OK, it's Don't, don't slide it up. OK, this is the April 14th, 2025 select board meeting starting at 6:36. It's a fully remote meeting. Um, the Zoom is on the actual agenda. Please be advised that this meeting is, is being broadcast live via Zoom. It is also recorded for playback video on demand viewing at Hwcam.org. Please note that other than call to order, all times are estimated items. Uh, may be taken out of order. So call to order. Public input Purpose for a public comment on matters following within the jurisdiction of the select board and not on the current agenda. Note public comment on specific agenda items where the public comment period will be deferred until those items are reached. Rules 2 minutes per person. A person may speak once 10 minutes total. All participants wishing to the address board, the select board. During public comment, may do so in person or be assumed by virtually raising their hand. Speakers must identify themselves by name and street address, the select board may not deliberate or vote on matters discussed during public comment, but are not on the agenda. So let's go to reports and announcements, please. 00:01:36,469 Thank you, Peter. Is there any public comments? Oh, public comment. Um, Steve, I don't know if you wanna have the board just uh like a roll call attendances as well. Yeah, Zoom. OK, Peter, Peter Clay is here. Deirdre Parti here. time in here. 00:01:58,829 Karen Ager here. 00:02:03,200 Alright, so let's take a moment. If anybody in the public has a public comment to we're allowing open public comment for 10 minutes, 2 minutes per person, just please folks raise their hand in the public if there is a question to be asked, please. 00:02:23,800 Let's see. There are no hands raised, Mr. Chairman. 00:02:30,400 OK. Uh, reports and announcements. Let's start with the town administrators update and town announcements, please. All right. Thank you, Peter. Um. As as you know, the, you know, we had our um our meeting last week of just quickly Natalie Bowers just put up her hand. I don't know if you wanna. Entertainer public input. Sure. Uh, go ahead, Natalie. Thank you, chair. I, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit confused with EJ. Is this the time for public input and when people should raise their hand to say a statement? To the board? Yes. Oh, thank you. OK. Um, uh, my name is Natalie Bowers. Uh, thank you for, for, um, calling on me. I, yes, 16 Porter Street. I live here with my husband and two children. I have lived here for almost 10 years, and we moved here to raise our family and to be closer to the to our relatives. Um, you know, and even then finding a home within our relatively high affordability budget in this area was incredibly difficult due to the lack of, of housing. Um, I am here to share my support for, for adopting swiftly the MBTA community zoning, uh, known as 3A, um, which will allow Wenham to, uh, encourage new multi-family homes in the town. Um, similar to so many other places, home prices have been on the rise, um, in our town for some time. And diversifying housing options in our town, including small town homes and um 2 and 3 family homes could really alleviate stress on the housing market, on the residents that are here right now. Um, new homes will mean new options for seniors to downsize, opportunities for young couples, um, and families to stay here, and affordable options, uh, for teachers who help raise our children and even police and firefighters who protect our communities. Uh, the lawsuit in Milton that we all watched and we, we, we took audience for has officially codified 3A into a law that we must adopt. Our own town has a long history of evading the responsibilities asked by our Commonwealth to provide housing known as missing middle for families for too long. 3A was born specifically to stop us evading the family responsibility in 40B. I'm asking that we show strong support and we adopt this now, and I am hoping that the select board is spending their energies embracing this law, and I'd love an update when you get a chance. I support multi-family overlay districts, um, and thank you for the opportunity to comment. 00:05:35,370 Uh, we also have Sherry, uh, Tilly as well. 00:05:43,269 Go ahead, Sherry. Great. Thank you. Can you hear me OK? Yes. Great. Um, I apologize in advance because I'm fighting, um, what I think is allergies, but maybe a cold is I'm sure, um, some of you are as well. But, uh, I'm Sherry Tilly. I live at 100 Cedar Street with my family in Wenham, Massachusetts. I'll keep this brief. Um, I just want to say, you know, the town demonstrated strong support. For school consolidation at both the town meeting and polls recently, and given the importance of this matter, and particularly given the level of public interest, I just respectfully ask that the select board convene another special town meeting to vote again and keep school consolidation moving forward. Appreciate your time and effort, particularly uh in support of this project, um, and all that you do for the town. So thank you. 00:06:35,930 We'll have uh Kate Snyder as well. Um, go ahead, Kate. Hi, good afternoon, everybody. I'm Kate Ripucci Snyder at 8 Morgan Street here in Wenham, and I just want to echo my support for Sherry Tilly. Um, we would really love to see the support from the select board on helping our students get a new consolidated school. So that's it and thank you all for your time. 00:07:08,569 Any other comments, questions, please raise your hand for public comment. 00:07:15,399 Uh, that is a 00:07:23,870 All right, that's all. 00:07:27,370 Yes. All right, great. All right, so I think Joe is frozen. I'm not sure if he's talking. Oh, there's it. No, you're back. Yep. So last week was our annual town meeting as well as our local election, which we will discuss in more detail later in this meeting. Uh, however, you know, we had to quickly we shifted gears here at the staff level pretty quickly to start focusing and preparing for the special town meeting that is tentatively scheduled for June 9th, um, originally intended to for the uh proposal for the for the residents to vote on 38, um. 3A zoning. So we've been working on a fiscal impact working group The planning board has been busy working through the with that. 00:08:17,470 process, uh holding public hearings as well as a public hearing for Spring Hill, which was held last week and will be further discussed later on tonight. Um And uh as well as putting together a relatively long list of requests uh before the select board for inclusion on special town meeting. We have our special state primary that's only affecting precinct one on April 15, 2025. We have all the ballot information up on the website for folks that wanna check it out. I just got an email this afternoon from Um, the grant coordinator from the Green Communities division, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources that we have the green light on the 500k for the town hall. So that was good news. We did get an award letter a number of weeks ago. However, we had some paperwork and additional hoops to jump through before we finally got the green light to complete to begin work on the project. So we just got that official word. Today, so that is really the final piece of the funding puzzle, and now we can get together with the contractors and put in a put in place a working plan on how this, you know, how this project is going to unfold where we are going to be occupying the building throughout the uh throughout the installation of the system, and it's going to require us to move around the building as the months go by into areas where uh construction is not being done. Uh, and then, um, Kate also notified me that they have a, a free tree program hosted by Ipswich River Watershed Association, so that's going to be pick up a free Tupelo tree seedling to celebrate our Arbor Day Tuesday, April 29th, 4 to 6 p.m. Wenham Town Hall, first floor. We'll be pushing this out on social media as well, and that is all I have for this evening. I'm gonna reserve my comments until we talk about the town meeting and the election, please. 00:10:35,629 Yeah, likewise. 