the district operating budget, and it’s important to note that we started the budget process by

examining the expenditures for the last 3 years and continuously reducing areas that were consistently underspent. Our most significant increases are specific to contract requirements and increased maintenance costs. Next slide, please. This final slide shows the 5-year average of the district operating budget increase, which is 3.87%. The previous five-year average of last year was 4.6%. Next slide.

Thank you for trusting me to represent the students, the families, the faculty, and the staff of the Hamilton One and Regional School District. During the last year, the school committee has successfully negotiated 5 different contracts to try to stay competitive with local districts. Through their work and the trust developed through those processes, we avoided a,

a costly teacher strike. I am committed to continuing the work to improve our schools and our school facilities. I will continue to note that I truly believe that our schools are the glue that binds our communities. Now more than ever, we must continue to work together and commit to keeping keeping our communities strong.

Up to date and competitive to meet an ever changing future. We must continue to strive for the best for our students as it will ultimately drive improvements for us all. I appreciate the opportunity to present the FY 26 budget today. Go generals. Thank you, Mr. Tracy. I recognize Joe Demeowitz, town manager, to

report on the town budget. Good morning everyone. First of all, as I start, I would just like to thank our department heads. Our Finon, our select board, the annual budget process begins every year in September. And it starts with getting priorities from our FICO and our select board starts with assessing the town’s needs for

delivery of service and it’s always focused on making sure we deliver you a balanced budget. Today we’re delivering you a balanced budget proposal. Um Next up Budget conditions for FR 26. Or this above me. Um, we have annually strive to adhere to our budget goals and objectives. Avoid a proposition 2.5 override plan for known

retirements, improve our call firefighter response and retention, improve operations and planning and land use and health and human services and make other targeted operational changes to improve efficiency, stability, and sustainability. The total expenditures of the FI26 budget are $42,915,592 which represents an increase. Over the current fiscal year of just 1.07%. Town expenses in

this year’s budget are $16,762,008 representing a decrease of $460,964. This is largely due to not spending as much on capital as we have spent in the, in the current year. All operating expenses are covered by the raised tax levy. One time expenses, capital lease purchases, capital improvements, and a portion of unfunded liabilities

are covered through the use of free cash. Capital improvements in this year’s budget are $762,00125 representing a decrease from last year of over $848,000. Financial policies for our free cash, general stabilization, capital stabilization, capital spending requirements, and water enterprise retained earnings are all in compliance. So this means we’re showing. The bond rating agencies that were being

fiscally prudent and we’re abiding by our policies that we set to make sure that we’re looking out for your best interests. So, I’m going to invite our finance director Wendy Markowitz up to talk about um the revenue and expenses summaries. I recognized when the Markowitz. Good morning. I’d like to echo what Joe said, and I would like

to, uh, first thank Joe, the select board and the Fin Kong for their guidance and support through this budget process, and I’d like to thank all the department heads for their collaboration in making this, uh, successful budget process. So we’ll start with the revenue and other sources, uh, other financing sources. The total tax levy raised is $36,549,661.

Um, state aid with an increase of 7.8% is $1,190,541. Local receipts remain the same from this year at $2,817,065 and the transfer of other available funds, which is your enterprise, enterprise, uh, indirect funds of $5021,659. Free cash use to balance this budget is a total of $1,836,666 for a total

revenue financing uses of 42,915,592 or 1.07%. Next slide please. If you look at the operating funding sources, you can see that the tax levy for the town of Hamilton is 89% of the income. Local receipts is 7%, state aid, 3% and the transfer from indirect is 1%. Next slide. So the expenditure summary. It’s important to

understand that we have 5 union contracts. So when I go through these mostly your increase are related to the, to the union contract increases in salaries. General government of 2,737,600 with an increase of 1.73% public safety,, $4328,861 an increase of 0.33%. Department of Public Works,, $2,543,614 with an increase of 2.48%.

Health and Human Services,, $398,069 with an increase of just under 8%. Culture and recreation,, $1,193,926 with a decrease of a little over 0.5%. Total unclassified, which is a total of 4,797,814. Exist of uh personnel contract reserves of 80,000 with a decrease of 7%. Your retirement, uh, this is a state assessment at 1,691,946,

or an increase of 15.69%. Group health and life insurance at $1,245,881. uh Hamilton was subject to an 18.9% increase. Medical and unemployment at 149,690, an increase of 8.5%. The OPEP fund remains the same with the same transfer of 125,000 to continue to fund the, uh, unfunded liability. Celebrations of $14,880 1.93% increase. State assessments, 266,948 at 5.72% increase.

Property and casualty insurance,, $351,614 or an increase of 2.5%. Other financing uses, this is the transfer of meals tax to HDC of $78,702 an increase of 35.69%. Um, and then total debt service of 558,153, a decrease of 4.66% and transfers of general stabilization and capital stabilization, a decrease of 26% for 235,000. We did not

need to transfer to general stabilization this year. Your total capital improvements of 7,662,000. No, this is part of the budget. Just. Uh,762,125 was, uh, a decrease of 31%. The total balanced budget of 42,915 $95092. Next slide. If you look at the operating expenditure use. You can see that, um, education is 62% of the budget.

General government is 6% of the budget, public safety and 10% of the budget, Department of Public Works, 6% Health and Human Services at 1%, culture and recreation, 3% and total unclassified is 11% of the budget. Now if you want me to do something that’s. OK, you were right for me. OK. So, if

you turn to the last slide, please, we’re gonna skip over capital improvements right now. Um, We wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the free cash use, uh, with the reserves. So the certification of free cash on September 18th was $4.5 million and a special town meeting, 500,000, uh, was

appropriated to the town hall building project which left the remainer, uh, a remainder of $4 million. With the total reserve, uh, policy of $2 million. We had $1,993,675 to, um, help balance this budget. So then you can see the line items $15,000133 to prior your bills, 762,125 capital expenditures, 37,0829 to retirement payouts as a one-time fee...

$111,000 712 dollars to fire department lease purchases, that’s Partially capital, 125,000 to OPEP transfer. We’re supplementing $550,000 this year to the pension transfer... $15,000 to a one-time general code software and $235,000 to uh increase the capital stabilization. Thank you. Thank you. I will now read each appropriation and for any item

a voter would like to discuss separately, please shout out old. 2737. $1600. For General town government. 4 million $328,0861 for public safety. 25 million, 669. $983 for Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District. $483,0601 for Essex North Shore Agricultural and technical School District. $2,543,0614 for Department of Public Works. $398,00069 for health and human services. 1, $193,926 for culture and

recreation. 4300. $4,359,00111 for unclassified. Total 41 million. $714,00765. I recognize Alex Rendells. Good morning. I move that the town raise and appropriate the sum of $41,224 and transfer the sum of $714,541 from free, free cash for a total appropriation of $41,714,0765 for schools and all other town expenses which are set forth in the 2026

fiscal year budget Appendix B of the 2025 Appendix book Appendix C of the 2025 Appendix book. With the corrections read by the moderator accepting those items held. Is there a second? Thank you. The main budget appropriation we’re considering today is approximately $41.7 million up from, up 3.7% from last year. This increased primarily stems from necessary adjustments and

personnel expenses, including new public safety labor contracts and rising costs for retirement and insurance. On the school side, our assessment for the Hamilton Wena Regional School District has increased by 3.94%, driven largely by recent teacher contract settlements. The use of excess and deficiency funds helps moderate this increase, but Final acknowledges that this approach may not be sustainable

long term. Looking forward, we expect ongoing financial pressures, particularly around personnel costs that typically rise faster than our levy limit under Proposition 2.5. Therefore, continued fiscal discipline and careful planning will be essential to meet those challenges in call unanimously recommends favorable action on this article. Thank you Are there are any questions or comments from the meeting.

I’ll wait a few seconds to see if anyone from the, uh, cafeteria. Wants to come in and Conner I think we’re ready for a vote. And then to allow a minute on this. When I raised my hand, voting will start. When I raised it again. Voting stops. Voting is now open. You Voting is now closed. The vote is

70587A. The motion passes, and I so declare. OK. Um I think again so we can if moving along, uh, if you’re in the overflow room and you have a question, um, perhaps you could move into the here and to the auditorium. Um And before we get, as soon as I call for a discussion so

that we can move things along a little bit. Thank you. Article 2-4 capital expenditures. I recognize Tom Myers. I’m I move that the town boat to one transfer the sum of $762,125 from free cash to fund the following purchases and projects identified in the fiscal year 2026 capital

projects plan, which is set forth at Appendix D of the 2025 Appendix book, including all incidental and related costs. Highway, roads and sidewalks, improvements, 350,000 facilities, buildings, COA building improvements, 61,000. Facilities, buildings, public safety buildings, improvements, 20,000. Facilities, buildings, Patton Park restrooms, 30,000. Library replaced 2nd air condenser 160,125. SUV cruiser,

71,000. Police replaced portable radios 67,000. And 2, transferring 90,000 for water enterprise fund retained earnings to purchase and equip a new pickup truck, including all incidental and related costs set forth in Appendix D of the 2025 Appendix book. Is there a second? Exactly Uh, just before you discuss this, Mr. Meyers is probably wax in

my ears, but I thought I heard you say 763 125, just to be clear, it’s 762, 125, correct? Like, so the library replaced the, the number one transfer the sum of uh. transfer the sum of 762,125 in free cash. OK. Uh, discussion. My Who’s going to take that. OK John McGrath.

I recognize John McGrath. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Uh, just a couple of quick comments. Um, Capital expenditures each year are the focus of the capital committee. It’s a group of 6 residents. Who work With the town manager. They talked to all the department heads, sort of one on one. They assess the

need and the cost. They then produce a thoughtful multi-year presentation. In a written Explanation, and they determined priorities. So basically the Amounts you see in front of you have passed through. 6 residents. The chairman of the Capitol Committee, Heather Ford works tirelessly for a couple of months packaging this up and

writing up an assessment. Is then passed to the town. They Take that input, it’s worked into the budget, it then goes to the Final. We review it, it then goes to the select board for approval. So it’s uh fairly rigorous and transparent process, and I want to thank the Capital Committee for all

the work that they’ve done. And uh The uh Capital amount is way more than we can spend every year, so it’s phased out over time, so, um, you know, we, we appreciate the work of the Capitalist Committee and Fin. Appro This unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Mode. some graph. Are there are any questions or comments? Hearing and seeing

none, I think we can move to a vote. This requires a majority. Approval Allow a minute. Voting is now open. Ready to go. I should have brought my harmonica. Voting is now closed. No Just Mhm OK, the most, the Oh, it is 712, 52 nay. The motion carries, and I so declare. Skip this one. 9 OK,

the next article is Article 29 the other articles were in the consent agenda. Uh Capital stabilization fund and this will require a 2/3 vote. I recognize uh John Crwich. I moved to the town, transferred the sum of $235,000 from free cash to the capital stabilization fund. Is there a second? OK, Mr. Crowledge. Do you challenge financial

policies require that we keep an amount in the capital stabilization fund, um, roughly equal to the annual asset depreciation for the town, which is around $1.7 million a couple of years ago we used funds from our capital capital stabilization fund, purchased a fire truck for approximately $700,000. So this transfer is part of a 3 year payback into

that fund. That will be completed with a similar transfer next year. Um, so everyone knows we’re using free cash for this transfer, so we’ll have no effect on your uh tax rate. Thank you OK, uh, this, uh, just note that the selectmen and the finance select board and the finance committee. Recommended favorable action unanimously.

Are there any questions or comments? So hearing none and seeing none, I think we’re ready to go to a vote. This requires a 2/3 of all. I’ll allow a moment of a minute for voting. Voting begins now. It was funny Yeah. the Yeah, that’s Yeah It’s I I’ll ask Voting is now closed.

That Thanks. The vote was 726, yay, 42 nay. More than 2/3 in favor. motion passes, and I so de Claire. Yeah Article 2-11. Hale one. OK. Hamilton Wyndham Regionals. I’m. OK. OK, before we take this up, um, And that Senator Bruce Starr is here if you’d like to. Make a few remarks to the meeting.

