and being very well projected here. um present, uh, this evening are Peter Clay, Karen Anger, Gary Cheeseman, and Ben Tyman for uh select board members. and the first item on the agenda is public input. This is for any matters on which members of the public would wish to comment that are not otherwise on the agenda, and we limit each person to 2 minutes and a total of 10 minutes. Um, are there any people here in the hall, uh, who would like to make a public comment. It was a constituent earlier, but she’s gone. All right. And is there anyone uh online. No, there’s not. OK OK All right. Um, hearing no public comment that brings us to town administrator’s update. Steve, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, cup first, um, for my updates. I just have a couple updates regarding some questions that were raised by the board last time, one being, uh, a specific planter safety at Cherry and Main Street, so we did have the police go out and do a safety check on all the planters, uh, the garden club did plant some new plants this year that grew much taller than anticipated, and we, um, or at least the, the police determined that a 48 inch. overall height would be appropriate, so the all the plants in town should now have now been trimmed down to the 48 inches and will continue to monitor that. Uh, Peter, you were curious about, uh, the cedar and cherry and cedar and Topsfield, Rhode Islands, you probably noticed by now that they were being rebuilt and that’s why the planter boxes were removed. One had to be removed a little bit earlier because it was hit by a car and demolished in the DPW has to build a new one, but those islands have been replaced and look much better along with the arbor street paving. and then, uh, we did go out and drive the grapevine Road between 22 and Gordon College and as we discussed, we, we located where an additional 25 mile an hour sign should be placed. It was done that afternoon, was it? OK. All right, good. Yeah, so they were Rich said they’d go out and take care of that right away. Perfect. Uh, so we were able, we sold, I know we’ve been talking about, uh, the town auctioned one of its first properties off in a long time on Pleasant Street and it was uh sold for $26,400 plus plus fees. There was only one bidder. It was the individual that um had expressed interest in the party in the parcel originally, so that parcel has been disposed of. and we’re working through the paperwork now, with, with the new owner. Uh 1A is, you know, definitely starting to gain traction. We were in a couple of media. We, we have a standing weekly meeting with DOT and right now they are finalizing the easements and takings, uh, well, temporary easements and any permanent takings that need to need to happen for the project to take place, so we’re going to be, we’re anticipating the final plans we know generally what needs to be done though we’re anticipating the final plans to be delivered to the town within the next week or two, at which point we’ll start contacting landowners, luckily the only permanent taking from what we can tell is only a small sliver of land out near the corner of, uh, the fire station and its town on land, so that should not be a problem. Uh, the rest are temporary easements that are needed for construction of the way and the improvement. So those involve 7 to 10 private landowners, so we’ll be reaching out to them once we know to try to work through securing those temporary easements, and it will be something that needs to, excuse me, be on this April’s town meeting, uh, for the taking process. and um there are a couple of a couple of encroachments that we’re working through and hopefully, you know, they’ll be able to work around that being like stone walls, fencing, and there’s actually one garage that they believe is Croach is an encroachment into the public right away of the state road. Um, and then finally, the fiber ring we did the switchover on um the 4th, so Friday or the night between Thursday and Friday sometime early in the morning. They switched over, so we’ve now disbanded the physical server at the police station in the town is fully operational on the virtual server that’s physically located in Danvers, but we have a virtual environment created over there and we’re now networking through the newly installed fiber ring that connects all the buildings and um and then ties into the North Shore collaboratives fiber loop that connects a number of communities here up on the North Shore that do their IT through the town of Danvers. So that was a pretty, that’s a pretty big milestone where still some anticipated problems popped up, which seems to always be the case with IT, but nothing, nothing really major. We’re we’re working through those, uh, you might have noticed a little hiccup in your emails on Friday morning, but that was, uh, ironed out by before noontime. So wouldn’t you guys were sending us the test No, that was so that was a select board, um, the select board, I don’t know lack of a better word, it’s like boardwide email. So if somebody emails and and we we put it up, it’s called Selectboard at 1MMA.gov. So if somebody emails that, it comes to all the select board members plus myself, Joe, and Michelle, uh, it’s kind of like a one to catch all. So if they don’t know who to email, they can email everybody. and we had gone live and tested it, but evident what came to light was that when we could tell Yahoo and Gmail. did not for