00:10:41,230 Um, just one comment from me, and it pertains not to the past election, but just a reminder to those voters who live in precinct one in Wenham that there's a special election, uh, tomorrow, uh, to fill the state representative seat that was vacated by Judge Jerry Paris. And uh for those who are listening and aren't sure whether they're in precinct one or not, it's roughly speaking, the eastern half of Of Wenham, uh, the split occurring on one side of Main Street and on Porter Street and a few other streets near there, and then extending out towards east towards Hamilton and Beverly. That's the part, the part of Wenham that's precinct one in very rough terms. Um, and so I hope everyone will, uh, exercise their Democratic franchise and go out tomorrow to vote in the primary elections that are on the ballot for that seat. 00:11:39,299 OK. 00:11:42,370 go, so go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to say, um, my faith in humanity was, uh, restored this afternoon. Um, our Hamilton one of Girl Scouts have been doing a, um, pledge for the both towns for the last 3 weeks regarding, um, gathering items for the animal shelter, which effective this afternoon was stolen. Um, the police have been notified and the, the police, um, files and claims have been Uh, completed. Um, but unfortunately, they were all stolen. Um, but my faith in humanity has been, um, has been resolved because our community has stepped up and will work very diligently in the next 24, 48 hours to replenish that supply for the Girl Scouts. So I just want to say thank you to everybody who participated in that. Um, thank you to the police who were uh quick to help us out and um just wanted to Um, say thank you to everyone that participated in, in, uh, helping our girls really get back, um, what they've worked so hard for. So, thank you. That's terrible. Yeah, they stole it from my house. So, It's pretty, not so great. But the girls have been doing it for weeks. We've had flyers everywhere. Um, it's completely unfortunate, um, so. We're just assuming that um some unfortunate family or family in, in an unfortunate situation took the took the items and hopefully they can use it in a way that um will help their family. But I had hoped that maybe they wouldn't have stolen from the Girl Scouts. 00:13:25,769 Brutal. So Kevin, thank you for your team, your team has been great. 00:13:32,769 I always like to hear it. Can we slide down so I can uh do the consent agenda, please? 00:13:43,370 Oh, consented ended routine items for approval in a single motion allowing them to be passed without discretion unless held and we have none. 00:13:56,200 You just get off your chest. 00:14:11,929 New business items for individual consideration. These items will allow for public comment. 10 minutes. Purpose the comment period will allow for public comment on individual and will be held before or after the board's discussion of agenda items, um. Rules 2 minutes per person. A person might speak only once, 10 minutes total per item unless noted on the agenda item. OK, you're all set, Steve. 00:14:46,470 So a number of months ago, uh, the select board requested that Um, the police review the speed limits throughout town, um, and their appropriateness. And uh so what Kevin has done just that, he has I'm gonna share a memo that Uh, I think I shared with you through email last week, but, um, that is drafted by Sergeant Marsh, uh, with some recommendations, and, uh, Chief Di Napoli is going to walk us through that. 00:15:24,029 Good evening, everybody. Thank you for having me. Um, Dave, Dave Marsh did a nice job following up on this, and I, and I say that with a heavy heart because we only have about 3 more weeks before he retires and you'll hear me say Uh, he's just been, uh, just a solid employee, uh, uh, a go it again. 00:15:43,570 to, go to officer in my tenure here. So, um, this is just another example of of him, uh, you know, helping, helping the cause. So, um, he's certainly, certainly gonna be, gonna be missed. Um, what, what he focused on is he ended up, um, Recommending 10 modifications and our changes. And in doing that, what I also did is I went back, I actually wanted it to be the, the um most recent uh review, if you will, and I went back a calendar year literally to today, and I was able to break it down in our records management system that allowed me To look at how many vehicles we stopped on literally every street in town. And so, um, if any questions do come up or, or you'd like to know a specific street, I can tell you how many stops and then how many, um how much money and fines, whether it was a warning or whether it was a Uh, specific to a, um, a money citation, if you will, and it ended up being in on all streets, uh, a, a year ending today, it was, um, 1,989 stops. So, to, to call it 2000 stops on the different, um different streets and, um, so the officers should absolutely be commended for their um officer-initiated activity, um, going above and beyond, uh, to help keep things safer. In some of these recommendations made by Sergeant Marsh, um, I, I, I candidly think, um, As I go through these, that in, in other municipalities, and I think what might be make most sense here is to um respectfully with the, with the board's approval to, to bring them to 11. Um, mile per hour speed limit in, in the entire municipality. And I think that would be the cleanest, safest way to go about that, other than obviously the uh state road, uh, which, uh, we're unable to do. Uh, but with that said, ahead of time, I will go through what Sergeant Marsh has recommended after his careful review. Um, and on each street, he, he, uh, these were his top, top ticket items that he noticed, Arbor Street. Uh, from Juniper to Maine to bring that down to 20 due to the proximity to the Buer school, and then also to bring Porter and Bruce down to 20 in School Street. Um, 20 MPH currently, it's not posted just to have that posted. So, in any of these changes that we do end up going with, uh, that the board approves, obviously, uh, DPW's gonna, we're gonna need their assistance to help out with the signage cause it will affect the signage changes. Top sale rule, the existing 35 mile per hour zone should be changed to 30, and 30 mile per hour zone should be changed to 25 near the Cherry Street and Maple Street uh intersection. Um, Cherry Street, the existing 35 mile per hour zone to 30, uh, in uh 2025 zone remains unchanged. Latch row, uh, the, the existing 35 would be dropped down to 30, and again, the 25 mile per hour zone would be unchanged. Grapevine, uh, the existing 35 to 30, 25 mile zone is unchanged, and then Uh, the 76 Grapevine Road from Gordon College to 128, that should be 20 MPH. Hull Street, 30 down to 25, and then Robley Road, 35, uh, down Those are Sergeant Marsh's recommendations, but like I to 30. 00:19:31,670 said, um, You know, I, I, I personally think, an easier way to go about it, uh, is to have the whole municipality down to 25. And uh I think it would be easier for the public, uh, it would be easier for the signage changes, it would be easier for the officers relative to enforcement. And I just think it's hard to find a, a negative, um, the, the clear signage on the main routes coming into town could say all roads, you know, in Wenham are 25 MPH. So, all, um, you know, access points, the main access points into town would show that, and then through Um, muscle memory and the folks that live in town and the people that travel through town on a regular basis, would get used to that. And then with any changes, even if it's just these 10 or if it's only a few, the way the officers usually go about these type of changes, whether it's a speed limit change or whether it's a Different signage or a new stop sign, what have you. Uh, the officers, the best practice that we've always done and that I've done in my career is to, um, use it as information at first, so people are aware and start off with warnings to give people the opportunity to get used to that. And then after, you know, a 3 or 6 month period of time, and the people should know by that point, then we start with more, uh, serious enforcement action. 00:20:57,869 Cabinet, they've got uh New Hampshire plates, you ought to nail them right away. there you go. Uh, so, uh, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I'd also be happy that if you have a question about a specific street, I have the printout with me. I'd be happy to tell you how many motor vehicles, uh, we stopped on that street in the last calendar year. 00:21:24,569 Yeah, thank you, Chief. Um, I really appreciate this and uh even realizing that we have a speed problem, some of it was still surprising, um, the extent of it. I have a question about Topfield Road Route 97. Do we have the ability to change the speed there? I, I believe we do. It's my understanding Main Street is the uh 1A is the only one we don't, and I would obviously have to check on that. Just in Topsfield Road, since you brought it up to 225 um motor vehicle stops on Topsville Road for speed in the last year. And these numbers. Initially, would probably go up, but for the right reason, because the speeds are probably gonna be high according to whatever the new speed limits are. So you, your initial reaction would be to see some of these stops go up, but then, hopefully, uh, over time, they would go down and certainly be, be safe. That's for sure. I'm definitely in favor of a town-wide speed limit. I think that would be great. 00:22:33,730 Uh, I'm supportive too. 00:22:39,369 Um, as somebody who has, uh, witnessed the jaws of life right outside of our house on 97, as well as, um, a plethora of 100 mile an hour motorbikes, and then, uh, one dirt bike that didn't make it over the hill, um, not that long ago. I'm fully supportive of this. It's been something that we've been pushing for for quite some time as residents up here on the hill. So, Um, this is, uh, a no-brainer. And to answer your question, Deidre, uh, we actually own the It used to be owned by the state, um, but the state has entire route. 00:23:12,869 given the rights back to multiple routes and um, Rick Susan and I have had conversations about that. Um, as far as, uh, DPW services goes, um, the state was able to get a grant to help pave the actual 97, um, and the entire route. But all snow removal and those kind of things actually fall within, within um Wenham itself. So I'm fully supportive of the 25. 