Recognize. Well, thank you, Mr. Moderator and through you to the members of town meeting. Uh, good afternoon. It’s good to be here with all of you and it’s good to see such robust participation in the decision making of this community. Uh, I will be extremely brief because

I know you have many important matters that are going to pend before this body, um, but I will say that the legislative delegation is working very hard right now, um, both in the House and the Senate to be able to develop a budget for the upcoming fiscal year and one of our absolute priorities in that

budget is being able to reformulate. The funding formula for our schools to ensure a higher percentage of reimbursement from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for K through 12 education and also to try to do the best we can to increase the state’s support for the cost of special education. Uh, we do that under extremely constrained financial

resources. Uh, we have a flattening curve with regard to the amount of revenue that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking in. However, the good news is that in the current fiscal We are approximately $800 million above our benchmark, which may give us a little bit of flexibility in

the face of what we see for the coming fiscal year in terms of declining revenue. All of that against the backdrop of incredible uncertainty at the federal level, uh, that does make it difficult to budget responsibly as we are required to do and as we’re obligated to do, I will close by saying that

uh once again uh we’re working very hard with the North Shore water resilience. Task force and making great progress to ensure that our watershed is protected, that the Ipswich River has adequate stream flows and that we have reliable drinking water supplies for the indefinite future. That is a collaborative effort, and I want to thank the town manager.

I want to thank everyone involved in uh Hamilton Town government for working together on that task force so that we can ensure that we have the water that we need for the future. That being said, again, I want to thank you. I wanna say that it’s an honor to represent you in the

Massachusetts State Senate, and hopefully, if we all continue to work together, uh, we can manage through the times that we’re in and get to be in the place that we want to be. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Senator Tarrer. um. Article 2-11. And one in Regional School District consolidated

Elementary school project. Uh I’ll just, before I recognize Mr. Wilson. the Select board Recommends favorable action for the to to one finance. And maybe recommend stay action 3 to 1. And uh Regional school district committee voted 5 to 1 to authorize the borrowing. I recognize Bill Wilson. I move

that the town approve Article 2-11 as printed in the warrant, provided that the approval of the district’s borrowing by this vote shall be subject to a contingent upon an affirmative vote of the town to exempt its allocable share of the amounts required for the payment of interest and principal on said

borrowing from the limitations of taxes imposed by mass general law chapter 59, Section 21C. Proposition 2.15. And that the amount of borrowing authorized by the district shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the district and the MSBA. there a second.

OK OK, uh, I recognize Eric Tracy. Superintendent of schools. Good morning again, Mr. Moderator, thank you for the opportunity to present the next warrant item that Hamilton Wyndham Elementary School project, which is designed for all of our elementary students in grades 1 through 5. I’d like to take a moment to thank all

the members of the school building committee, JCJ architectural firm and our owner’s project manager PMA for their dedication to and work on the project. Next slide, please. The process began with an invite into the elig eligibility period from the MSBA, the Massachusetts School Building Administration in March of 2022. With 4, after

submitting 4 statements of interest for the Cutler school. At the town meeting of October 1, 2022. The town voted to approve $1.25 million for the feasibility study portion of the project. We began with several visioning sessions incorporating over 40 community members, including students, teachers, administrators, parents, and business people. Through that process, we determined that the elementary

learner, the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District Mission Vision and our core values would drive the development of a high-quality learning space and learning communities. We also considered grade configurations in the 4 enrollment options, the mass school building administration issued to the district, and we have attended or hosted over 20

community events throughout the last year. Next slide, please. This project has several goals, including equitable access for all elementary students. We want our elementary schools to have places, spaces, and resources to support all of our students’ success. In our school district, it’s essential to create a sense of community and by doing this, we’ve been

able to design a school with a centralized community feel while also keeping our academic areas flexible. The design of this facility is a direct attempt to support the small school field while also creating a stronger sense of community for our students and our staff. Learning neighborhoods will allow us to improve peer connections.

Currently kids in first grade at the Bucher may never cross paths with the kid at the cutler or the winter, unless they’re involved in an outside activity or sport. Creating a sense of belonging is imperative so that kids feel comfortable and want to be in our schools and in our

classrooms. The integration of play came out of our conversations because of the research around the value of play and the understanding that children need play to develop strong social and emotional skills. Another goal is student choice and student agency. It’s very clear to us that not all children learn similarly.

Having places and spaces where kids can go or connect allows them that choice. We learned during COVID-19 that we can develop learning opportunities outside of the four walls of the classroom. We’ve designed several outdoor spaces that can be used as classroom spaces, and there are lots of natural light throughout the building, not just in some areas.

Dedicated spaces for library, music, STEM, physical education, the arts open doors to students exploring all of their interests. Within those spaces, we’ve developed flexible opportunities for kids to determine when, where and with whom they will grow and they will learn. Next slide, please. Learning neighborhoods are a response to the number of

inquiries received about the new school building being too large. Each learning neighborhood will house one grade, but has the adaptability to house multiple grades as well. As we’ve demonstrated in many of our presentations, the learning neighborhood allows for an entire grade to work together to have flexible embedded learning spaces to receive interventions and appropriate spaces, not in

hallways, not in stages, and not in closets. The small learning communities is also enhance teacher planning and collaboration with grades specific teachers can get together to develop, manage, and grow the curriculum to offer fantastic learning opportunities for all of our children. Most importantly, this new school facility gives us dedicated spaces for specialized classrooms like the

TLC program, the, the, the learning centers, the castle classroom, the ILP classroom, and the language-based classroom throughout the building. There are also appropriate spaces for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech and language support. Next slide please. The Heart of the learning neighborhood is a large hallway that allows breakout opportunities for

individual work, for group work, and presentations to multiple classes at one time. These spaces include grade level appropriate libraries and sight lines from within the classroom so the staff can have eyes on all students. Next slide, please. If you’ve attended any of our community events, you’ve heard me speak about building security. Currently there is

limited security at the front door of all three of our elementary schools. Once an individual is allowed in the building, they can move throughout the, throughout without reporting to the main office. Security starts before the front door in this new building and will enable us to manage people coming and going without ever letting him into

learning spaces. There are clean sight lines and security options throughout the building to close off either individual neighborhoods or sections of the building in case of an intruder. Outside of regular school hours, the building can have a higher level of security to limit access to all academic areas while also allowing for safe community use. Unlike many

of our elementary schools, someone in the front office can clearly see who’ll be entering the building. I have outside doors will be secure and all outside windows will have a higher level of security glass developed. For schools after Sandy Hook. Next slide. I spoke earlier about community access and community spaces, which are important outcomes from our

visioning process. The gymnasium, the stage, and the cafeteria are all designed to be used individually or as one large unit to allow for many different instructions and, and all types of community events. Many of our schools host youth sports, adult sports, meetings, and other evening activities. These spaces are designed to support the community’s needs

while also keeping the academic of segments of the building secure. Next slide, please. The outdoor spaces were designed to support outdoor play and learning. The perimeter road around the facility has gates on either side that locked down after the school has begun. A 1st and 2nd grade play area is

right outside their wing. It’ll be with and it will be designed with age-appropriate activities. There’s a baseball field and the opportunity to have 5 youth soccer fields, 3 on top of the baseball field and 2 on the far side of the parking lot. There’s a basketball court, a wall ball, which I have learned

recently that it is very big in our elementary schools. Still not very good at it. Next slide, please. Another factor to consider when a new, with a new building is the idea of healthy classrooms and learning spaces. The entire building will be energy efficient. We’ll have acoustics that are appropriate to meet the needs of the

children in the room, be made from healthy materials that don’t off gas throughout the day, and they’ll have a high standard of indoor quality air filtration and movement also maintaining thermal comfort throughout the school year. If you’ve been in our schools during the heat of July, uh, excuse me, June, you’ll know that the climate control spaces

are imperative for our staff and our students to learn comfortably. Natural light is used throughout using large windows and skylights and reflecting on that will reflect on the ceilings and floors to brighten our rooms. Next slide, please. To demonstrate that I have behind me a rendering of a classroom. In this new facility, the classrooms have large

windows to let in plenty of light, while also allowing clear visibility. The classrooms would have state of the art materials, flexible furniture to give our students and teachers flexibility and adaptability throughout the day. Next slide, please. Having been involved in this process for over a year. I understand the impacts. I also understand the

effects of doing nothing on our children and our staff. The cost of this facility would be approximately $142 million. $49.8 million would come from the MSBA, which is the state agency that runs this process. This would be $92 million divided between the towns just as we divide the annual annual assessment as you can see from

this slide, Hamilton’s share of the student population is 65.9% in Wenham’s share is 34.08. I hope you’ve reviewed the work of the Hamilton and that the Hamilton Wyndham Finance committees did. It was excellent and the time they dedicated was amazing and both concluded that this is the most cost-effective option for our communities. This school

enhances everyday learning experiences, improves our employees’ working conditions. It also helps us to grow a high quality schools and school facilities for future generations of children in the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Tracy. Um I’m sure we’re going to have a

spirited debate. Which, which we should have, uh, just if you wish to speak from the overflow room. again, once again, you will need to come into the auditorium and please come in. So that you can line up and so we can move things along. Uh, each speaker just to reiterate, uh, speakers are limited to 3

minutes. I intend to be uh draconian and enforcing that. And with that, uh, discussion is open. Yeah The 00, OK, excuse me, I’m sorry. I, um, I’m going to first recognize the com, I apologize. So just. John. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Thanks Cindy, we got some slides we want to cover.

Um I’ll be brief. I know we all want to get to the zoning articles. Uh, Just by way of background, um. Fin calm from both towns participated in the school building committee. And we were non-voting members, all right, so. Eric, I don’t know how many we had 15 school building committee meetings

over the last year and a half, but both towns finance members were there, but there was no boat. We were not able to make a boat, so just by way of sort of disclosure. I think that’s fair for everyone to know. The um Sidney, why don’t we go to the colorful chart right there.

Um, This has been a journey and many folks in this room have been on the journey with us, um. There’s been a lot of learning as appropriate. I’ve learned a lot about education, but also about how the state, um, Delivers money, but before we do that, let’s just set some

context. What are we talking about? Um, my mind always goes to an investment focus. So this is our, these are the investments that we’ve made in our schools, um, since 1951. So if you view this as an investment portfolio. And I labeled the columns here, my parents’ generation built

Cutler Winthrop Bucher in the high school coming out of World War II, so that 25 year period really the majority of the school buildings were put in place in Hamilton and Wenham. Um The red arrows have drawn are Instructive because between the Winthrop being finished. And the next In addition to Bucher, it’s 23 year time

period. So during that time period we were paying. off the debt. Most likely that’s what’s happening and it’s most of us do. That’s the sort of the view. The baby boomers. How many baby boomers are in this room. I see quite a few. We stepped up and Didn’t audition Debuker

renovated and in addition to the high school and built Miles River. My son Kevin was the first class to go through Miles River. Great school. Hard to believe. That’s been 25 years ago. So again We spent a lot of money. Rebuilt some schools. 25 years has gone by. From 2000 to 2024, we’ve operated the

schools but made no investment. No large capital investment. It’s been 25 years. All right, so as I look at this, We certainly have an overinvested, but the other thing we haven’t done is we really haven’t layered debt on top of each other and overbuilt the district. So I think it’s

important. To frame this conversation. In this way and look at the history. So, um, I know. Both of my kids went through the school system and benefited by the investments we’ve made. If you look at this as an investment portfolio, and I bet there’s a bunch of Finance investment people in

the, in the building. Generally, when you have a, a portfolio of assets, you tend to look for the ones that underperform or that maybe need to be retired. So as we looked at this, And the school district looked at this. They basically said are two underperforming.

Assets Cole and Windsor, they happen to be the oldest, so that, this just allows you to sort of frame the conversation. All right, um, and I think many times operate this way. So it’s a nice history. Um But In yellow, we haven’t done anything. Materially for 25 years. That’s the bottom line.

Um, Cindy, why don’t you flip to the next so you, I’m gonna go over a few points. I’ll try not to drag it out too long. Anyway, um, maybe you can flip. This journey of a consolidated school started in 2014. If you look at the 2014 school strategic plan. They looked at

the uh Portfolio of school assets. It’s good reading guarantee if you read it. You’ll be educated. At that time, can we just go back to that one? There we go. At that time. The conclusion that that group came to was if the district were interested in the most cost-effective construction project, a single

school with a population of 728 students is the least expensive. So that’s where the journey began. The journey didn’t begin in a select board meeting, you know, a year and a half ago. This is 11 year old topic. And it is now brought. Current. So that just sets a little more context as as where we’ve been

and where we’re going, and you heard Eric talk about the number of times that we’ve submitted applications to the state. We finally were accepted. OK, maybe we’ll go to the next page. This is It’s in the book recommendations, probably hard to read, but on the far right hand side. Is the preferred option, 7 to 40 students.