whatever reason deliver so they had to change some settings in the background, but it’s since been tested and now it’s live and works with Gmail and all the other, uh, email domains. And that is all I have for updates tonight. Steve, can you give us a quick update for the, um, the MPH in speed zones. Sure. So that, uh, still that was last week, it’s completely um the town is completed. The townwide movement from, you know, 20, all 25 miles an hour unless otherwise posted, uh, with the exceptions to Topsfield Road and 22, which we have which are still, although we are on the hook for maintenance of those roads, the state still has control over the speed limits. So we have filed the, uh, we have filed the application in our currently working with the state. They’ve requested additional information such as uh like speed trap data pullovers, citations, things like that. So we’re working with the state trying to get them the information they need so they can make a determination as to what we can do with the speed limits on those two roads. 1A is completely off the table. They, that is strictly governed by the state and we won’t be able to make any changes there. Steve. Oh, yeah, and one, and then, uh, kind of extension of mine, but Joe has a number of personnel updates that I wanted him to go over with the board tonight. All right, thank you, uh, Steve and Mr. Chairman, just, I wrote up a quick update on the hiring we’ve done over the course of the summer. um so went and made several exciting hires over the summer and early fall, and I’m pleased to officially welcome these new additions to our team. First, we welcome our new permanent coordinator Margaret Maggie Baldwin. Magg, you earned a bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Sunni Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She previously served for many years as a federal employee with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Secretary. Since joining us, Maggie has hit the ground running, providing valuable support to both the building and health departments as they navigate various permanent applications. uh, thanks to the building inspector Richard Maloney for serving on the interview panel with me. Next, we’re excited to welcome Nicole Dickerson as our new assessing clerk, data collector, uh, Nicole holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from UMass Amherst. She brings with her a strong background in real estate, having worked as a private appraiser for Manchester by the Sea as a certified residential real estate appraiser Nicole brings a particularly valuable skill set to the assessor’s department. She’s already been out in the field with our assessor Terry Fontaine, conducting inspections. Many thanks to Terry and Board of Assessors chair John Buco for serving on the interview panel with with me. We’re also pleased to welcome Stephanie Casabby into to the Council on Aging as our new administrative assistant, Stephanie recently accepted the town’s offer and is expected to begin work in the in the coming weeks. She holds a bachelor of Arts degree, uh, in sociology from Boston University and spent many years in the IT field. Most recently, Stephanie has been working as a shine counselor, also known as serving the health insurance needs of everyone with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We look forward to her starting and bringing her wide ranging experience to the COA and on this interview panel, I was joined by COA Director Jim Reynolds and outreach coordinator Jeannie Moran. So thank you to them as well. Finally, we’re proud to introduce Kara Washington as Wenham’s first shared health epidemiologist. Uh, this is a role made possible through the eastern Essex Regional Public Health Coalition, also known simply as the coalition. I had talked about this coalition at a previous meeting uh this past summer, but as a reminder, the coalition operates under the umbrella of the Special commission on Local and Regional Public Health and represents a collaborative partnership between Wenham, Hamilton, Essex, and Rockport. The coalition enhances the effectiveness and cons ist ency of public health services by sharing resources, personnel, and expertise across member communities. Kira earned her Master of Public Health and Epidemiology from UMass Lowell, and most recently served as the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. where she focused on health equity initiatives, infectious disease surveillance, and public health data analysis. Her position is funded through the coalition grant, and we’re thrilled to have her on board Just a quick update on the uh Department of Public Works. We did extend an offer for the DPW’s driver operator position, but the candidate unfortunately declined. However, town administration continues to actively work to fill this role as well as the current vacancy for a DPW mechanic. Overall, I’m extremely proud of the town’s on boarding efforts this summer. We look forward to hosting a welcoming reception for our new employees in the coming weeks as we fully step into the fall season. Thank you. Thank you, Joe Um, any other questions for either Steve or Joe from board members. um, I don’t have any comments other than to welcome everybody back to in-person meetings and hope everyone had a pleasant summer, um, and also just to note for the record that select board member Perrati is present and uh with that, I will see if any other members