00:23:39,000 Hey, Gary. 00:23:42,000 Good evening. Just a quick question too. Uh, when we looked at Bruce Lane for that speed change, uh, do we run into state or mass DOT as far as reducing the 20 around the school that's not bounded by the actual school? 00:24:00,200 I, I will have to check on some of the particulars if there's any pushback that limits us, and I will certainly reach back as I, um, as we start to pursue it. I, I don't believe. 00:24:17,799 It would be, it would be an issue. I, I don't believe so, but I could certainly get a straight answer on you on that one, Gary. And Per Perkins is not on here. Um, is that just a matter of because it's already in school zones, so they're not talking about increasing or decreasing this, the amounts? Yeah, that's probably why he left it off. And it's funny you say that when I was at the polls the other day, a, a gentleman that lives on Perkins, uh, did express concern as, as well. And, uh, he was, his major concern was midweek. Actually, wasn't in school hours. It was between 4 and 6 in the afternoon. So I did put that out to the entire department for, um, more enforcement activity. Um, but yeah, that's probably why he did not put that on there. It may have, frankly, just have been missed. Um, and, and we can, you know, it doesn't have to, we can always go lower in certain areas. I mean, certainly all roads other than school zones can be 25 and the schools can be 20. We can, you know, do it like, like that if that, and that's, it wouldn't be that labor intensive to, you know, make the school zones all 20 and every other road 25. I think that's more than reasonable. 00:25:38,529 That sounds good to me. Ben, Ben, were you waiting? Um, the chief answered the question I was gonna ask, so. OK, I have to, I have to just ask then, uh, where did Maple Street fall? I know there's a lot of concern here and on Burley Street. I've heard from residents there as well. Well, let me see. 00:26:07,730 Maple Street, 71 stops on Maple Street. In the last year. OK. So, yeah, quite a, quite a few. Um, and, and, and a lot of this is, like I said, is a testament to the, um, you know, we have a lot of officers that are certainly passionate about getting out there and being active, and that's huge, and it's all, there is absolutely in, in my career, I've seen the direct correlation uh between this officer-initiated activity and the um the ratio specific to not only uh accident reduction, but crime reduction as well, and And I, I think we, you know, the visibility footprint that the officers have done, I'm super, super proud of them. Um, they're, they're, they're active. The, a big push too is, uh, during those heavy commuting hours in the morning and in the, uh, in the afternoon that they're out there invisible, uh, because it does slow cars down. Just seeing a mocked cruiser out there, uh, certainly, uh, makes, makes a difference. 00:27:10,200 Joe, we have um David Dockett on the line that has his hand up. 00:27:16,099 Mr. Chairman, is, is that OK to allow the speaker, David Doggett? 00:27:26,130 I think you're muted, Peter. 00:27:32,000 Uh, Deirdre, what do you think as vice chair? Yes, I think so. OK. 00:27:44,369 Thank you very much, David Doggett, um 5 William Fairfield Drive. Um, I appreciate you taking the time um to listen to my comments here. Um, so, Chief, really appreciate all the work you've done to keep this community very safe. Um, as a resident of William Fairfield Drive, one concern I have with the Kind of allotted limits that you have here is our street is typically used as a cut through, um, and if the speed limits around us are lowered, but our street is not, um, you know, we could end up with a little bit of a superhighway situation which already does happen. So you guys do a great job patrolling the area on 97 year. Um, Richdale, but then you'll just see some traffic move onto our street if they see a marked cruiser. Um, so it kind of creates another situation for us as well. Um, and my children are out biking on the street and whatnot. Um, so we're always very concerned about the speed and we'd, we'd really appreciate if we could lower the speed limit on this road as well, um, in line with the surrounding roads, because it is a cut through. Right. No, I appreciate that and I agree, it, it definitely is. I mean, we can look into some additional signage as well. Uh, some of them candidly have teeth, some don't, but it, they never hurt relative to something to the effect of, you know, no through traffic. Um, if it's, there is, it is against the law to avoid a traffic. Control device. So if you see a vehicle, you know, say cut through a parking lot to avoid a, uh, an intersection, um, it, you know, if somebody was stuck, for example, at Winfrey's, if they're stuck at that light and they don't want to wait and they just wanna, um, bang a right on to uh maple, um, then it, it's, that's, you can't do that. Uh, but in, in this case, I don't know, I don't think it really fits that, but it definitely, I agree with the fact that, uh, especially at a high peak traffic times where that would be, that would be a concern. We can actually, um, certainly get some more enforcement down there as well, um, to make sure officers, are there certain times of the day that you're noticing it, sir? It tends to be around commuting time, um, and then kind of middle of the day on weekends as well, um. 00:29:52,230 Kind of like peak children activity times is when you notice it. So Yeah, and I think David, uh, 3 of us already are leaning towards the townwide lowering the speed limit across the board, so I, I suspect where we're headed in that direction. Yeah, thank you all. I have no further comments, but I appreciate, um, you know, just the thoughtfulness around this. Thank you. Awesome, thank you so much. Thank you. 00:30:28,869 So we What's the goal tonight? Are we, would we vote next time, Steve? Yeah, why don't we let um Um, Kevin, uh, rewrite. This memo for what we discussed and then we can do it next next meeting. 00:30:51,369 So just so I, I make sure I'm, I'm on the same page, uh 25. All right. 00:30:58,630 Uh, school zones 20. Is that you wanna agree? OK. Um, yeah, I will write that up. I will submit that to, uh, to Steve, and, um, I can't thank you enough for your support and uh always supporting the, the police department. It's, uh, super appreciative, so I will get that done and, uh, absolutely, uh, submit it. Thank you, Chief. Thank you for all the hard work. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll pass it on, absolutely. 00:31:30,029 I see. 00:31:40,670 Mhm. 00:31:43,099 Michelle. 00:31:58,670 The next B is uh this is an opportunity for the select board to discuss um the June 9th special town meeting warrant. We have not opened the warrant, so this won't be for the official inclusion, but, you know, there are a number of article requests here, and I figured you would need the time to discuss it and kind of walk through them as as for timing. 00:32:26,630 You have um. Assuming the date for the special town meeting holds at June 9th. We would have to post the warrant. Two weeks prior to that, so that would be essentially Friday, the 23rd of May. Would be the absolute drop dead date. Uh, keeping in mind that if we were going to mail it to the residents and try to get them in there, I wasn't, you know, this can be also another question for the board if historically one of them, at least for the annual town meeting tries to get a physical warrant into everybody's mailbox about 2 weeks ahead of time. If we were to open and close the warrant. On Tuesday the 6th, which is our next meeting. We, uh, there's a high likelihood we could get that out about a week to 1 week and a half, um, in folks' mailbox if You know, if you don't, you know, if that is something that you're not looking to explore due to the special time meeting or the short nature of the warrant, then, um, you know, you could continue your discussion onto the 20th. So just so you know that the time, the timeline and and the restraints. And before you, uh, on the screen, if Michelle, you can scroll down a little. The summary of the annual town meeting and these are The 12, scroll up a little bit, uh, the, the 12, um. Items that have been requested for the special town meeting. I remind the board that they did uh intend to keep this warrant light originally it was opened uh the date was set for 3A, um, and, you know, the idea was to keep that as a separate item. however, uh, the board did want to discuss the possibility of adding some additional items to that warrant. 00:34:33,170 Sure, if anyone has any questions or discussion points, they want to start with, you've seen most of these before we went through them during the uh warrant planning for the annual town meeting. Yeah, so I'll just make a point here. I think we do need to do one. 2 00:34:59,900 And 4 Those are all each each of those positions are created under mass general law. 00:35:12,469 I think we need to just talk about it, but I, I guess an overall point is I am concerned about. The length of the special town meeting, we're doing an evening session. With at least 1 if not 2, Potentially very controversial items, so I think we need to be conscious of not allowing this to get so long that we're gonna be there for hours on end. You're just my, my thought, this is not gonna be a big, these three things are not gonna be a big deal. This should be like bang bang bang. 00:35:50,170 Maybe, but I guess I, I would like to hear more about why these three positions specifically should get stipends and not across the board. Because each one of these are created by a mass general law. See what it says on local acceptance of mass general law. Yes, I can read it. That's not the question though. But there there aren't not general laws for other positions. It's still additional compensation. 