Um That column. Has the lowest. student. costs of any of the options that have been looked at. So if you look at what, what are we talking about here? The, the question is, What are we investing in? Well, what this solution invests in. Is A new building for 740 students,

not a new building for only 285 students. So the unit costs from a cost per student and the square footage are very favorable, and that is why. The decision was made partly the decision was made to consolidate, all right? And I’ve labeled underneath. economy is a scale because it’s a consolidated building.

You’re getting tremendous economies of scale because you’re sharing space with a larger number of students. This proposal lines up very favorably with other projects that the NBN MSBA has approved. Not only recently, But you go back. 3 years. Um Our project is very effective in terms of utilizing your tax

dollars, right? So that’s, that’s what is, is sort of going out. Let, let me go to the next page. The problem that we’ve run into and you heard me talk about this. In September when we did the uh Town hall. Construction costs. And you may have run into this in your own

home, construction costs have escalated dramatically. An unfortunately, And if you can What you can see is the bids on the far right hand side, these are the most recent bids that have gone to the state. construction costs are in the 800 to $1000 range per square foot. Unfortunately, We missed the boat. All right, if you

want to build something now, unfortunately, those are the Postrates that we have to absorb. If we had done it. pre-COVID. The cost rates would be much, much lower. So that’s the reality of what’s happened, um. And why people say why is this? Building so expensive unfortunately. That’s the deal. And if you read the current economic literature.

What’s going on in the federal government and in the economy, tariffs are expected to impact construction costs even more. That’s the reality of it. These are the facts. And This is the 3rd time we’ve published this document. What this document is, and it’s out on the Feedon website and has been since April of 23. This is an attempt.

By the Fin camp to look across the entire school district and across the entire town. So you can see that we have posted. The $142 million. We scanned. All the capital needs, and we, we see it as being about $173 million driven by the school, uh, high school move is currently needs to be funded.

The, uh, this there’s also other high school and middle school work and then multitude of other smaller projects. The water projects are in the 10 to $11 million dollar range for the town, and then there were vehicles and other. So what this allows you to do is see all the capital that we can see.

And then what’s the tax impact of it? All right, I got an email the other day from someone who said, hey, What’s the full view look like? Well, this is a full view. There may be things that are missing, but if you read the Hamilton column. We projected that the school on average will, will cost.

Homeowner $1500 on average. And then the other projects we’ve tried to estimate the tax impact. So this is about, it’s full of view is we could create. To give you more context to what’s going on in town. So One of the scenarios that we created was, well, what if we

did not one school, but two schools 10 years apart. So there’s the one school, which is the one we’re showing you. If we were to do 2 school, two new schools. All right. With Mbi MF with state support. 10 years apart. If you do 10 years of work, you have to raise your, uh, construction costs. I use

25%. One school today, to schools, new. 10 years apart, a difference of $86 million. So if we were to rebuild Cutler, rebuild Winthrop. 10 years apart, you’re talking incremental. cost of $86 million. If you want to build two new schools in town and keep them. Let’s do it 10 years

apart. It’s an additional $86 million. So That’s, these are just facts, and this is just data that we used. To just provide a point of view. All right. Next slide. Her Reference this, these are the tax impacts. Um, it’s about a 12% average increase in taxes for the school for 20 years.

Um, this information. They spent out on the website. Our forecasts from 2023 and 2024 as to what the tax impact for the school is going to be was Dead on So we have all been able to sort of see the new school coming. The tax impact had been discussed at this meeting for the last 2 years and the

forecasts were quite accurate. So is a lot of money, it’s a lot of money. 11 final point. In October 22. This body voted. $1.25 million. To do the feasibility study. Um That money was given to the school building committee. They hired architects and. Project manager. Half of that money has already been refunded to us. By the

state. We were eligible for a refund. So let’s just say Net net. We spent $700,000. And the school building committee went out. And got $49 million. From the state. That’s a pretty good return on investment. So where we stand right now is The state has offered $49 million. And You can see how it would play

out. And the final point I’ll make About the $49 million is If we don’t Take that money and take it from the state and use it. Every year we delay. Taking that money would cost us about $2.5 million. It’s simply a time value of money. So, um,

you may not like the project because it’s too big, but you may love the project because of what it does. But the state has basically written us a check. And said, here it is, if we delay it. There’s a pretty significant financial penalty. $49 million at 5%. It’s about $2.5 million a year. So if we

delay, there’s a price. We may feel OK doing that. I just wanted people to know that. All right, um, That’s probably all you’re willing to listen to. So I’ll sit down. The, the, the final point, the, the final point I’ll make. And I referenced it earlier. If you look at all the schools.

What we’re doing is not replacing one school. We’re taking our two oldest schools, the ones that are most in need of upgrade and removing them. So as you know, on all houses like a money pit. An old school is like a money pit. So if we take our two oldest schools. Take them offline. We don’t need to

invest in them anymore. We would potentially build a school and then start to upgrade the high school. In the middle school. Bucher School. So take the conversation. Take two old schools out, the state gives you 49. There’s a big incentive for us to act now.

Now, can we not act now? Can we, can we spend $10 million and do a small renovation, sure we could. The question is what do you get for that? Anyway I’ve gone on longer. My, my wife told me not to do any corny jokes, and I’ve achieved that, so thank you very much.

OK. Thank you, Mr. McGrath. OK, uh, I recognize the gentleman at the You. OK. Please state your name and address. Good morning. My name is Ed McCarthy, 60 Huntingham Drive, resident of Hamilton for 21 years. First of all, I want to thank the people in our town government for what they do, for what they give us,

and a special thank you to all the people who volunteer on the boards and the time and the effort they put into that. I am very appreciative. Also, We Also, I would like to ask you to stay till the end of this meeting because there was a second vote on consolidation through a citizen’s petition.

It’s very important you stay. I’m speaking to you as a neighbor, as a parent. My son and daughter attended the school onto the middle school, onto the high school. They got a wonderful, wonderful education. We have a good system of education here, but A numerous amount of studies. And tell us that Small schools do a

much, much better job of educating our children. We are going to be dropping 1000 people into this neighborhood.. 1000. Think about that over 700 students, staff, and people, 1000 people dropped into this neighborhood. It’s too much. It’s too big. It is a mega school. You look at the footprint of it, it’s monstrous.

It’s too much for the community. is absolutely overwhelming to the community. The cost you were talked about a cost of $1500. Let’s talk about the real causes, the real cost is 30 to $32,000 apiece for the average taxpayer over 20 years.. $32,000. That’s a lot of money. That’s a different number than 1500. Also, the negative impact

on the community with traffic with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cars. Choking off Asbury Street, choking off the community and the additional pollution that they will generate and speaking of pollution, what is the environmental impact of demolishing two schools and sending them to a landfill. I don’t know about you, but I

don’t want to see the color school end up in a landfill. What is the root cause? Why are we here? We don’t maintain the schools. I walked through the Carson school recently. The light bulbs are burnt out. The soft that is broken open. There are So many repairs that need to be done around the school.

I think at home when the light bulbs burn out, we changed the light bulbs. We fixed the broken doors, we make repairs. The maintenance of the school is not, is not happening. I speak with a little bit of credibility. I have been involved in construction and maintenance for 50 years. High voltage power distribution, building maintenance, building

renovations, upgrades, and I’ve been involved in these projects with the actual hands on, so I’m speaking to you with 50 years of experience. Please vote no on this proposal. This is not the best option. We have been told for over a year that renovation and the money was not available from the state,

but it is. There’s a project that Peabody did, the Welsh school. They took a building and they made that building like brand new for $34 million. So thank you very much. We appreciate it. You were there. Uh, we, we’ll alternate, uh. Uh, Scott Holtz, 65 Gardiner Street.

I just had a question about the $142 million number. Is that locked in or is that an estimate today that could potentially be impacted by, you know, all the stuff that’s going on right now in the, uh. Who wants to. I think Eric, OK. Mr. Tracy. 142 million is locked in, was the moderator.

Thank you. OK. Next. Hey everyone. Um, my name is Brandon. I’m here with my wife. We have a little kid at home who’s almost 2 years old. She’d be directly impacted by this project. We have another one on the way, also directed directly infected by this project. Um We

moved here recently, and the number one reason we moved to this school district in this town is for the schools. We want our child to have the best opportunity to succeed, to grow, make friends, in a safe community. As we’ve met people in town, everybody’s been really nice, really great.

Everybody is looking forward and looking out for each other. My neighbor has given countless hours of him and his children helping us move in, fix the yard work and do everything. It’s a community here. We all support each other. I was looking at the at the ratings here, um. The Buer school is,

um, top 13. percent in Massachusetts and Cutler School is the uh Where is it at on here? It’s the, um, The 3rd rated elementary school in Massachusetts. I moved to a street in a town, and I don’t know what outcome I’m gonna have my, my child get. I don’t want to put it up to chance

that they get put into a school that’s not gonna be as supportive as a child who’s a street over. So on the slide um, John said equity was the number one bullet point. I want my child to have the same opportunities as everybody else. I want my childhood the same opportunity that I had when I

was growing up in my school district. I find it ironic there’s a lot of signs they save our small schools. I think what everybody is actually saying is don’t raise my tax dollars. So then the what I believe and what the research says the primary outcome for children is small classroom

sizes. They’re going to keep or maintain the classroom sizes. So the children will have their, they’re keeping it in their mind what is important to children’s growth in a small classroom sizes. I’m personally afraid of where we’re going to be going financially in the future. So with state politics,

government politics, etc. I do not believe that we will have this money in 10 years. I can’t be sure that we’re going to get $42 million to do this project in 10 years or maybe some percentage of that because maybe pressures on the state politics federal politics wherever will go away. So we’re

going to have any chance of doing this project, I think we strike while the iron is hot, take the money, build the school. Um The qualities of schools directly. Impacts your property taxes, so the previous or the first gentleman said it’s gonna be $32,000. Your property value is gonna be

maintained if we support our children. We have strong schools. We have the best teachers, we maintain the best teachers. We have the best. Schools and we’re proud of our community, and proud of our schools instead of maintaining, um, Seriously no longer going to be supportive of our children. Heck yeah. OK, um,

I’m not suggesting that it was your intention, sir, but just, I just want to remind people that we, uh, want to stay away from personal attacks and We’ll see how this is going to work since I can’t get to the Y today. I’m going to raise my hand again. At one minute.

People may not see it, but I really do. We want everyone to have an opportunity to speak, but we want to move this along, so. Thank you, uh, Mr. Moderator. I’m Linda Preston from 288 Highland Street. And I wanted also thank you. I can’t imagine the countless hours you’d put in. Both as elected officials hired officials, uh,

above and beyond solid duty and thank you. Um, some of us here have been mischaracterized. Uh For being against the new building and saying that we hate our children. Um The truth is we don’t hate our children. Nor do you. We’re here because we all love our children. And This attitude Toward one another as neighbors creates

division. That’s not what we want in Hamilton. That’s not our roots, that’s not who we are. We all want our children to be well educated here. We support these goals that have been posted today. They’re so good. They’re so good. We want our children to grow up to be contributing respectful members,

uh, of our community, our society at large and get a good education. We love not only our children. But we are neighbors and we love each other. And so the concern is above and beyond children only. In this community for all the oppressions to us. So we need to be mindful of the Fiscal

impact of what over $2000 a year will mean on our increased taxes for the average family. Many of our families as young families raising children are just scraping by to make ends meet. Some even go to the accord food pantry to get food to feed their families for this

week. We care about that. We care about the override yet to come next year related to the teacher contract. We care about the water issues that are really significant and huge for our community that will be costly. And we think ahead to 3A in our meeting in June and all that that will mean with

extra costs, whatever the answer for that will come. We care also about our elderly. A 12% tax rate increase on people with fixed incomes. is more than they get is retired um people in our community. How many of us get an increase of 12%. Uh, even from salaries this coming year. So in our

compassion, yes, we love children, but we love for innovation. They’re cheaper, they’re more effective. They’re available from the state. So let’s support a reasonable decision. That will help our whole community still love our children. Thank you. My moderator, my name is Julie Lenniker, and I live at 153 Gregory Islands Road. Um, thank

you so much for everyone being here. We all care about children so much. The reason why I decided to talk today is that I am, um, your neighbor. I am a parent of 3 girls in the school district, and I’m also the district elementary literacy specialist for all three elementary schools.