have comments under the reports and announcements section while we um start to the left with Deirdre and Go in that direction. Oh OK, today, um, I was fortunate enough to spend the day at the Statehouse for sustainability Day. I think it was the first time this was done, but it was a terrific event, uh, with Kate Mallory and I, our land use director went to, um, sustainability Day, and we had a terrific time, lots of inspiring people to talk to many, um, people from other municipalities. We got some great ideas. We had 2 members, excuse me, of our climate committee. Also attend Lucy McGovern, the chair. and Tom Starr, we heard a keynote address from Melissa Hofer, the Massachusetts climate chief, and there were a lot of groups there that work in the climate space, um, so it was a great day to talk and, and really be inspired. And I want to thank Representative Hannah Bowen, who sent us the invitation. We spent some time chatting with her. We saw, um, Representative Kristen Castner was there, had a great time talking to her. And Representative Sally Kares was kind enough to, um, invite me in to see her office, and we had a great conversation as well, so terrific day, um, being in the statehouse, being in the company of all these inspiring people. So I want to say thanks to everyone who was part of that. Thanks, Peter. I have two things. I and I think at least Gary. I’m not sure about anybody else. Went to the Friday Night Lights first game. against Triton on I mean that facility is spectacular. I mean, absolutely spectacular. and um um I went and watched a women’s soccer game this afternoon. It’s amazing. I mean, they have so many fields over there. and they finally have tennis courts So we actually have tennis courts so we’re not like trying to play in Pingree Park or all kinds of other places. The second thing is um uh the garden, um, next to the regional school offices and School Street. They did an absolutely fabulous job with that. If you had to just drive by and take a look. It, it’s, it’s amazing. Yeah, our contractor did a great job. Yeah, you, you’ve seen it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, um yeah, they did a, it compared to what it looked like before, which was just overgrown scruff Now it’s, it’s, it’s beautiful. That’s it for me. OK, Gary? Nothing, OK. Actually. Yes. I got some. Yeah, thanks for mentioning the garden, um, yes, Kate and I did the proposal to do that garden over again and our contractor, Wyn Mulre did a terrific job. Obviously, the plants need time to settle and grow in, um, and we still have finishing touches to do, but I think overall he’s done a terrific job Excited to finally see that project come to fruition and I also wanted to say congratulations to the schools for another thing because I was delighted on the first day of school. to not hear because they’re silent but see an electric school bus pull up to my front door to pick up my daughter and that was thrilling and that was a wonderful collaboration with the Hamilton Wyndham Climate Action Team. The school’s superintendent school committee and Highland bus fleet and somehow pulled off a grant and got these buses online for the start of school, which was remarkable turnaround. Um, so I was thrilled. The only problem is you can’t hear the bus coming, so you have to watch for it cause it’s so quiet. But tremendous progress. All right, thanks very much. That moves us to item B on the agenda uh under new business, potential vote to approve the issuance and details of a loan from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust and sign-related interim loan note closing documents Staff to provide an overview of Clean Water Trust’s septic loan program, followed by a select board discussion on potential vote to approve and sign the loan. documents. Steve, yeah, Jeff’s here to shed a little bit extra light, but just um quickly for folks, this was uh approved this program was approved at our April, most recent April town meeting. Um, and basically it’s a, it’s a very um advantageous funding source for folks to to get their septic systems done, but Jeff can fill everybody in on the, the details of it. Uh yeah, thank you, Steve. So, um, yeah, we actually, this was approved in April of 24, actually, and it’s taken um about a year and a half to get it up and running with the Clean Water Trust. Um, so we approved as a town $500,000 to participate in this program. And sort of think about it like a credit line. So what we do is we open the program up to residents who have failed septic systems. Uh, they have to have a failed system. They present that to us and then they can receive funding from us. We give them funding ahead of time um, and then we apply to the, to the Clean Water Shos to, uh, reimburse us for what we’ve fronted to the resident, uh, so yeah, in very short order, 30 to 45 days where ho on the money we’ve given out, uh, and then that resident will enter into a betterment agreement with us typically for 20 years they can go a shorter time if they, uh, so choose, but they’re able to get a loan through the town through this program for 4%, um, which is still very advantageous, uh, relative to like a HELLO or or a mortgage, uh, at this time. So it’s really a great program. What you’re signing tonight is the interim loan agreement. So what happens is they will probably give us like $200,000 in our first tranche. And when we, um, utilize, let’s say over $100,000 they will take