00:36:24,730 What's wrong with that? So I'm questioning the fairness. So I'm raising that as a question. Well, if you'd like to go back and and get the legislature to change mass general law 41, Section 19K. Then go ahead. Peter No, I'm not looking to do that, but there's no requirement that every town accept these. I think it is a point of discussion and a question to ask. All right, I, I'll let you guys talk about it. 00:37:04,199 Be So my perspective is that, that we should. Um, Any of the Items that we think should be on the town, special town meeting warrant that aren't 3A or potentially. Uh, the cutler school should go at the end, cause I do think people will show up. That evening, you know, ready to discuss the, the bigger ticket items and then some of these, I agree, are kind of. Probably quick discussion items, but I don't wanna have too many quick discussion items at the front front end that. Cuts into You know, important time for people to debate the one or two large issues. So looking at these, I think I, I, I don't have any problem with 1 through 4 being put on the warrant, um, and letting people decide that, although again I think that should be at the end. To me, I think, I think 5, we could, we could defer. I think that we could defer 9, and I think 11 is a significant enough. Proposal, demolition delays, that's a, you know, that's an important topic. I don't, unless there's a really compelling reason that it be decided this year, I'm thinking that's something that would be better suited for next annual town meeting. Um, And those are the ones that jumped out at me as not really needing to be. In the next town meeting. And then I think we also need to have a placeholder here for Spring Hill, um. As well. So those are my feelings, so. Karen 00:38:55,030 I'm gonna echo Ben, um, and taking a look at the articles, I think 1 through 7, are, are pretty. Self, um, self-sufficient. I think from learning anything from the town meeting from two weeks ago, people's main focus are going to be on the larger topics and that Peter, uh, I do believe that you're right. I think that we're gonna be able to fly through some of the other, um, smaller items that may not always have gotten the attention at the other town meeting. But if we put them ahead of the 3A or potentially the school and other things, we'll be able to Move along pretty quickly. I totally agree. I think Ben's spot on move moved after a 3A in in elementary school. But I like 1 through 7. I'm not opposed to 8 through 12, but um yeah, I think that 1 through 7 is pretty, it should be on the list. Gary, I'm looking at Ben said about Spring Hill, then I think if that goes on, then uh we should get number 10 in as uh the uh party there came to the uh select board earlier and we're essentially holding up their whole construction if they can't purchase that property. And then uh 12, I think, aren't we uh having a vacancy right now because of the uh. Lack of a representative from the uh. Wham, Hamilton Wham record department or the committee. Is that right, Steve? Oh sorry, I was muted. Um, yeah, that, that's correct, Gary. Basically, the way it was presented to me that the CPC was originally created before we had um the Wenham Open Space Committee, and uh so they went to the, the joint committee and now that we have a dedicated committee that fits. The box, so to speak, and plus we have an extremely hard time finding anybody interested in participating on the uh on the REC committee. This, the CPC brought this or is bringing this request forward. 00:41:10,170 So I would like to see that vacancy filled with that little switch, and I don't, I'm not sure that any of these are gonna take up all that much time, but I would go with Ben that let's get the big 3A question out of the way first, and then uh just work through the others here. 00:41:31,730 Michelle, can you just scroll up a little bit so we can see the articles that are included so we don't have yeah. 00:41:41,300 That's from the annual town. So I don't, so where is 3A on here? And it's the 33A is the is is just assumed as a constant. OK. Is there a way just for scroll down it should be Spring Hill. 00:42:00,570 Spring, oh sorry, there should be Spring Hill, um, it has is requested to be on. 00:42:10,099 So as you know, the planning board had a hearing last week. As well. 00:42:14,300 Uh, I sent out their memo to the select board with favorable. Uh, action to for the select board to place the Spring Hill sub the the ways within the Spring Hill subdivision to be accepted as public ways, uh, with, you know, with, with the caveat that uh the select board sort through. The, um, actually, Michelle, you have that memo up uh if you could pull that memo up, so I would uh sort through the operation and maintenance plan, um. And uh Make sure that all the necessary easements that we're working through are accepted by the town that the high level view is that uh really there's 22 outstanding uh items, and one being the easement. There is an obstruction, however, we have, um, Rich and I have visited the site and Rich believes that the the the homeowners have proposed an alternate. Location for the easements and um Rich believes that he can access what he needs to access through that easement uh with some, you know, creating a ramp and whatnot with stone and a leaned or a um A, uh, you know, something will be filed with with the mortgage uh at the registry of deeds that holds the town harmless for any damage that's done and all repairs to get it back to the original condition would be on the homeowner, and this would survive through, you know, any future homeownerships, and then, uh, additionally, uh the operation and maintenance plan. I believe the uh the planning board recommends that the select board um Except the way with the homeowners association maintaining the obligations to maintain the uh the stormwater system within the sub subdevelopment and that um The my most recent conversation with Shain, one of our town councils, is they are working on with uh Rob Ansel, who, who is uh who the tonight with his hand raised. I'm sure he wants to to speak, is um That they any, any, I guess insurance's interpretation that, you know, to accept the public ways would ultimately, you know, if Disaster struck or it wasn't maintained for whatever reason in the in in the far future, that the town would ultimately assume responsibility for maintenance of the system because they have to keep uh the way open and safe for travel by both the public and public safety. Um, what we're proposing now for, you know, the residents are proposing and uh insurances working with them to draft it is an agreement that places the responsibility. Of maintaining these systems on the residents of Spring Hill, and in the event that the town does have to step in to um do any maintenance or improvements to these systems to uh maintain their integrity, that the uh the town would be reimbursed for any any expenses incurred by the homeowners association that the homeowners association was unable to reimburse that uh they would be uh liens would. The tower will be able to place liens on their homes to recover any costs. Um, and again, Rob, Rob, their attorney is here, uh, Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if you want to allow him to speak. He does have his hand up. 00:46:07,000 Are we supposed to decide on this tonight? no, you don't. 00:46:13,829 Well, I mean, I think that you know you might want to have a discussion uh if you have any questions, right, because you know we can, we can come back to you next time with the answers. This is just out of the planning boards, 00:46:28,630 have any questions? I think it would be helpful to hear from Robert Ansel. 00:46:40,570 Question from Gary, under the terms, would this be characterized as a betterment in case we needed to uh get reimbursed on the town side? 00:46:51,670 Um, that I don't know the answer to, uh, based on my discussion with Shain, it would be similar to a tax lien. So, you know, you might not recover the costs immediately, but in the event that, uh, an ownership is, you know, changed or, um, and, you know, the town's liens are are first up to be to made to be made whole. Cause I'm just looking at uh betterment, what requires 80 or 85% of the parties, but I think in this case, we really need all 100% of the parties signed on to this agreement. Yeah, and that's what Mr. Ansel is working on now is getting all parties to sign off on that. 00:47:53,199 Yeah, are we still talking on the um on the agenda for the 9th meeting? Did we just go right into this? Well, we went into this because this is an item that needed some backstory that a lot of this 00:48:07,230 information developed in the last. 2 or 3 business days. So this will be number. 