So that means I really live, work, play, breathe. I am as local as it gets, I’m microlocal, but our family says. And I really truly believe both as an educator of over 20 years, um, that we are in a crisis in our education system right now and in Hamilton and Wenham, that means that the crisis is that

our um educational buildings were built and in that 1950s to 1970s range. We, they were built for an education system and thought, um, that is antiquated. We know more about how to educate students now, and we have a building that reflects that. That plan took 11 years just for us to get to

here. Other, um, plans and proposals that are on the table are at the idea phase, we need that plan enacted. Now we need to vote now because what’s happening, I’m, I am responsible for educating some of our most vulnerable and marginalized students in the district, and I am educating them in closets without windows and ventilation. I’m educating

them on stages behind heavy curtains in non-educational spaces, that’s happening. Now. If we continue with plans say no now without plans in the future. This is gonna continue to happen. It is I, I feel like we are so inadequately and unjustly educating our students now, and that’s going to continue until the a new school

is built, or until we have a plan in place, and it took 11 years to get to now. We are urgently in need of making a change and making the investment now, so that our students immediately can start benefiting from that. As an educator, I wholly stand by. We have to act. Now, as a parent,

we have to act now. Let’s invest. Let’s get around this so that we can really be proud of what we are saying that education is in Hamilton, and that building is going to reflect what we are believing in. Thank you so much. OK, uh, I just reiterate and please no applause. I, I know I’m kind of

spitting into the wind on that one, but I think it, you know, I, I think we We want to stay calm, respectful, and we have been so. gentleman next. My name is Charlie Pepler. I live at 53 Meyer Road. Uh, we’ve lived in Hamilton for approximately 23, 24 years, um, I’ve had 4 daughters go through

the, um, uh, through the education system, starting at the Parish school and, uh, going through Cutler Middle school and high school, um. Well, just a, a very short story, when I was a kid, I was, um, I noticed that my dad had a scar on his cheek, and he would

laugh and pull out his teeth and show me. It turns out that um at the age of 18, he uh was a soldier, uh, that was going in, in after the Battle of the bulge, and he was shot by a, a, a German sniper, knocked out all his teeth, laid in the

ground, and um he was obviously, he survived, which is very glad for me and my family. Um, but what I’ve been thinking about over the years is why was he there in the first place, and there was a, a battle going on and a very high level about um Uh, a, a, a certain symbol.

That was uh a cross that was twisted and um it was uh about a concept or of uh an an approach. So getting back to the, to the school system when we have a, a large number of teachers that we really, really appreciate and uh had a big impact on our kids. However, I’ve seen the philosophy of

education change over that time period to uh become one that is, um, increasingly political and has um maybe uh put some things in place instead of reading, writing, arithmetic, reading the, the, the classics literature, why were the, why did we have to fight for freedom? Um, and has to the

point now where there’s another flag with a twisted symbol that’s going up over the town of Hamilton. So my point being that we need to really get at the core of how do we educate our kids. They are individuals. They require individual attention and when you put up the slide about the investment, there was an entire yellow

block of lack of an investment in the infrastructure of the schools. So you skipped over a whole generation of basically maintaining infrastructure where we have small schools and now we’re getting, we’re. We’re having to pay that debt, and right now I’m spending almost 20% of my income on real estate

taxes right now. I’m supposed to be retiring. How am I gonna do it and still stay in Hamilton? So I, I would recommend that we vote no on this and relook at how to reinvest in the schools that we’ve got and do this over a period of time without taking on a massive amount of debt, so

I would recommend voting no. And Hi, I’m Joyce Wendling. I live at 424 Asbury Street. Um Well, just everything everyone has said tonight has been. Or today has been very impactful. Um, I used to be a teacher. Uh, most of my life, I love kids. A veteran I’ve lived in Hamilton quite a while and I love this

community. Sorry, I’m a crier. It’s just gonna happen I want the for our kids. Because of all that is happening, we have to leave Hamilton. the face. What happens when you raise sex is like this. We all these move. you are. I don’t you But you know I can’t afford is

continual Rapes and Texans were on a living, but my heart, I love. kids And I really the for too. And I was hoping I could be a part of it. And Mhm. Maybe that’s just what happens when you get older. And I really, I just, my heart goes on. I, I

can’t tell you how impressed and honored on you, but you went to so much trouble to provide all this information. I just want to know you have a job here in Hamilton. You have something that does not exist in a lot of the world. Hold on, though it’s so tightly. Because you’re not find it anywhere

else. God bless you all. Take I’m Jeanie Miranda at 21 Garfield Avenue, uh, one of the closest neighbors to come to school. That what we’ve heard about the school’s current situation needs to be addressed today. They can’t wait two years to have better places and bathrooms, um, to help students.

That’s too far down the road, so I am very much in favor of renovations and um I want to point out some important information. My children went through, uh, some of the middle school. And when we built then we had 2,156 students. Now we have 1,665. So we know that we have extra space up at the

middle school and the high school. High school could support 750 and back then we not only had the Essex students but we had school choice. People choosing them to send their kids here and, and their talents would support that. So we’ve got um Almost, so we have 450 in the high school right now, so that’s almost 300

spaces and then the middle school could be 500. We have 391. So there’s an option there of refiguring for temporarily reasons to work on our elementary schools. I could even see the 5th grade going up. Many schools do have 5678 in the middle school. So I’m sure those spaces have been filled.

We know about voids, but that’s the number of students we could accommodate 2000. 165. So, um, Mr. Tracy pointed out that the playground information. And we, uh, really have to remember that they’re losing a significant piece area of playground because of 3 parking lots, a much larger school, two-story school, but we’re tripling the students, so

instead of 250 with Lovely fields over at that we have now that the kids use. Uh, we’re going to make it a quarter size and have 740, and we have to remember that clay is so important to children learning. So Water, I will only say this, it pools every heavy rain, uh,

ponds, I will say right down on what we call the so uh. Softball field, which is where they want to put the new school. The school was built was built on the highest point of that land, I would say for very good reason. And um So that’s why I

am personally going to vote no for this. I vote for renovations as soon as possible so that our students can learn in the best situation tomorrow and not wait a couple of years down the road. Thank you. Speaker My name is Melissa Sas so I live at 60 Echo Cove Road.

In Hamilton, um, I just want to, uh, share some information based on some comments that have been said so far today, um, so that you, the voters are fully informed, um, going back to the first speaker today, um, you know, most studies actually support the fact that small classrooms rather than small

schools are what are most beneficial to our students. Um, our district superintendent and teachers are committed to small classrooms and learning has changed, um, and most successful schools are are getting larger. Um, as far as the one in Peabody example we have for renovation. We do also have swampscott, Ipswich, and Manchester, Essex, all of which

waited on consolidation and renovation, Swampscott just opened a new consolidated elementary school. They waited After a no vote and just paid $150 million more for their consolidated elementary school. Ipswich is going back to the vote. To do the same thing. Manchester, Essex voted to not consolidate their elementary schools several years ago, and now they’re going back trying

to get an addition added to the Manchester Elementary School to house the Essex students. So consolidation is not something that’s being invented, uh, here in Hamilton, it is becoming more and more common. Um, in the school systems around the country and in our state. This gentleman here. Bucher is not a high performing school of statistically because of

anything happening in the school, so you don’t have a fear. A common misnomer in those statistics that came out and thank you for supporting our young readers, because of how the schools actually work. We have to reshuffle our students with highest needs to specific schools, and Bucher is not one of them. So when you

see those high performance standards, it is because when Thorp and Cutler house our most vulnerable student populations, so it’s just a statistic. You have nothing to fear in your children, OK? Our teachers are wonderful in all of our schools. Seniors. We have a program here in town for seniors and veterans, where you can borrow.

2 Absorb your tax increase against the future sale of your home so that you can stay in your home until you can no longer afford to be there until you eventually sell it or until you can’t be there anymore. Sorry, time. All right, last one. and then playgrounds.

They all flood Winthrop, Cutler, 90% of the year the kids can’t even use most of them. OK. Um, I’m Emma Hem Belgian from Five Chocolates, Hamilton. Um, I recently graduated, uh, this year, last year, um, and I went to Cutler as a kid, and From that it was always incredibly dark, no matter how bright it

was outside, the lightest, brightest part of that school is a bathroom in the library, and most of the time, every single every single bathroom that he went to had multiple dead spiders and we’re freezing. It The teachers were amazing, but there’s not a lot of space to work with, and I can’t imagine it’s any different with

Cutler, uh sorry, Winthrop and Bero from what my friends have told me who’ve been there. Um, I had my speech therapy in a small little dusty closet filled with dead bugs. There’s not a lot of space to work with. Um, one of my underclassroom underclassmen had her physical

therapy in the main entrance because there’s no space for it to happen. And it’s There’s a hallway where you can’t walk down. Without if your, if you can’t walk down two steep little steps that I multiple multiple times I twisted my ankle on because of how thin they were. Or you could go

through a classroom up a ramp and it was often disturbing. I I just think The teachers deserve more space to work with. Cutler’s school. I Dark and small, and there’s not a lot to work with and I Just I don’t, uh, sorry, um. want Other kids to have a little bit better of an experience. Cause I don’t

look back too fondly on elementary school, and it’s not because I didn’t like math or the education. It was because it was just kind of depressing all around. Um Also, um, the open fields, multiple times strangers would walk up while kids were actually playing and there’s not with how open the

space is, that is completely not closed in. The teachers didn’t have a lot of jurisdiction or didn’t notice when there were strangers walking on, and that’s not their fault. But there were several times where people walk their dogs onto those fields. We need better and I want better for people who go to

these schools. Thank you. Thank you moderator, Lisa Terra Nova Whi in need. I would like to thank Joyce. Very much for her comments. We don’t want to lose Joyce. Joyce is the heart and soul of Hamilton. People like Joyce. Hold the memories, they hold the history of Hamilton.

Where is the equity? When 60% of our budget goes to the school, whereas the equity for our hungry children going to bed hungry at night and for our elders who are being forced out of their homes. What I would like for everyone to do who can

hear my voice right now is to pay attention to the wording of the article on the warrant. I give you two little phrases. We’re being asked to to fund $142 million and a gentleman asked if that was a fixed cost. No, it can’t be because we don’t know what’s, as was

pointed out, tariffs and the rest. Look at the article wording. Said amount to be expended at the direction of the school building committee. I’d like you all to know that school building committee is made up of 63% non-residents, 50% of whom report directly to the superintendent. That’s great. But when we’re looking

at $142 million. We’re not being asked to just do a portion of it at a time. We’re being told we’re going to do the whole thing. Where is the interest of the taxpayer being represented. From that school building committee. There aren’t any elected officials. Nobody, nobody is responsible to the taxpayer. Second phrase

And any project costs the district incurs in excess of any grant approved and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the district and its member municipalities. Any overages We’re stuck with them. Member of municipalities, take a look at. When it is going under Wenham can’t afford

any of this. Why does that matter to us because we are in a district to get. What happens if they default. They are steps away from going into receivership because their tax rate is so high. That’s not. OK, that is That’s not. OK, that is not a factual That’s not. OK, that is statement That’s not.

OK, that is That’s not. OK, that is not a factual statement That’s not. OK, that is That’s not. OK, that is not a factual statement. Let me re. They have the highest. They have the highest tax rate in Essex County, and it’s going higher

and at $25 per $1000 you do go into. Yeah, I think this is, uh, getting a little beyond the four corners of the motion. Let me, let me go back. So you’re you’re almost your time is almost up. You’re asking us to pay for a Lamborghini.

We neither want nor Ford. $30,000 is too much. It was, it came about because I don’t think anyone ever asked the question, what’s the most responsible way to move forward knowing we need 3 new roofs and we need work at the high school and middle school. I don’t think those questions were ever asked.

I don’t think the taxpayer. Thank you I Sean Collin, 13 Maple Street, Hamilton. I think I’m in a small group here. I came home from the hospital to Hamilton. I’ve been here for 46 years. I went through the school system. My parents went through the school system. My grandparents went through the

school system. My son graduated in 2023.. 1 of my nieces lives in town and her daughter is going to start within the next couple of years. So I’m not somebody who has just been here a little bit, and there’s two things that I want to talk about. One was that gap that everybody points out in that 25

years where they say nothing was put in. That’s because the town invested in other areas. We built a new public safety building. We built a new rec center, we built a new library. Yup, the library used to be this little building that’s now the council on the agent. We invested in the community

during those 25 years and the schools took a pause to allow us to do that. Now that that’s over and those things are falling off are dead. school wants to invest in the schools again and it’s their time. They’ve waited that 25 years. That wasn’t that they didn’t do anything, they allowed the town

to do the rest of what needed to be done for this community and now it’s time to go back and invest in these schools. When I went through the school system, the school system and education I got was the reason a lot of you have moved to town. Guess what? There were 2 elementary schools. Bucher was

a middle school. That’s where I went to middle school. So we’re not making it smaller. We’re going back. back to the ones that you talk about the way you want, uh, uh. I don’t want a gatekeep, but I love seeing people say they’ve been here 6

years and we need to keep the small town feel. It’s not like that. It’s not like it was, but it can be and investing in the schools and getting new people to move into town and stay in town is the reason we need to do this because it needs to be

a full town thing. I hate driving around in June and seeing signs that say my senior’s graduating right next to 4 sale signs. Investing in the community and making it a total community it’s how we do this right now, it’s the school’s time, and I really, really hope everybody votes for

this because we need it. I’m not going anywhere. I’m gonna live here as long as I can. This is the only place I’ve ever lived, and I love this town, and we really need to invest in the schools and keep it that way. I again implore you, please vote for this motion. Thank you. next speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. My name is Casey Hawkins, and um unlike many of you folks here today, I did not grow up in Hamilton, um, my husband and I moved here 3 years ago, and this was our dream to be here and mainly because Um, uh, uh,

we want to have good schools for our future kids and um I have been a teacher in an elementary school in in another district, um, but was built at the same time as these 3 elementary schools and I also face similar things to what other educators were sharing today. I did not have my own

office. I worked. My office was a table in the stairway, um, and many other of the teachers that were not classroom teachers that are, you know, breeding support or ESL are out in the hallways, and I understand the importance of a small school, but at what cost?

Um, you know, when students are out in hallways or closets, and they don’t have the space to learn, and those are our most Um The students that need the help the most are those students that are not in a safe place to learn and another thing I really wanted to point out something Mr. Tracy said

was about safety, um. My The school that I worked at was also um Not the most secure, similar to what, um, the, I know the last, um, young lady said that people can just walk onto the property at any time, and that’s not safe, and can I know it in Winthrop, they can walk through the front door

into the cafeteria, like if students. Are there if God forbid, there’s something to happen, you want your students to be as safe as possible to have a contained place. You want to send your kids to school and not have to worry about them, and I know that you will always worry about them.

But This is Gives you an opportunity to at least have some sort of peace of mind that they are contained in as safe as they possibly can be, um, you know, as I know my time is almost up, but as someone whose office was in a hallway with no

um Like there was no intercom, where I was in the stairwell. We had lockdowns where we had to close the doors, they had to lock me, and I had no clue. And I had to deal with the fact, I had to be OK with the fact that.

You know, because of the lack of timing, I might lose my life that day. So thank you so much. I appreciate it and I. Thank you, ma’am. Uh, I’m just Before I recognize Mr. Langer, um, we want everyone to have their say. I just Say a general remark.

What if you’re going to come up and speak. Has this been said before? Um, but yeah, Mr. Wanger. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I want to, uh, initially extend the well-deserved recognition that you all have seen. To our town employees in a public safety teachers, public works, town hall. They’re all A survey of this community, well, and I

also want to comment that once again, Final is the best dressed committed. 2 questions, please. Uh Est is, uh, state aid available for renovations of schools. And second, given the fact that Both the plans and the cost appear to be baked in. What occurs if a tariffs or other unforeseen circumstances,

suddenly uh increase the overall cost of the baked-in plan. What will happen to that eventuality. Thank you. OK. Um, Tracy, you want to address the at least the first of those questions. Oh I thank Mr. Moderator, um, The, the tariff question has come up a number of times and one of the things that we have learned through

our OPM is that our contingencies built into the project, so the 142 million has several contingencies built in and, uh, having, this is my 3rd project in 3 different communities and one thing I’ve learned along the way is you tend to balance out um your needs versus your wants.

Sometimes you need to downgrade and maybe the amount of wall tile you’re putting up so that because you have a higher in another place, um, the way we are hoping to function this is with what’s called CM at risk, which is a construction manager that comes in and they take the risk to keep it within the

bounds of the $142 million that are approved at town meeting. You also have town meeting as you can’t go beyond that because it hasn’t been approved. Um, so does that cover the question? Did I answer the question? First, well, I think the first uh the first question was what’s the availability of State funding for renovations.

Sure, there, there is absolutely state funding for renovations, uh, school building committee did not choose that because of the space that we need. We’re trying to pull kids out of closets and a hallways, and, and. Other places, so renovation is available. We’ve seen that all across the state. It’s just not the selection that the school building

committee made based on the needs that we have for our kids and our staff. I, I moderator, uh, I understand there is a, a baked in rubber. 142 for contingencies. My question within the context of Cost increased beyond the computer contingent CML. What, what will happen if, uh, If the costs go

beyond the 142. I, I you want to, I think, I mean, I’m just the moderator, but I think the amount being requested is 142 million. That’s the end of something went beyond that. The um they have to appropriate more money we could be back here again. Can I clarify that?

I think, I think the reality is that um there’s a value engineering process that takes place through any of the building processes, and part of that is to give and take of, you know, having this level of material versus this level of material throughout the project. So there’s a give and take throughout, um, so to order

that, answer that question, they, they do really work hard to stay within the bounds of, of what’s available because the state locks us in as well, so it’s, it’s really, um, a, a process of value engineering throughout. Thank you. Mr. McGrath, anything you want to add to that, no, OK. Uh, next speaker. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh, my name is Amy Cumberger. I live in Fort. Please, please. Yeah. In the I didn’t have this much of the. Yeah. Um, my name is Amy Kunburger. I live at 499 Bridge Street. Um, I am a parent of two elementary students. I’m also a faculty member at Salem State University, and I’m on the

school committee. I wanted to take a few minutes first to thank the community engagement on this. Project, this is amazing and I’m glad you all are here, um, I want to talk a little bit more about our teachers. Um, I have a 5th grader, so I’ve been at the Winthrop school. Uh, parent

There are a lot of ups and downs. Our teachers have been amazing, flexible work with what they have to deal with. Um, but day to day, having them in cramped inappropriate spaces. It’s the renovation idea is not going to change this. It’s a size issue. Um, I want to remind everybody that 80% Of

our teachers’ union is in favor of this school project that we’re working on today. Um, we have neighboring districts with new elementary schools that are MSBA projects. I worry that our teachers are going to leave our district in favor of a job where they have appropriate spaces that are clean to do

their work. Um, I also have fear that new upcoming teachers won’t look at our district as a place where they want to work because they have other options somewhere else. Um, so, yes. Thank you. Thank you. OK, I was about to say, I think we’ll let

the, uh, folks that are in line speak and um That, that’ll be it. Um,, and I think,, I’m sorry. All right, it. No? OK. Um This gentleman Hi there, Matthew Lewis 356 Forest Street. I was actually just coming up to uh ask to move the question. OK. it he said OK there was talk anymore. There’s a motion,

apparently a motion to move the question. I didn’t quite understand. I thought he had a question, and, and there was a 2nd, um, I This is not, this is not, I’m sorry you have to vote on the motion. OK, but I also have the option of letting, as

I said, the people that in line to speak. I’ve consulted with town council and I do have the, I do have the power, if you will, to allow people who were guard indicated they’re in line, to speak, and then we will, I said we would close off debate. So, sir, my name’s Tyler Lenneker, 153 Gregory Island

Road. I just had a question. Um We talked about renovation. What is the actual one, what is the actual projected cost if we did full renovations. Of the current elementary schools, bringing up to code, etc. So what’s the long term cost forecast, how does that impact us as a taxpayers. And then

secondly, What is the, has there been any long-term study on what the cost is of maintaining 3 elementary schools, utilities, staffing, etc. versus having two long term, 2 schools long term. So are there any um cost forecasts around that. Uh, maybe, I don’t know if that’s true, Mr.

Tracy or. Finance committee, but thank you. I guess the first question is for Uh, one of the, I guess the, the, the, the no voters if anyone wants to address that. Mr. McGrath Mr. McGrath, did you say you? Uh, we actually addressed the renovation question in, in, and I put a section in the uh.

Book recommendations. So the scenario that we drew was we took. The the A Renault. Um, scenario, which was $115 million and we broke it into two pieces. Um, and this was a, this was a hypothetical. Um Scenario, but Um The The uh Rennell P was $60 million. The ad piece was $53 million

approximately. So this was a hypothetical answer to the questions that came up in the town. Hey, why don’t we just do a Renault. So, so what’s going on and that’s in the book recommendations, um, again, it’s not a um Pro-driven forecast. We just took an a Renault. Slit in two, said the

Renault, the Renault piece would be 62 million in the additional. is 53. The key point, and this doesn’t exactly answer your question, but the key point is The um Schools That we want to build and are being built now. have much more space. Then the schools built in the 50s and 60s.

You’ve heard that. From the educators that we need more space, we need more space. What FICA did in our write up was We listen to that comment and what we did is we went back and learned about How schools are built today versus back then The space It is about twice as large. And that is what’s

driving. A new school. All right, um, I understand the point of our Can’t we just do a renovation? Well, if you do a renovation, are you just gonna use that same. Footprint of the school. Just Got it and rebuild it, you’ll you’ll then still have A 1951 footprint, but it has all the walls and buildings.

So the, the, the point is The educational plan. And the desires of all of us are to generate a lot more space in our schools. That’s what happens today. We also looked at, well, what do you do in your house? Same thing has happened in our residential buildings. OK, so anyway,

that’s, you know, doesn’t exactly answer the question, but the point is we did look at it. What about the second, the second question. What This, I, I don’t even understand. Oh, this is. I, I think it’s an important question, like what’s the projected utility staffing, etc. We have 3 that’s I I think

that’s beyond me, that’s beyond the scope of the, the desire so. You, you, you talked about the, the school, the, the The projection in general for the schools. That’s beyond the scope of this article. OK. I still think it just helps us think about what what is it gonna actually cost us as a

town long term voting on these voting events. I, I think that’s been answered. A I don’t think so. I mean, If you’re talking about the, the annual cost for electricity and that sort of thing. That, that’s the only other. OK. people Man. My name is Ashley Gleti Chase. I live at 254 Bridge Street.

Um, some of this is repeated, but I hope to pull it together and put it in context. It is not all repeated, no, please stay with me. I respect how anyone chooses to vote today, but my hope is that we cast informed votes with a true understanding of viable options and with our eyes wide open to the fiscal

realities for each of those choices. We can consolidate now addressing two schools in dire need for about $92 million to taxpayers and provide all elements. students with modern safe, equitable learning spaces in 3 years. Some say we should vote no today and just renovate within the existing footprint

of each building to renovate with MSBA funding. It must meet MSBA space standards and our educational plan. When renovation proponents have pressed have been pressed to share what they would change about our ed plan to make our students’ needs fit within the existing footprints. They’ve provided no answers, and that’s because we can’t. We need more

space to meet the needs of today and tomorrow, which is why renovation plus addition were the only renovations, renovation options considered among the 14 viable schematics, and the Renault edition is we just heard, was 1:15 just for the Cutler school. If we vote no on a on a misguided belief

that renovation only is a viable option for MSBA funding without any evidence supporting that plan for our schools, which aren’t like the Peabody School where the existing layout already met space standards and their ed plan, then we could find ourselves in an even more expensive situation. If we want to keep small schools and do it with

MSBA funding, then years from now we’ll be voting on a Renault in addition project for just one school at a cost of over 100 million, while the other two are still waiting. Or we could always pursue strict renovation without MSBA funding, but I shudder at the prospect of us paying full freight 3

times over, and in the end, still not having adequate or appropriate spaces for all of our learners or years from now we could be where we are right now at town meeting, voting on the same consolidated project, but it exponentially higher construction construction costs, just as they are finding in

Ipswich after voting down a $69 million consolidation. In 2018 that’s now estimated to cost more than 160 million. Please vote yes for our children, for our educators, and for our town’s financial future. My name is uh Jessica Colosi. I live at 20 Cutler Road. Um, I got in line for two reasons.

Uh, the first was to ask you to go to vote. Um, I spent most of the meeting in the cafeteria, which is now fully breaking apart, um, but while I’m here, I figured I, um, and somebody got ahead and did that for me. Thank you for seconding it. Um, uh, I just wanted to bring to

the attention of the town and of the people, um, the, the nature of this forum and how it, uh, is very difficult for people with young. children to attend and to cast their vote, um, I, by the grace of God, my infant has slept the majority of the meeting, and I’m here.

Um, our babysitter bailed on us and my husband had to sacrifice his boat because you’d be on the 4 point. All right, sure, um, just wanted to raise that point. I think that’s some modernization in the way that we cast our vote could lead to more equity and representation and in what comes of the vote.