1313, and then just to clarify 3A will be 1. Or what whatever number we're giving it at some point, but it is on the list. Yes, yeah, 33 is like, I think, at least in my Uh, interpretation of discussions is is basically the reason why we're having it. So that's, that's a given. 00:48:37,900 The reason for the meeting and the school consolidation potentially. 00:48:48,570 So I just have a, I have a question about one of the other ones and I, I, I'm, I'm not saying that we're necessarily. From my perspective done on the Spring Hill discussion because I know that attorney Ansel has his hand up, but just, um, as we're sort of maybe reaching consensus on which of the ones on this list of 12 would drop, drop off potentially, um, number 8, the finance and advisory Committee appointment. Process and changing it is that. Something that has some urgency to it in anybody's eyes or, or could it wait. Roger our time moderator is. Here, yeah, and that's the, he's the chair of the committee that requested that he could probably weigh in if he's available to speak on on his sense of urgency. 00:49:54,469 Sorry, good evening. It took me a minute to uh Get along. Good evening, uh, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um, so I think that the, uh, so the, the proposed, uh, Amendment to the appointment bylaw sorry again Roger Smarri 7 Onion River Road, town moderator. The proposed amendment here, um, brought by the Finance and advisory appointing Committee would include would add a provision to the appointing bylaw that covers the situation if the uh sitting chair who is a member of the appointing committee, uh, is up for reappointment. Uh, in other words, if the person who is the sitting chair and is ordinarily a member of the committee is up for reappointment and thus would have to either recuse him or herself or present a conflict, the assistant chair or vice chair of the finance committee would step onto the Appointing committee in their place to avoid the conflict and also avoid the situation where you would otherwise have a potential for a 11 tie vote. Um, The urgency of this was actually something that Presented itself before and affects the current appointment cycle, which is something we're going to be doing in the next couple of months, so the opportunity has kind of come and gone to to get this changed for the uh current appointment where the current chair of the Finom is still in their first term and would be potentially voting or having to recuse, um. So, in terms of the June uh special town meeting, uh, I don't think this is uh Of pressing import uh at this point. It's more of housekeeping uh that should be attended to at some point in the future, uh, at this point. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. 00:52:06,099 So if I may, I think just in, in the, um, I appreciate, um, moderators marriage, um, giving that assessment and background. Um, You know, if we, if we do want to streamline some of the noncore. Issues and the core issues again, I think it's clearly 3A and potentially color school, um. That in my mind anyway, 589 and 11 would be ones that could. Could drop off. Well, I'll speak to 9. 00:52:43,469 Which was my request and I guess I feel it's as urgent or not urgent as many of the others that have been suggested to stay on the agenda. Um, I actually think it's important it's, and to be clear, it's not limiting participation on all boards and committees to people being on one across all boards and committees it's specific to policy making boards which I think we would need to discuss the list, but it's about. Select board, uh, planning board, some of the elected boards, potentially, um, board of health assessors, water. The ones that are elected and that are creating policy. And I think it's important because I think it is problematic for people to be on multiple boards pushing single agendas and voting multiple times on same or similar items from different boards. I think it's part of the principle of reducing conflicts of interest, separation of powers, and those ideas that if you're on a policymaking board, that is your focus and that's who you represent. So I feel again, it's as urgent or not urgent as many of the others on this list. 00:54:09,170 But I think that a lot of the people who are present this evening are looking to hear. The 3A is on the warrant, that the school consolidation that we are considering placing that on the warrant, at least in the Spring Hill will be on the warrant. That's My guess. Gary, I'm sorry. Gary or something to say. Yes, I was just gonna speak. Number 11, I think, could take a while because certainly it's an important one, but I think that might be uh. People have definite pros and cons, feelings, so I think that has the potential of confusing 3A and or taking up a lot of time. And then on um 00:54:58,800 Let me see, number uh. 7. I'd ask Steve, do we have any uh kind of a dollar figures on that, able to get? 00:55:12,630 And we don't, we don't have dollar figures, but I, I can certainly pull that together. It would range from, you know, anywhere from 11 day pay to 30 days. 00:55:24,829 Next meeting whenever we're going to go for this. 00:55:30,269 Oh, the, oh, actually the uh oh number 7, so that's, that's left over, but that I believe has been remedied to the satisfaction of the board, um, with the recent Um, Union settlement, so we opted to go to a uh a lesser amount than what is allowed on chapter 33 section 59, which is basically um unlimited and uh we were able to negotiate um putting a cap at 30, it was 30 days or 32 days, and the boy was looking at potentially exploring that into its personnel bylaw um to apply to the entire organization. Cause I think you just as you said. We need to make sure it's not just in one contract, but uh applies to all employees across the board. Yeah, and, and the select board, if that's where you're looking at, if it's not the adoption of the chapter 33 section 59, the select board actually has the authority to do that, uh, without town meeting vote, they can amend the personnel bylaws. Themselves with a with a public hearing. 00:56:55,099 So that doesn't have to be on there unless you want unless you're looking to adopt it, that specific section. I think the public hearing and the select board action probably easier and less confusing. 00:57:11,670 I know you can remove 10, I mean, we're not, the request is still there, but we're really not in a position to. To finalize it given the timeline that we have. Is that the one at Pleasant Pond? Yes. 00:57:30,400 So as of now, what are we removing? I think everyone's kind of said 1 through 7 works and then 8 through 11 we're questioning. 00:57:41,869 And there's 00:57:45,769 We do want to just go through one by one and take a vote that 00:57:53,630 We can, that might be helpful. 00:57:58,030 With a couple of caveats, I guess if the main three articles are first, then I'm OK with many of these being on, but as I said, I think There are none of these are really more urgent than the other, in my opinion. 00:58:21,099 I just have 11 follow-up, um, Deirdre, with respect to number 9, I mean, one concern I have with that is just to take an example of two policymaking boards, the COO and the water commissioners. Like I wouldn't wanna. Preclude You know, a highly qualified person, like a hydrologist or something from serving on both those boards, given that it's difficult to fill a lot of these. Positions, although I, I, I, we all were probably surprised to see that the, the only hotly contested elected positions on the ballot last week were the two water commissioner slots and when I served on that commission, it was Uh, not as, uh, scintillating, I guess as it is now. But anyway, um, so, so I, I don't know whether, and I, and forgive me because I think that you had drafted something in the past that's, you know, that expands upon what's here in the summary on number 9, but would you anticipate that Before we, before this would go on the warrant that. There'd be more definition as to exactly which boards we're talking about, cause like, like I said, I think there are certain boards where we wouldn't want to. Limit One person's ability to serve on multiple policymaking boards. Yes, and I guess maybe that's not the right. Term, but I, you know, maybe it's elected boards. Yeah, I think that definitely needs more definition. You know, it's already in the bylaws restricting Fincom, so I think along those same lines, the sort of primary boards. Um, are the ones that I would include, but yes, it needs to be discussed. 01:00:11,769 And I would include school committee though I don't know that we have the ability to do that. 01:00:19,000 I, I might be wrong, but is there, uh, if somebody is an elected official, do we have the authorization to Not allow them to serve on a roll. I mean, if they are truly elected by the town members, I mean, is, is that legal? I think we had this checked. Steve, is that right? Yeah, we'll get KP's opinion. I mean it does look like some communities have. Um, something similar, restricting, but we'll AP when they drop the uh warrants will give us the final. Oh, articles, excuse me. 01:01:01,670 Yeah, the example I found was uh Stoneham. The language that I had pulled. 