I’ll be voting yes. Um, I hope, I hope that passes today, but if not, I think some reflection is due on the town. Thanks. Uh, that’s her 270 Asbury Street. Consolidation, um, it’s a lose-lose situation, so it’s not good for the students, it’s not good for the taxpayers. There’s a number of misconceptions that I’m going

to um share that I know. I’ve been here 35 years. I know there was enough is enough. People are not going to continue to pay. We have $500 million water issue. I’m not sure where that money’s gonna come from. We have teacher contracts. At some point, people are gonna stop like Joyce, she has to move out of

town. We need taxpayers who don’t have kids in the school. If we don’t have diversity amongst the people who live here. We can’t continue and it’s just going to increase our taxes because every time you have somebody who leaves who doesn’t have kids in school and replace them with kids who do,

it just exponentially increases our taxes. The Ipswich $160 million is an estimate based on our estimate, they used ham. ton ’ s numbers, so I would say that that’s not a solid number at this point. Um, just so you know, uh, I’m speaking as a per. Personally, not in any official capacity. 3A, the district has

not been voted on. It’s beyond the scope of the just saying because people keep bringing that up and they want, they, they’re concerned about. Go to. OK. So what happened? with the win truck school space. That is a question many people have. OK, so if I did some projections,

if you take the square footage for the Welsh school and you can multiply it by the square footage in our schools and then you add a 35% increase to Caroline and Tom said is the increase since they started and you multiply that out, extend those increases out at the same rate. It takes 50 years to

offset the renovation benefits. Um, if we renovate, it’s, it takes 50 years. So people say we have to wait, I’m sorry. I also want to acknowledge the fact that people say kids are in classrooms. That has been clarified that they’re not actually in tiny little classrooms, so, um, that was really kind of scary and we

were, many of us were very concerned about that. Kids actually being in classrooms, um, I do want to ask those who voted against, um, the articles either. voted last year against the school consolidation. I know there were 2 school committee members, and there was um a select board member,

somebody on Fincom and then again as a committee member from the school committee. I would love to hear why they voted no because these were not unanimous votes. Thank you. OK So, Tosh Blake’s Sagamore Street, um, I think we’re part of the problem or part of the controversy we kind of a, a

real estate problem coming up where we have two elementary schools on two different sites with a lot of open space on each site. We’re putting if it goes as planned, both with the capacity of both those schools, plus maybe greater on one side, whereas you’ve seen in the, in the renderings, there’s very little playground space, etc.

because you need room for parking lots and things like that. So there’s no real room to. spend if that school needed to expand in the future, and we’re giving up the Winthrop sites, which will be now, you know, what the plan is, you know, the time to turn it over to development. It will be

zoned if 38, you just mentioned 3 of them. We’re not gonna get into 3 days. So, OK, we’ll see you in June. So school capacity is to the four corners. If we give up states where there are currently schools divided by 5, you will have less room to

build in the future, whereas right now you can, you may not you just argument over how much it would cost, but you could renovate and expand currently on the sites where they have the property for the town is still has the school properties, so we’re short-sightedly jamming the Elementary schools

on one site but but getting rid of opportunity span at schools on the second site, which may not be available for schools, so it’s not a prudent plan. I think we should definitely, if we’re expecting, expecting to have more population in the future, which, believe it or not, could happen, uh, you do

not want to jam up. Everything into one school and then be stuck and that’s what we will be doing if we get rid of two school sites, so there’s a lot of other issues, but that’s the real estate problem is a big one, so it’s imprudent, I think for us to go forward with the consolidation without really

for a puppy that breaks voting no, for now and looking at uh renovation and expansion, which can be done. Thank you. OK, I think we’re ready to go to a vote OK. This requires a 2/3 vote. Obviously this is an important vote. a lot of interest in the community. So, um, I’m going to allow 2

minutes for voting. So When I raised my hand, the voting will start and then you’ll have 2 minutes to vote and just, uh, for the record, those I want to say that the, the, the number of People checked in at this point is 949, so we’ll, we’ll

keep that in mind as people vote so. OK No, not yet. I did I raise my hand? OK, we don’t have to have we, can we, can we clear that off? Oh, come on A voting starts now. Yeah There we go. I This Yeah In voting is now concluded. OK, the vote is

515 ya, 300 and. 77A, did not get the required 2/3 vote. The vote fails, and I so declare. Please. Yeah We have We have a number of we have a number of Uh Important articles still to come, so please stick around. We’ll take a 5-minute break so that folks can You agree Uh

yeah we don’t have you know what, Everybody is on administrative. soon as I get out of the elementary school. They were perfectly fine. The elementary school Because it’s and you know what, when they had a specialized everybody. That’s on drugs. That’s what I’m saying I have a client and his wife works. Yeah they have.

Teachers. 2 year old? No I’m a fraction of the 15 years. You don’t even get. So That’s the reality That’s That’s the reality That’s. You want you want or 3 times since he was in his 50. OK, we’re gonna get started again and if you if you were in the overflow room and it moved into the auditorium.

You need to swap out your clicker. To two different sets of clickers, so if you, if you, if you moved into the auditorium and then they need to swab. No one ever comes to I, I said OK. What she said. Um, First time. Well, we move on to

the next article. It’s gonna, this is, because this is, there have been a lot of questions. I wasn’t certain myself, but have asked what’s the there’s still a valid question. The ballots have been printed. It’s on the It’s on the ballot. Mhm. OK. Yeah. have been asked since there’s a ballots this.

There’s a ballot vote. The ballots have been printed. It’s on the the the the the ballot question is on the ballot. What’s the effect? So The votes are counted. And There is some period of time that If if They wanted to the select board could call a special town meeting. Or add something to

the June town meeting to Bring this question that was just defeated back again. And, and it would, but it would Yeah, whenever you The warrant the warrant article would have to pass, but they could relate back to the valid vote, assuming the ballot vote was positive. I think. Hm It’s I

recognize. Thank you. So just to clarify, and Tom, keep me honest, my understanding is that this will be on the ballot on Thursday. It only requires a 50% popular vote to pass on the ballot on Thursday. We have not appropriated the funds for the ballot question. However, that’s what this meeting was

for. So what, uh, the moderator is referring to is that if it passes with a greater than 50% majority at, at the election, the ballot vote on Thursday. The select boards can bring back the appropriation question for the at special time meeting in June. In order to move

forward with the project. Is that your I have a point of clarification. You There’s no, there’s nothing before the, the meeting, so. About which is testing. That’s just a, that’s just a point of process question that people were asking, so it doesn’t have to be brought back. It could not

be brought back. We could, we could never speak of this again if that’s the, the vibes, but If folks are wondering what happens if it passes at the ballot, we would assume then that there was some energy in the towns to come back with the appropriated funds, in which case the select boards could

put it on a future special town meeting to try to get the funds approved for the project. Since we do have a, OK, so moving on. Yes, same, yeah. Article 3-1 hero act. I, I. Sorry. I, Article 3-2 extension of lease Cutler school. I recognize Bill Wilson. I moved that the town approve Article 3-2 as printed

in the 1. Is there a second? Uh, this article is intended to extend the lease at their Cutler School for 50 years. It’s important consolidation project. Or any project thereafter. Any questions or comments? Sir A 50 Road. Come over here. There we go. So Jeff Austin, 50 Sharon Road. I think

it’s key to understand what Bill just said is this is in support of the consolidated school, the 50-year term is a requirement from the MSBA in order for them to move forward with that project. So if you’re not in favor of the consolidated school, this would be a no vote. It doesn’t impact

the lease with the town so far as the school can’t be there any longer. This is primarily to drive consolidated option for the current MSBA project. So if you don’t support the consolidated school, this is a no. They do, any other questions or comments? Uh, this requires a, uh, OK Just the majority vote. Will allow a

minute for voting. Voting starts now. I don’t know. No. Yes OK Oh. The town town. I well It the school. you know. Yeah. Don’t Yes. We can’t change Voting is included. Yeah. Yeah. I Oh OK So the vote is um There’s no 153, 201A. theatrical fails and I show a glare. Yeah Article 4-1 zoning

bylaw Amendment groundwater protection overlay district. Recognize mining Crouch. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, I have, we’re not, uh, Uh, I hope we’re not controversial. I think we need some consensus here today, and I think our articles will provide that. Uh, so the first zoning article is Article 4-1. I moved the town approved Article 4-1 as printed in the

warrant. The is there a second? And the scratch. Uh, the article relates to an amendment to the dimensional requirements in the groundwater protection overlay District. The groundwater protection overlay district was created in 1985 and amended in 2000, 2004, and 2015. And I think it’s important that we recognize its

purpose. And its purposes are to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the town. Byur an adequate quality and quantity of drinking water for the residents, institutions and businesses of Hamilton. Another purpose is to preserve and protect existing and potential sources of drinking water supplies and recharge areas.

To conserve the natural resources of the town. And to prevent temporary and permanent contamination of the environment. The planning board’s article is intended to amend the requirements set for in section 9.1.4 dimensional requirements for a minimum. 80,000 square foot building block. To instead require a minimum lot size of 80,000 square feet per dwelling unit.

This change in the planning board’s view is a correction. And it is also consistent with the language used in section 4.1.2, the table of dimensional regulations where minimum lot sizes for each residential zoning district in Hamilton are expressed in square feet per. dwelling unit. planning board believes this amendment.

Better meets the purposes of Uh, and can count it. Limiting effluent associated with septic systems and the risk of wastewater treatment failures. Increased density beyond the requirement of 80,000 square feet per dwelling unit. And even beyond what is permissible under existing zoning districts with the risk associated to the groundwater defies common sense

and it’s not in alignment with the. Groundwater protection overlay district’s purposes and the town’s master plan, which emphasizes the protection of natural resources. This amendment is not an anti-ammiic, uh, Uh, uh It’s not anti-development. I, I apologize. It is an amendment to protect the town’s water resources now and for the

future. Uh, any questions or comments? I recognize Mark Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Moderano. Mark Johnson, a 6 pack and drive Hamilton, um, so I’m in favor of really strong groundwater protection. I actually think our groundwater protection overlay district should be strengthened. The risks to our groundwater are

all the pumping that we do in the summer for our irrigation. Uh, it’s the nitrogen and the phosphorus that sort of ends up in a watershed, um, and, uh, there is, um, that’s really the primary source of our risk to our watershed. Um, the area of our groundwater protection Overleigh District, mostly

affects our R1A and R1B districts, which are 20,000 square feet, 40,000 square feet, basically half acre 1 acre though. Uh, it also affects a lot of our areas that were done before zoning, so we have a lot of homes that don’t even have half acres that have this density and we’ve had that in

place since the 50s and then the 60s and the 70s as we went through different building booms. Those have not Those are at densities that are less or different than the 80,000 square feet, 1 for 2 acres that the planning board is recommending. And we already know that we have half a

century of experience that our groundwater is not at risk for those purposes. Our groundwater is at risk, so we pump too much for in the summer. We’re, we’re, we’re draining. We’re, we don’t have the right water treatment facilities to deal with the volume and the up and down that we have and we have to deal

with the different media treating it, but the actual groundwater is at risk is Not because we’re going from What is now So um 8000 square feet per building lot to 80,000 square feet per unit, uh, all that is, that doesn’t protect our ground water at all because we are already at densities

much greater than that in the zone specifically that we have with GPODM. So I think I needs to be strengthened. The planning board agrees that our groundwater protection overlay district should be strengthened, and I’m all in favor for that. This change is not something that will protect on

groundwater. It is really just a way of saying that if there’s a. 20,000 square foot lot, uh, that you might have an extra building there. You can’t do anything with it because you’re not two agres anymore. Right, because that this basically take two acre zone and applying it. All over town where the

groundwater is. So, long story short, I recommend that we do not approve this, please vote no on this diminish this change, um, and then really just support the planning board when they come back, as they said they would with a better real improvement to that particular district. I’d like to just address one, comment that Mr.

Johnson made this amendment to the groundwater protection overlay District will not affect any, uh, residences in the R1A, R1B, or even the RA district. Those anyone living in the groundwater protection, uh, uh, area, uh, in, in a home that’s on a smaller lot, um, those. Properties are considered nonconforming pre-existing nonconforming uses

and structures and Section 5 of our zoning bylaw and chapter 48, Section 6, address those issues. So there’s, uh, the, the amendment that the planning board is proposing would make no change to how these properties are treated now and how they will be treated in the future until such time as the planning board can take another

look at the groundwater protection overweight district and make recommendations as to how it can be better amended to both protect our important natural resources and also to address some of the comments that Mr. Johnson made. So I urge you to vote in favor of this bylaw, and I also note

that the, uh, the FICO and the planning board are in support of it. Yeah Good afternoon. Hi Marnie. Um, thank you for this work. I too am very much uh pleased with, um, the purpose of, of these zoning amendments and I just really had a clarifying question or a question. Um, when you Moved to,

um, make the change from 80,000 square feet per building lot to 80,000 square feet per the building unit, dwelling unit, um, was there some discussion or consideration of how, how large that dwelling unit was, so that’s, I don’t know how this impacts accessory units if there were to be, uh, actually,

I don’t believe it would impact, um, the accessory dwelling units. It’s certainly not the accessory dwelling units that, Um, Uh, I will now be discussed pursuant to the Affordable Homes Act, the acceler, um, accessory dwelling units that aren’t my right. Um, So without knowing what those units are by

right, would it, for example, impact, um, uh, a small, a small unit in large unit that might be separate or, or some other such. It’s my understanding that, That, the, the, my right accessory dwelling units can be built on any lot in a residential district. I mean, that is

something that town council could address, uh, but that is my understanding. So this, this amendment, I don’t believe will affect. It’s not the intention of this. It’s not the intention to affect that. OK, it would be good to get our Uh Michael, Michael Gordon was in the I know the plany boys studied

this in detail, uh, what was the speaker. Another planning board studied this in minute detail. What was the vote of the planning board, uh, the planning board voted unanimously and support of this amendment. Uh, we view it as protective in the short term until such time as we can address the groundwater protection overla district as a

whole. Um, I was gonna ask for that to be said too, so thank you for saying that. Beth 3rd, 270 Asbury Street speaking as um in an unconicial capacity, um, I was out of the room for a moment, so I don’t know if it was mentioned that this is

returning to the original language of the bylaw. I don’t know if that was actually stated, but this is coming back to the original language of the bylaw that was put in place in like 1980, so I just felt like that could be helpful for some people, um, but maybe that if that wasn’t already shared.

I did mention that. It is a correction, but thank you, Doc. Tosh Blakemore Street, uh, just like, you know, second with Marty Marty said, I think the purpose of the groundwater projection overlay district is to protect the groundwater, it seems prudent that it only makes sense for 1 unit for

80,000 square feet rather than 80,000 square feet for any number of units would, would be completely against the spirit of having a groundwater protection over a district. So I’d say it’s certainly prudent and it makes sense to vote, uh, yes for the amendment. Thank you. Thank you. You know,

questions or comments, um, just since it came up, the boats were the select board recommends favorable action the vote was 2122 being. Extensions, finance committee for 0. And planning where 70. Um, I think we’re ready to move to a vote. This requires a zoning amendment is requires a 2/3. Uh Questions. shut her off tired.

Yeah. The wonders of technology. OK, this requires a 2/3 vote since it’s a zoning amendment allow a minute for voting, um, uh, just reiterate that um you, you need to vote in the room, unless you switched your It’s quicker. You need to vote in the room where you, that you initially checked into, so, OK.

Uh, one minute voting starts now. s Oh We’re. I said go. reset it. OK, I’m going to start off the boat, um. Oh, so one. I. Can we just do a test question first. Does the overflow room, uh, reading the restart, so. OK, the test question is. Will Bill Baler beat Mr. Blanks on the election

April 10th. We go now or do you. When. I like ice cream. Yeah, what was that one I like vanilla. Do the I like vanilla ice cream. You’d be helpful, but I stepped in I guess. OK, test question. Bill Baler defeat Mr. Blanks in next week’s election. Your I kick Mr.

Flake’s butt. OK. Like Like OK, so now we’re back to The vote on The first Yeah professor Because you’re recognizing. This is the vote on 4-1 in this requires 2/3 vote. starts now. Is it, is it working? Yes. I hope you take me out to lunch.

75 cents. Voting is over. for the other one That’s not a lot. OK. The vote is 213, 104 nay, the article gets required 2/3 of *** and I so declared Article 4-2, zoning by law amendment temporary signage. You Oh. Mo I I moved into town approve Article 4-2 as printed

in the warrant. Is there a second And temporary. extent. OK. OK. Um, this, uh, showing amendment, Um It is designed to amend the definition of temporary signage. To use the time limits on such assignments associated with national, state, and local elections. Uh, the amendment was proposed by the building commissioner and is, um, is designed to be

consistent with the requirements of the First Amendment. And it’s the select board finance Committee and planning all recommended. Favorable action unanimously. Are there any questions or comments? If not We’ll move to a vote. And so I go this requires a 2/3 vote. Allow a minute. Starting now. this I OK.

No So you want It So on this one. It’s So yes, right? They wrote that one Just right and Yeah All Yeah. Christmas. Well is over. You This is excruciating I don’t I don’t sit I don’t this I don’t I don’t sit this I don’t I don’t

sit this I don’t the vote is 223. 58, the article gets required 2/3 in passes, I so declare. You got it. Yeah Hey I Um Article 4-3 I recognize Bill Olson. Thank you, moderator. I moved into the town of Article 4-3 is printed in the warrant. Is there a second? I The crouch.

Uh, yes. Uh, this, uh, zoning by law amendment. Instituted by the building commissioner. And it amends the definition of world’s area for businesses. And also for residential uses, for consistencies. With the definitions in the state building code. Uh, the building commissioner is of the belief that this will provide greater

clarity for applicants and, uh, the, this definition, uh, the one for residential is, however, distinct from the definition of gross floor area for accessory dwelling units that we’ll talk about in Article 4-5. Yeah. Any questions or comments? Seeing none will move to a vote, uh, again, this requires a 2/3 vote.

Oh voting allow a minute to vote, voting starts now. OK No It’s Get British I making A Like Oh You are the 3 P Voting concludes. Chi I 45 No OK, the vote is 245 ya, 45 nay. The I receive requisite 2/3 in the article passes, I so declare.

Uh, article 4-5 zoning by law amendment. Well. Oh, OK. First, Article 44 zoning by a law amendment use regulations, large accessory dwelling units. OK I recognize Marie Crouch. I move that the town approve Article 4-4 as printed in the warrant. too Yes, uh, this article and the, uh, Article 4-5 concerns section 3.0 of our

zoning bylaw, um, use regulations and so the planning board looked at the entire section, but we have two different articles because the boat required for section 4-4 is 2/3 whereas the vote required for Article 4. 5 is the majority. Both deal with, um, accessory dwelling units. What article 4-4, most importantly provides for large

accessory dwelling units. The planning board recognized that there may be instances where property owners who had the space for an accessory dwelling unit but wanted a larger one might opt to do that. Uh, in this instance, a special permit, would be required, but a large accessory dwelling unit is a

detached unit measured in gross floor area that is larger than 900 square feet. But less than 2000 square feet. Uh, but in no event can it exceed 50% of the gross floor area of the principal dwelling unit. In addition to that change in the, in the bylaw, the amendment will eliminates the provision

for conversion or temporary additional living. There it is. That was section 3.4. That section is now reserved. This section of the bylaw was never used by any residents in Hamilton as confirmed by the building. Commissioner. And in addition, the building commissioner has confirmed that no Hamilton property owners have a special program

currently under this section of the bylaw. Are there are any questions or comments? Seeing none, we can move to a boat in this requires a 2/3 vote allow a minute for voting. Starting now. You. that was just passed. I mean, some towns. Thank. Are you put your or your child.

Voting concludes. With Oh, that’s. OK, the vote is 233 53 nay, you had to go to see requisite 2/3 theoretical passage and I sort of declared. Yeah Article 4-5 zoning bylaw amendment accessory dwelling units by right. OK Recognize Marie Crouch. Uh, I moved that the town approved Article 4-5 as printed in the warrant.

Is there a second? Crouch. Yes, this, uh, zoning article permits. Accessory dwelling units by right, and these accessory dwelling units can either be detached or uh attached to or as part of the principal dwelling unit. Uh, the article is necessitated by the legislature’s enactment of the Affordable Homes Act, which went into effect on February 2,

2025. Um-hum. Uh, accessory dwelling units under this bylaw are restricted to 900 square feet or 50% of the size of the primary dwelling, whichever is smaller. Although there are other um restrictions set forth in the proposed bylaw, and if you will bear with me, I can go through some of the important,

uh, Consideration with this new bylaw. Uh, only one accessory dwelling unit shall be permitted. on each lot containing a principal dwelling unit. As I said, the accessory dwelling units under this bylaws section are limited in size. Yeah, except the dwelling units must meet the applicable dimensional requirements set forth in section 4.1.2, the

table of dimensional regulations. The accessory dwelling unit must have a permanent foundation so that no trailers or recreational vehicles. She’ll say or can be used as an accessory dwelling unit. The attached accessory dwelling unit shall maintain the appearance and essential character of the principal dwelling unit specifically with respect to height, compatibler catch and choice of building

materials and accessory dwelling unit cannot be permitted in the front yard of a principal dwelling unit. And the new, the location of any new outside entrance to serve an attached accessory dwelling unit. She’ll be located to the side. or we are of the principal dwelling in it.

Uh, and I, I won’t go through all of them, but what is important is that there must be one off street parking space for an accessory dwelling unit, but if the accessory dwelling unit is within a half a mile radius of the commuter rail station, there is no requirement for off-street parking. Um In

addition, uh, short term rentals, uh, which are defined under state law are prohibited under this bylaw. So, in other words, we’ll, we’ll not have Airbnbs in the accessory dwelling units, and, uh, the Provisions of the historic district by law also pertain to the accessory dwelling units. And I didn’t know that the income and the planning board,

uh, of, uh, the unanimously in favor of this. Are there any questions or comments? Because of the, Enabling legislation this only requires a majority vote. Yeah go to a vote, we allow a minute. Uh, no. Starting now. I think See I I concluded. him. I should show

the vote is 232 59 nay, the article passes and I so declared Article 4-6 zoning by law amendment. Who is your inclusionary housing, uh. I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. I know that the town approve Article 4-6 as printed in the warrant. Is there a second? And Discussion I Yes, um, the amendments Uh, To the inclusionary housing bylaw, uh,

are really an update of that bylaw. Uh, we, uh, have to read it out sole references updated terminology and uh Require that affordable housing units created by this name deep restricted as affordable in perpetuity. Uh, importantly, the bylaw clarifies requirements related to calculation of the minimum number of units of affordable units required under the bylaw.

As well as a calculation of the, uh, payment in lieu of affordable units, uh, both of the, those, those two Bible sections did uh generate some controversy during the special permit, uh, hearings concerning the 133 Essex project, um. So they have not been clarified. Are there any questions or comments? This requires a 2/3

vote. I don’t know what it means Allow a minute for voting starting now. Oh Yeah OK like Those people it means Yeah Mhm They I concludes. Use the left arm for a change. to Yeah you know OK, the vote is 215, 54A. Yeah I go to receives the requisite 2/3 the article

passes and I so declare. Um Article 4-7, zoning by law amendment plan review. Um, Recognize Marie Crouch. I thank you, uh, The planning board may, um, amendments to the article governing site plan review. Um, the purpose of family view is as the name implies to review applications and if warranted, imposed reasonable conditions for approval of projects,

particularly with respect to traffic circulation, public safety, public utilities, the environment and neighborhood character and appearance. Um So, the planning board has replaced the existing bila with a new version, which in many respects is just reorganized and contains the same language. However, uh, we have, uh, Uh, put forth, um, a section, a

subsection to encourage participation in a free application conference. Uh, to provide the planning board and the applicant the opportunity to review a project before, uh, the applicant expenses significant sums. Uh There’s also an opportunity for a design review guidelines to assist applicants and then some of the more ministerial aspects

of the uh existing bylaw will be uh transferred and made administrative requirements subject to regulations that the planning board intends to propose, and then we’ve just updated, uh, the, um, another, uh, respects to, uh, current condition. But the article, is not modify the types of projects that require site plan review or the projects that do

not require site plan review. said. OK, I think we may not have, uh, had emotion. Would you read the motion, please? I did. Sorry. I apologize. I, I, I. Maybe like me, uh, you know. Yeah. Everyone else, they would. It’s just so we have a clear record. Sure. Uh I move that

the town approved Article 4.7 as printed in the war. Is there a second? OK. Any further discussion on this item. Again, this is the zoning article requires a 2/3 vote. Allow a minute to vote. I don’t know 7 and 7 Uh Now OK. No, it’s OK.

one more. and maybe just because. I got to go. 2 It It I concludes. What do you think that OK Yeah She won’t The vote is 238 yang 42 nay. The article receives the requisite 2/3 theoretical passes and I so decla. Article 4-8. Zoning by law amendment. Flood flame.