01:01:10,230 Mr. Chair, would you entertain a, a motion on this? 01:01:15,670 I would. So I'll move that on a preliminary basis, the select board. Uh, include The following 01:01:30,030 Potential articles on the special town meeting. Warrant 01:01:38,829 Um, And those would be 3A. 01:01:45,400 Potentially a cutler school. Expansion revote if if requested by the school committee. 01:01:56,199 Numbers 1 through 5, I'm sorry, numbers 1 through. 01:02:04,730 46 Well, I, I think the consensus seemed to be. To to do the dog registration one, and then I think 6 was a consensus item. So I was gonna, the motion I was gonna make was 1 through 6 on this on the list that's been provided to us. Um, 01:02:27,670 As well as. 01:02:31,300 9 01:02:35,000 10 12 And a vote on street acceptance for Spring Hill. 01:02:45,400 Except not 10 because we're not ready, Steve said. 01:02:52,030 OK, I thought that I thought Gary, you'd mentioned 10 as being something that was holding up a project. Well, I just see it as the same as Spring Hill that the town is doing something for a particular property owners and um. Just a fairness, but as Steve said, if, if the uh The folks don't have the paperwork ready then. Well, it's not it's not the people I'm not sure we can be ready in time, the request is there and like they won't go away, but it's a title property and that could be a lengthy process. I'm not sure if we have. To go ahead right now. Well if that's, if that's, if it's something the boy wants to consider, I can certainly have a timeline, you know, if it looks like we can make it, we'll start working on it tomorrow, but if not, I'll, I'll propose a timeline to you next time, and we can put a plan in place. And I'm sorry, did we, I realize we're in middle of motion, but did we, um, did we decide that 7 is no longer necessary because of the collective bargaining agreement? That's correct, and the board wants to expand that to non all union members and non-union members. So yeah, 01:04:12,099 as I said, I just use the bylaw process. All right, so, so I'm gonna withdraw the partial motion I made just for the benefit of the uh of uh. Ms. Tinsley in the minutes. So I move that. Uh, on a preliminary basis, the select board include the following potential articles for the special town meeting. Number one, 32. Cutler school expansion if requested by the school committee. Uh, next on the list and then this order would be. Numbers one. Through 6 on the list provided to us and then followed by. 01:05:00,570 Number Numbers 9 01:05:07,829 And 12. On the list As well as potential street acceptance for Spring Hill. Second. 01:05:21,769 Any discussion? 01:05:25,630 All right, let's wait, hold on. I'd like to get more information on 9 from a legal standpoint before we put it on the, on the warrant. I want to make sure that that's that's out. So it's a preliminary list. 01:05:42,730 But to vote for 9, I'd like a little bit more information from the lawyers to make sure that that's. That's allowed and legal. 01:05:52,630 Fair point, but I think procedurally, like this, I made the motions been seconded so we I think we just have to vote on that motion at that at this point. OK, Peter Boats, yes. Deirdre, yes. Ben, yes. Gary yes. Karen, yes. And to Karen's point, we're gonna have to take another vote on this anyhow after the warrant's open, right? Yes. 01:06:31,500 Um, Robert Ansel still has his hand raised, Peter. 01:06:36,869 Go ahead. 01:06:44,000 Uh, go ahead, Robert. Are you gonna circle back to Spring Hill, or is it gonna be included on the warrant? 01:06:52,500 We just included it. OK, that was the final vote. 01:06:58,469 Yeah, The preliminary list, so the warrant will be open next time officially. Is there anything more that we need to do before the board of Selectmen? 01:07:11,570 It's select board just for like board. 01:07:15,929 I don't think so. 01:07:22,130 And we do need to have that. We're going to continue. Um, To get that those liens in place, right, that would. I, I've been in consistent contact with. Yes, I think that that's the assumption is that an agreement like that will be in place uh to recover costs. Yes. We're working out those details. Thank you. I, and I'm really sorry that I just said select one. I, I've been a select board advocate in numerous communities for a long time, so I'm sorry I said that. That's OK. Thank you for your apology. 01:08:07,469 OK, so I, I guess I'm out. Thank you. Thank you. 01:08:23,899 Would you like to put up an article that says that they no longer can say selectmen? 01:08:31,569 I think we did that already. 01:08:35,130 Um, just to clarify before we move on. For the school consolidation, so the next steps would be to invited be asked to do so by the school committee is that what I heard? 01:08:48,470 Yeah, they're voting tomorrow. OK. 01:08:57,229 Thank you. 01:09:02,829 Any further debrief on last Saturday's town meeting? 01:09:08,630 Review 01:09:12,470 Yeah, there is, um, the, a little bit of confusion at the beginning, um, with families being turned away from the cafeteria, uh, and told that they had to attend the family room, but they were locked out of the family room because it was overpopulated. Um, and so we had a few families that were a little frustrated because they were asked to leave, um, the cafeteria area. So, um, I do have a list of those names, and I'm more than happy to send those over to, to Roger. Um, he can take a look at that, but that was a, a small Um, Issue. 01:09:52,569 Like Roger's hand is raised. 01:09:58,369 Roger, do you have something to add? 01:10:02,869 Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so, uh, uh, as the town moderator, again, Roger Sm 7 on your River Road, um, it, it saddens me to hear, uh, that anyone was, uh, either turned away, or, um, given the impression that they were being turned away. I would note that that would be an issue that would be raised with the town clerk's office as the um. The department that handles the check-in process, the moderator is not uh responsible for the check-in process, but I think it's been clear during my, my tenure that everyone who is a registered voter in this town is welcome to town meeting and should certainly be given. Every opportunity to exercise their rights as a voter at town meeting. So that does sadden me to hear that either there was, I suspect, some miscommunication, but that that impression was given to anyone. I'm hopeful that those voters were able to find a spot in the cafeteria or in the gymnasium and participate, notwithstanding whatever may have happened during the check-in process. 01:11:16,829 They were not They had to leave. But I will certainly send that over today. 01:11:26,100 Yeah, and let me, let me just, if I may, Mr. Chair. I know, go ahead, Roger. Uh, my policy is that Voters do not need to be in any special room to have kids with them at town meeting. Uh, we have had on plenty of occasions, children with parents in town meeting, whether it's in the gymnasium or elsewhere, and it's not a problem. Um, I know on Saturday there was a moment when the volume in the cafeteria became an issue. and, you know, I made an announcement and just asked folks who were in there to be, uh, you know, respectful of, uh, their fellow voters and the need to hear what was going on, and I did not hear anything further about that after I made the announcement sounds from everything that I heard from my assistant moderator and other folks in the cafeteria, uh, that, uh, everything went pretty smoothly in there, um. Uh, and there were no issues of, um, Of note, so that's Definitely something that is disconcerting to me as the moderator, uh, and I hope that that issue uh can be brought to the town clerk, uh, and Raised and addressed, um. I do think that there was some confusion uh by some of the election officers as to what the uh kindergarten room, family room, whatever whatever label you want to put on it, um, what it was for, um, so it's unfortunate to hear that it had the effect of some people believing that they were not allowed into town meeting. That should not happen under any circumstances. Mr. Chair, uh, Diane Bookco has her Andreas. 