Overlay district I recognize Tom Myers. I moved at the town approve Article 4-8 as fored. Is there a second, let’s see. Mr. Myers. going Uh, it’s, uh, and then, uh, Yeah. It is intended, uh, to amend, The FEMA maps to reflect current mass, most recently adopted in January 2025. OK. Uh, the, uh,

amended bio contains definitions and other provisions related to floodplain uses requirements, definitions and administration to conform with updated federal requirements and most importantly, uh, this amendment is necessitated because without it, uh Hamilton. Residents would not be eligible to be part of the federal floodplain. Insurance program. Yeah There are any questions or comments.

That Hey, ma’am, are you coming to the OK. He. I think I forgot to say my name and address last time I’m back this time it’s 2:45 Samore Street. I get it. OK, I’m Cathy Simons, 245 Sagamore Street, and I, I’m not sure, um, this is, uh, my comments are not about um your

changed language, but, um, but I think respond to the, to the intended changes in, in this. Um, section, I’m looking at use regulations. 9.2.4, where you’re identify. Are we talking about the, the flood map. Right? Yeah. Am I in the wrong thing? I’m, I’m on appendix. Jay, are we talking about Appendix J? OK.

OK. Confusing. Um, so 9.2.4 use regulations where you handily spell out for folks. Um Uh, what they need to Uh, being in compliance with and you mentioned the state building code, the Wetlands protection regulations. The inland wetland restriction regulations. You don’t mention the Hamilton Conservation bylaw. I don’t know if this is the proper

moment to, to ask you to consider including that week. It’s, conceivable. make a motion on the floor. But that section of the bywall was not amended in any way. That’s, that’s what I was saying at the beginning, so I wasn’t sure it was an appropriate moment to say that, and I have two,

another similar comment that didn’t have to do with your proposed change language, but other language that doesn’t seem fully in, in keeping with your intention. So I, I will send you that information. Instead. Right. And, and we can always take this up at a special town meeting, so. Thank you. You’re welcome. Any other

questions or comments? Again, this requires as a zoning amendment this requires a 2/3 vote. I’ll allow a minute to vote. This. commencing now. Yeah. one Oh, OK. It’s a little slow. You had that issue at home. stand up. It’s a fast one. Oh but No Yeah I No Voting concludes. What Uh, the vote is

255, yay,,, 23 requisite 2/3 theoretical passes and I so declare. Uh, Article 5-1, Citizens petition. I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. I move that the town vote to request the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District and the towns of Hamilton and Wenham and all relevant boards and committees to one permanently abandon their plans and efforts respect

to the consolidation of any or all elementary schools in the district and 2 pursue and use the resources available to them, including any future financial awards or grants from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. To renovate, maintain, and or repair the Bucher, Winthrop and Cutler schools in their current locations. Is there a second?

OK. Discussion. Yeah. Thank you all for hanging in there. My name is Ed McCarthy from 60 Cunningham Drive. I am actually the petitioner for the citizens’ petition. We have some slides to go along with this, please. What is a citizen’s petition. A citizen’s petition is a way for residents,

people like you and me. To get an important question raised at town meeting. It gives the community the power to have a direct say in how the town is run. By collecting enough signatures. From fellow voters, anyone can submit a petition and ask the town to vote on something they care about.

It’s a tool. It’s used to make our voices heard. Next slide, please. What, what kind of the petitions gold. There’s a question on this year’s ballot asking voters if approving 142 million266,000 34 million $34 for the purpose of paying the cost for designing, constructing and equipping a new consolidated elementary school. This is a petition

meant to inform the district of a future direction that they should head in. And that is to stop the plans for consolidation in the three neighborhood elementary schools, the Bucher, the Winthrop, and the toddler. Into one large school and instead focus on fixing and renovating and taking care of the 3 schools that we already have.

Right where they are. This includes using available state grants. And the funding helped to do so. Next slide please. Why does this matter? If the school consolidation vote fails during today’s town meeting, which it did, the district can choose to bring the same plan. Or a variation of consolidated option back to the community

for a revote. We don’t want that to happen. If you believe we should keep our three neighborhood schools open and well maintained. This is your chance. We’re looking for a yes vote. Vote yes to abandon all consolidation efforts. As somebody who was involved in numerous renovation projects from homes to businesses, high tech laboratories, power plants,

and my list goes on and on and on and I’ve had direct, direct involvement in the renovations. There is a misconception of the renovation. In a large renovation project, major portions of the school can be gutted out. New walls can be put and new spaces created and

this is done at a fraction of renovate, repair. The issue is maintenance. We have to maintain what we have. We’ve got an old Chevy right now. If we can’t keep up the old Chevy, I don’t know how we’re going to maintain the Maserati. I just don’t see it happening. So I’m gonna end with If we don’t

maintain, we will not sustain. We need to renovate these schools and maintain them. Thank you very much. We’re looking for a yes vote on this. Appreciate your support. A snake I have a uh bath 270 Asbury Street. I have a question. Um, the point of clarification I had earlier. I don’t know if town council can

answer this, um, I’m wondering on the ballot question, the way it’s written, it doesn’t, it seems open-ended and not attached to this consolidation project. It just says a new school at Cutler. So I didn’t know how long that ballot vote. can be outstanding or if there’s an expiration date on it, or if we need to add that.

I think whether or not that for purposes of a 2.5 dead exclusion question. It doesn’t matter if the ballot question is voted before the warrant article or if the warrant article is voted before the ballot question. In a case like we have here where it’s it’s gonna it’s be picking up we

didn’t know but a reasonable period of time essentially to come back that they warrant article for the same project. Right. Can I ask another clarifying question. So the way it’s written, it says that Hamilton, the new school cutler, so could in 3 years we get an MSBA funding for a new school

at Cutler, and it’s not the consolidation and then this boat steel stands. That’s my question. When did this book on that if you don’t have expiring, I So that I’d like to make a motion to amend. That ballot question I understand that we even voting on that option. How can we vote on something? You

asked us to vote on the election ballot that’s on the warrant. How we vote on that if we can’t mend it. 1 out of orders you want, but what I’m saying is OK. And the juror thing. On this particle On this particle which On this particle On this particle which is purely advisory. I, I would

think we could amend anything on the ballot. You can’t amend anything. No. Then why voting on it. Oh it was I got the warrant. OK, I misundood was that just on that is just to support The select boards every article 11 we voted on. OK. I know, I’m just saying the ballot is on the warrant.

So the business of town, the business of the town of is the time in comparison I understand complication, Joe. I’m not trying to be difficult. I just, you are. That’s OK. I’m just trying to, OK, I apologize for that, but, but this is this discussion is well beyond. advisory article. Well, I think people need to know that.

I know I, I I just finished the important is people need to understand that because there’s 4 votes, and if the vote on Thursday passes, they can bring it back for us to vote again, which is fine and all part of the process, and I want to say thank you to everyone here, because I think we were

outstanding today and how respectful we were to one another. I was, you were well beyond the four corners of this are. Please, Mr. Moderator, may I be recognize? Something that’s already been. We’re not going to vote on moderator. Other questions or comments. Moderator may be recognized down here. OK, hang on, yes, I

recognize the chairman of I do, um, um, and so that said, we did take them today and that vote was 577 5130 to 370 cents. Uh, it was a majority in favor of a consolidation, but it was not a 2/3 majority. What this article does not do, in my

opinion, is ask for us to do a fiscally responsible expiration of all options including rations. And so this does innovation. I think that this is an a narrow strong arming of a process that people spent years on. If the, if the community would like for us to continue to look at other

options. I do not think that a citizen’s petition with 10 signatures should fly in the face of the votes of the majority of people who came to this town meeting. I think that that is thwarting democracy. by a small group of people. bit more. Yeah. What’s the cyclo 60 echo Cove Road. The gentleman

who spoke about the petition, uh, mentioned that our schools were not maintained. Our schools are nearing 60 years old. During the MSBA process, uh, we received some of the highest marks of any or our school district of any or our school district of any or our school district of any or our

school district schools face any incident of any or our school district schools face any incident otherwise but also argue that many of you who are here today have been in the community. the past 30 or 40 years, so I would question why you previously didn’t vote for maintenance if you are not

maintained. Um, just a quick comment, uh, you can’t say it’s well maintained for the past 25 years the same time a decrepit place you want to tear down and rebuild a new school. No Second, uh, the reason I’m here is the importance of this as what is not that there’s nothing, but once again the community we’re

done with again the community we’re done with consulting school again the community we’re done with. Please look at other options. And so There’s also a vote on Thursday for changing some of the slickwood members. It’s an indication to whoever ends up on that board to say, sir, you’re, you’re

getting. No, but this, this is the petition to say if you don’t worry about this. OK Ha Hi, Julie Lineker 1533 Road and we’re all here to think about what’s best for students. It’s about the students, it’s about the learning and therefore we just need to have all options on the table at all times.

I’m looking just at the facts on who is voting, what they are. So the, um, and advisory committee, all of um the consolidated elementary school. That’s minority. Um, I’m just noting here that the the committee all voted unanimously for erection on articles so I think our options on the table.

So in order to do that, we need to say no to this, so we can just continue to explore and make sure that the students. Or the ones at the center getting what they need the best way possible. 24 here. To permanently abandon the plan and efforts with respect to the consolidation of any or all

elementary schools in the district. You have no idea what years years years from now or what’s or to or or what’s to or or what’s to or or what’s to, uh, this is dracon this what whatever your interest is in turning the discussion away from the consolidated project under discussion currently.

This is not, I think, what you’re intending to do. I think you need to, I think this is extraordinarily bit and I just come up and Thank you. Ma’am. higher de suffered of Maple Street. So I think the intention behind this, um, non-binding petition is just to

send a signal to the committees that has been being sent for the last year when people in large groups have been showing up at all the events to say we are not happy with the consolidation. Please don’t consolidation. Look at the poll numbers. Look at, look at these people and the first group here

at these people and the first group here and showing up at these people and the first group here at these people and the first group here and showing up at these people and the first group here, but just the yes for consolidation because they’re not showing out they’re the majority, so they

must agree with it. That’s an astounding, an astounding assumption to make. Or to say 80% of people don’t understand the conditions and so we should, um, reach people. So based on the you know the rule says it’s a 2/3 thresh’s the reason why there’s not much because it’s a high hurdle to me it’s about a

debt to take on, which is going to make people have to leave our community because they can’t afford it, as we heard earlier. So that threshold is important. So when it says no, and then they keep coming back 3 or 4 times, which is what happened to the middle school that makes people bitter

upstairs. stairs. The kids thought they had a choice. It’s a great strategy. This is not a good strategy for being a voter is do you want to consolidate or should we consolidate, or should we consolidate now or tomorrow? Like if the vote is there, it’s 2/3 for a line and a reason. There’s a reason for

that, and let’s not have it be pushed back again and again and again until people wear out and don’t show up behind trying again and again don’t keep doing this. There’s a pattern in Hamilton. Of not taking no. If it had voted yes, I can guarantee that. Yes, it would

have come up some people said they shouldn’t be coming back again. these two and then I think we’re probably ready for a vote. I, I said, these two sir, so just uh before I think it’s in real estate, I think you’re looking to and uh where the possibility that our towns and population could increase.

I think it’s extremely shortsighted to give up a site that’s already being leased for a sensation in your 4 consultation. or not but consolidation doesn’t mean you only get a shiny school if you consolidate, you can have, again, have schools on both sites, even with room to expand beyond what this even says, this is maintain or repair

theoretically, if you keep both color and Winthrop, you could expand those as well if needed, whereas you are in a corner if you just have a big school of winter and no one’s on the field around and have been in the consolidation plan at least for now. Certainly. And in the future, think about maybe

building on the other school sites or doing that. So my, my vote is yes on that just for the prudence of the uh real estate question. Thank you a little bit. Yeah. So your vote is, I do have an issue with saying this is a good um

indication of how this feels because as we saw, we did a lot of. Thank you. I think we’re ready for a vote. OK, this, uh, requires a majority vote. Uh. Yeah Yeah I frustrated that they were like to me. I’m like I have a legitimate question.

And I know the vote is 176, yeah, 135 na the article passes and I said. Uh, before we have a motion to dissolve like to thank everyone participating respectfully, but also the uh town employees. Thank you very much. Is there a motion there? Is there a motion? ing. Oh it’s