01:13:27,829 And sorry, someone is not muted. If they can please mute. 01:13:33,800 Thank you. 01:13:36,770 Go ahead, Dane. 01:13:40,029 So I will take a deep breath. This is Diane Buca, 73 Topsfield Road, Yorktown clerk. There was no one at check-in that was turned away. The check-in officials were aware that there were 30 signed up residents. Reserving the family room. If they were not signed up, we told them to go to the overflow room, which was the cafeteria. After that, I heard nothing. So if people were turned away, it was not due to any election officer duty at all. I'd also like to say, That children of course are all welcome. Every town clerk in the world would want absolutely everybody to attend any election event. I would say that I don't think that we need a so-called family room because children aren't are invited at any time, and if we have an overflow room as well, they could go in there as well. I do think that there was A little bit more angst with the three separate rooms. Um, and maybe it wasn't exactly clear to absolutely everybody who was, um, Working the event. So I do apologize for anybody who felt that they needed to leave the meeting without Without voting, but everybody who came in to participate was allowed to come in either as a voter or as non-voter. As you look forward, To a special town meeting that will be hopefully as well attended. I would recommend that we try to limit the amount of rooms, primarily because the clickers. had a lag because there were so many clickers and 2 receivers. So if we limit the rooms. I think that the clickers would work better and there might be less worry among the residents. Other than that, I want to say that it was a very large town meeting, an annual town meeting. It was unbelievable to see all those people come out. I think it was extremely well run. I think our moderator held everything right to point. We got through the business in an amazing amount of time. I want to thank everybody for what we did, and I'm looking forward to future town meetings with Just as many people for whatever business that comes before us. Thank you. 01:16:17,100 Thank you, Diane. Mr. Chairman, uh, the moderator has his hand up. 01:16:26,369 Sure, would you like to speak? Yes, just briefly, two more points. Um, first of all, and thank you, uh, Diane for, um, your comments. I certainly, I apologize if I came off as sounding as though I was stating that any of Diane's staff turned anyone away. All I was saying was that if there was an issue at check-in. That would be something to be brought to the clerk's attention, not the moderator's attention. I did not hear of that happening, and I thought Diane's staff did a fantastic job on Saturday given the what we believe to be a record turnout. Um, so kudos to, to everyone that Diane had working on Saturday. Um, I'm hopeful that Uh, no one was actual actually turned away, and if someone felt that they had to leave, it was an unfortunate miscommunication, um, rather than, uh, you know, an actual, uh, actual incident, um. With respect to the family room, uh, I, I do share some of Diane's um feelings about it. Conceptually, I think it is a great idea. We had, I believe, 6 voters in that room out of the 30 people um that could be in there with code capacity and that includes um my uh uh the assistant moderator that I appointed, um. I certainly know that, you know, there were uh. A large number of children in there and that was the purpose of it, um. But Danan's absolutely right that having to use the second transmitter created a pretty significant lag on the votes being tallied by the computer system. It also created a bit of an issue that we had to spend about 10 minutes at the outset of town meeting working out to make sure those clickers were actually people were seeing their their vote during the test run. Um, So I, I think conceptually it's something that Should still be on the table going forward, but maybe there needs to be a different way of um handling that so that uh perhaps the cafeteria can be made an even more family friendly space than it already is, um, so that we only need the two rooms, um. Uh, and can fit as many people as possible, um, within that, that space from a logistics standpoint, um, it, it. Would Certainly, um. Streamline things from a logistics standpoint, uh, both between the technology but also in the event that we have to switch to voter cards, it's a lot easier for me to confer with a single other assistant moderator on what the, you know, the eas and nays would be with voter cards than it would be with 3 rooms, um. So, you know, I, I, I think it's, it was a great experiment and I think it's something that should be considered further, um, but I think to Diane's point, there were some Uh, you know, some issues, uh, along with the good, um, so that's just my You know, my, uh, reality sort of check on it while again saying that I think everything we can do to get as many voters into town meeting, um. It are things that we should be doing in the town. Karen you something to say. 01:20:23,029 Yeah, I was just gonna reiterate that I, we thought it was really successful. My daughter was in it. My husband was in it, um, the family room. And that, um, just to remind everyone, this was a, a test launch. Um, we've never done this before. And so it was something that we knew that we were gonna have some kinks in the armor a little bit. We're gonna have to figure out some of the process. So, um, for any meeting moving forward, I'm in full support of this. Um, my only quick question regarding, um, You know, having the numbers, how many people were in the cafeteria? 01:20:59,399 So we had 6 voting adults um that ended up being in the children's room, but we had 15 to 17 children at one point. And so, you know, because they were also counted as people, um, that was over 30 something people in that room. Um, so my question is, is how many people were in the cafeteria? 01:21:22,770 Diane, do you have an answer for that? 01:21:29,100 Am I still on? Yeah. Yes, um, you know what, I don't know cause we didn't. I don't know if Roger knows. I don't, we just kept a track of how many people in totality and the election officers in the family room had a strict limit to 30 persons regardless of age. So I don't know if that that the the cafeteria was full or not. Mr. Chair. Go ahead, Roger Roger. I believe the cafeteria was full. Um, we had, I think it was 160 or so seats. Um, in there, but um I'm to understand through my assistant moderator who was in charge of that room, and others people were standing in the cafeteria just as they were in the gymnasium and sitting along the edges of the rooms. One thing that I would say is that if there's a way of getting the cafeteria tables out of the cafeteria, um, and whether it's into the hallway or somewhere else, we could certainly fit more folding chairs in the cafeteria, um. But we lost a pretty significant amount of room on, on the sides of the cafeteria because the tables were folded up and, and taking up the floor space, um. Yeah, I, I, I don't think we're going to get almost 600. Registered voters at another town, I mean, if, if we have the school consolidation and and 3 at the same time at a special time you, I guess it's possible, um, but, but it was a But yeah, I believe there were, uh, probably a good record turnout. 01:23:08,670 close to probably 200 people in the cafeteria would be my guess. Deirdre, do you have a point? I do. So I would like to say first and foremost, thank you to the town for showing up as has been noted in record numbers. I think it was an amazing turnout. And a wonderful thing to see everyone come to town meeting and come together to discuss and vote and make their voices heard. I want to say thank you to the staff for organizing and producing an incredibly successful town meeting. I want to thank Roger as our moderator for doing a fantastic job. Diane, the town clerk's office, and all of the volunteers, I think did a wonderful job. Everyone that I saw was smiling and friendly and helpful, and I thought they were fantastic at getting everyone in. I want to thank the Fincom for all the work that they did preparing for this town meeting. And I also want to say congratulations to Ben and Peter on their re-election. David Anderson getting re-elected to the planning board, and I think I'm missing one. There's a library trustee on the ballot also, and also, as was noted earlier, I think a historic contested election for two seats on the water commission. I think that's amazing to see. Congratulations to Ernest for being re-elected and Colby Stoddard. Uh, to being elected to the water commission, and I think that that's an incredible sign of the engagement of the people in this town and how people are stepping up to take part in local government, and I appreciate it, and it's incredible to see, and I encourage everyone to keep looking at those openings. And join uh join the rest of us, join the party. 01:25:12,630 And Um, Mr. Chair, under, under item C here where it says debriefing on the town meeting and discussion of action items moving forward. Um, I, I do have some thoughts about action items moving forward with respect to the Cutler school, and I don't know whether you anticipated that that would be, um, Discussed this evening. 01:25:38,170 I don't think we're gonna discuss it this evening. 01:25:43,000 Right. 01:25:45,869 We, we voted to, um, We voted to to include it on the special town meeting warrant. If the school committee recommends that, um, so I realized we've done that already, um, but I defer to the chair as far as whether We're entertaining, uh, additional thoughts on uh Cutler school consolidation and the special town meeting. 01:26:16,199 Well, I think it all starts with the school committee. And whether they vote tomorrow. To try and get this uh. Back on the ballot Back in the town meeting. 01:26:32,100 I think there's a um Just if I, if I may, just on sort of a related point. To that Um, so, and, and I thank you, Deirdre for your comments and I, I totally agree with all of the um accolades that you gave about everyone involved in, in what was a historically well attended. Town meeting, um. So Something like 63% of Wenham voters voted in favor of the Cutler School expansion project at our town meeting, which, as we know, fell short of the 2/3 of threshold that is in the current. Uh, regional agreement, and then something like 59% of when of voters last Thursday. Supported the project. So I think it raises an interesting question as to whether um when you have strong majorities of voters in our town who support something like this project, Whether um their voices should be. Um, 01:27:42,829 Um, overcome by the 2/3 threshold in the regional agreement. The regional agreement does have a provision in it. For amendment. And it's pretty a pretty straightforward situation. Where the school committee can propose an amendment. To the regional agreement and then forward that along to the two town select boards. And the, the 2/3 provision in question, which is Article 9 authorization of debt under the district agreement. That has this 2/3 threshold. Um, cites to the state statute that um covers authorization of debt for regional school committees, Mass Generalized chapter 71. Section Section 16D. And that state law does not require a 2/3 threshold for authorization of debt. It requires only a majority vote. Which in my mind is more appropriate for a situation like this. And I would like to urge the. Um, the school committee to consider. Seeking to amend Section 9 to align it with state law and. Make the threshold for approval a majority vote rather than a 2/3 vote. And that would be something that logistically. Could be achieved if the school committee agrees and the select boards agree in time for a potential revote on the Cutler school. It would be a transparent process where the town meeting voters would would vote on that question first, and if the majority of town meeting voters in both towns believe that. The Cutler school question should be decided on a majority vote rather than a supermajority 2/3, that allows 33% plus 1 person to block something that a majority might want. Then that can be voted on, and if it's approved, it would change the threshold for approval on the Cutler school. So, um, those are things that I, I, I think are reasonable and should be put to the voters, but to your point, Mr. Chair, the ball is in the school committee's court at the moment. Yeah, but I love your idea. Um, Gary, you want to say something? Yeah, just a couple points. Yes, I would certainly support Ben's proposal there and also echo Deidre's thanks. I hope everyone understands how much work goes on behind the scenes to get a town meeting done. Last main point is though, if we have the meeting on the 9th, we're planning a warrant hearing on the previous Monday, the 2nd. And is that going to have an opportunity for the select board or uh uh planning board, or even the school committee to come in and present the factual information more online of a form rather than just a quick review of the particular warran articles. 01:31:02,369 So, that last was a, a question that uh I see a need for the warren hearing to be a little bit expanded and either uh pre-approved briefings that the select board and others can view from the town staff or the school committee if that comes about as a proposal as well. 01:31:24,800 Cause I don't think uh all the numbers on the 3A are out there either. 01:31:36,369 Yeah, we can certainly put that together, Gary. Uh, I, I, I anticipate a pretty robust commentary around 3A, uh, in, in the warrant. I know, uh, I'm working on a fiscal impact study that We'll be ready in time. I for having that public hearing next week. And, you know, certainly build out uh A lot of information that will be able to be um distributed to the community. Thank you. 01:32:16,630 OK, so we, do we think we've completed the debrief? Pretty good discussion. 01:32:29,770 Mr. Chairman, we do have a hand up in the audience just just so you know, I just wanted to uh alert you. Go ahead. 01:32:38,100 Uh, Peter Fisher, go ahead, please. 01:32:50,569 Hello, Peter Fisher, you can speak if you'd like. 01:33:03,630 He's not speaking, so I assume going once, going twice. 01:33:15,369 All right, so we're gonna move on from C. Old business items for individual consideration. These items will allow for public comment, 10 minutes. purpose this comment period will allow for public comment or an individual and will be held before or after the board's discussion of the agenda item at the discretion of. You got the of the chair. Rules 2 minutes per person. A person may speak only once, 10 minutes total per item unless noted on the agenda item. 01:33:48,869 No old business. I mean, you can move. OK, no, no, you can move to old business 01:33:57,729 business items for individual consideration. No, oh, I'm sorry, the other matters. As may have not been anticipated by the chair, discussion only. 01:34:13,869 No, just can we confirm our next meeting date that May 6th? 01:34:24,000 May 6th 01:34:27,529 I brought up with Steve today. Um, is there a way that we could take a look at the schedule real quick for, um, June, up to June. I know that as a group, we are looking to set goals and some expectations. But as far as um schedules and summer activities, it would be great to just throw out some ideas. 01:34:54,369 If possible. 01:35:02,300 Not 01:35:17,899 On Fridays that work better for. Folks and others. 01:35:23,729 Like historically we've done a Friday morning. 01:35:31,930 Yeah Wait, Friday morning, what are we talking about, the workshop? 01:35:38,729 Yeah, I think just getting uh getting something on the books before everybody gets too busy. With summer plans, um, just so we have a time to at least start the discussions. 01:35:58,399 13th May 13th. No, June, June. 01:36:10,229 May 13th is, is that the last day of school? No. 01:36:16,630 No, June 13th, Friday the 13th. 01:36:21,529 I'm available June 13th if um let me just double check that. Um. Yeah, Friday June 13th is open for me if that's if we're talking about holding up. An annual select board workshop on goals that morning that would work for me. Me too. Likewise, should be a good date. We'll know the results of the special town meeting by then too. 01:36:46,630 We won't know the results of the Hamilton. Town meeting because theirs is June 22nd. 01:36:55,369 If that would affect any of our plans or consolidated efforts, we won't know that by then. 01:37:04,369 If that matters. If not, June 13th does work for me. 01:37:10,470 And we're talking like 8 to 12? 01:37:16,000 It works for me, whatever you guys wanna do. 01:37:21,470 As long as Peter brings coffee. 01:37:26,500 I can do that. I'm just kidding. But you can 01:37:38,729 All right, are we done? 01:37:42,829 Do we need to have this after Hamilton? Or do we, can we do it before? 01:37:49,569 Oh, sorry, Gary. 01:37:52,770 I just say everything except the school is uh. Will be pertinent for the 13th, so. 01:38:02,100 If you remember last year this discussion carried on over several meetings, so I think It'll probably be enough to talk about, I mean I'll. I'll be able to do it, you know, at a minimum give an update on where we stand with last year's and we can, you know, talk about what's going to be continued on to the new fiscal year, any new objectives that are on folks' minds and you know just start, you know, playing in the groundwork we're putting together the goals and objectives sheet. 01:38:32,930 Sounds good to me. I'm putting it on my calendar 8 to 12, Friday the 13th, which I put it that way, maybe we don't want like bad luck. And regular select board meetings the 3rd and 17. Yeah, that's what I have and it works good because then it goes right to the first meeting and uh oh, actually no, July 4th of July. I always forget about the 4th of July. Oh, we're good because July 1 is a uh. Tuesday, a Tuesday, so that'll work. I'm not here that week, but you can be without me. 01:39:12,300 Alright, are you ready for a motion? Can we just backtrack? So, if the meeting is going to be on June 9th, we have to have the warrant open on the 2nd? Or the the meeting on the 2nd to. 01:39:27,630 Is that right? What are we talking about? Yeah, so that doesn't have to be 7 days before. 01:39:39,369 So we have a meeting on the 2nd, the 3rd, the 9th, and the 17th. 01:39:46,630 And the 13th? 01:39:50,300 Yes. OK. And then May 6th and the 20th, are there any other days that are needed? 01:40:00,569 And as far as the special time uni. Yeah. 01:40:06,000 The the posting date. Is the 23rd That's the absolute drop dead date to get this posted. 01:40:20,500 Do we need a meeting that day, or no? What's that? Do we need a meeting that day? No, we don't. I'm just, I'm just giving you guys an idea. And I think We were looking to open and close the warrant on the 6th. Of May Can you open and close it in the same meeting? Yeah, it looks like. We're going to do that, um. And then we'll post it on the 23rd. I excuse me, then we will post it like the day after. And then we'll still be able to get something in folks' mailbox, but if anything happens between now and then that delays it. Um, you know, we're gonna have to make a decision and it probably any later than closing it on the 6th, probably wouldn't allow us to get warrants in people's mailbox. It would become uh electronic distribution. Just so you're aware of that. 01:41:21,229 So just to recap, we have the 6th, the 20th, June 2nd, June 3rd, June 13th, June 17th, July 1st. Yeah. 01:41:35,670 See you guys more than I see my parents. 01:41:46,800 Move to adjourn at 8:18 p.m. Second. 01:41:53,100 Ready to vote, Peter says yes. Youa. Then yes, Curious, curious. 01:42:02,130 Adios amigos. Thank you too bye.