that amount and they will package that up with other loans from communities all over the state to actually sell a big huge bond, and at that point, that first tranche will we’ll start paying on the amortization and things like that. Uh, at that point in time, but it could take in Essex, it took almost 2 years for us to start making a payment after receiving funds. So, um, it’s, it’s a great program and there’s really no cost to the town. It’s a great benefit to the resident, um, and, uh, and we actually because we pay a lower rate, we pay a 2% rate to the Clean Water Trust. We charge 4% to the resident, which is still advantageous. Um, we will make money on this over time, which you then can actually based on my quick calculation, we might make enough money to go over and above the 500,000 and maybe support another 2 or 3 systems over and above, uh, what we’ve been authorized with at at at town meeting. So, uh, I’m really happy we got it off the ground. We actually have the first person, uh, is in the system right now. We’ve just told them to go forward, uh, which I believe is, it’s, it’s quick based on my experience in Essex, and I, I don’t believe Hamilton is actually funded one of these yet. and they approved this ahead of us. So we’re, I, you know, I think some of the residents feel like we’re behind, but I think we’ve actually done this pretty quickly, working with the Clean Water Trust, so that’s all I have and that’s kind of the summary, but if anyone has any other questions. Uh, thank you, Jeff. Any questions, uh, for Jeff? Do anything else? Nope, that’s all. Thank you. All right, thank you very much at Entertain a motion to approve the issuance in details of a loan from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust and to sign related interim loan note closing documents. Go ahead moved Is there a second 2nd, Peter Clay. All right, we’ll uh take a roll call vote, Gary. Yes, Karen, Peter, Deirdre and Ben is, yes, it’s unanimous. Great, that moves us on to item C overview. Oh, sorry, sorry, no, I just, um I told Eric that probably 7 o’clock I don’t see him here yet, so. He’s right here. Well, give him 30 seconds. He’s on the phone. Oh, all right, let’s say if we wanted to jump down or we can wait. Um. Now, he’s literally right here at the. OK. Um, let’s see, what else, yeah, so we went to the, uh, or E uh or F. So yeah, we’ll just wait here it comes. It’s coming through. That’s right. Hm Hm. Nice field, buddy Yeah, we’re a little, a little ahead of schedule, so, um, item C is overview and discussion of the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District election scheduled for next week, September 15th, uh, and we’re pleased to have with us tonight, Dana Alarra, the chair of the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District, as well as Superintendent Eric Tracy to, um, provide that overview and discussion. So whichever one of you would like to speak first, we’d be happy to hear from you. Uh, I’m a little bit limited as a paid employee and we’re running the actual election, so I may pass the baton to, to Dana on some questions, but we are all set for September 15th, uh, lecture will be 120 till 8. In Wenham, they’ll be voting at the Wenham Museum, which has been used in the past for, I think, a presidential election, I think the 2024 presidential election was done there. So, uh, we’re working with Tom Clarks in both communities. They’ve been fantastic. Uh, I learned a lot about elections in a very short amount of time, so, uh, thank you to both of them for their expertise. Um, we seem to have all the ducks in a row. We’ve worked with the police departments to figure out parking and maneuvering traffic and trying to figure out who’s going where at what time we figured there, there will probably be some substantial waves coming in, um, to vote. So we’re we’re looking at that from multiple perspectives based on location, um, as you may know, Hamilton votes in the rec center right on this property and then, um, with the construction at Town Hall, we’re, we’re just trying to make sure that everybody can get in and access, uh, the election is 12 to 8. That’s the longest we can run it under the state law. It, it, it can’t be less than 4 hours, must be more than, uh, excuse me, no less than 4 hours and no more than 8 hours, so we figured an overlap of 12 to 8 would be a good opportunity for as many people as possible to get there, um, during the day, middle day, and kind of end of the evening so. certainly entertain any questions if you have them. I have a question just for the public, um, with respect to the um uh approval uh standard. So it’s a majority vote of the combined votes of Hamilton and Wenham voters that would pass it. Is that right? Correct. That’s the difference between this type of an election versus the townwide election. They’ll, it’ll be the majority of both combined, both Hamilton and Wenham if, if one’s less and one’s more and they turn out more, then that’s, that’s the, the uh ultimate is really the combination of both. So I have a question which is really more to the town clerk. um we have to make it very clear. People are going to be holding signs. and we need to lay out exactly where they can stand I bet you have an answer I know you actually have this discussion with 150 ft rule is very set. There’s no um wiggle room there. There’s, we have a map. The police will be aware of that. Can you post that map prior to the election to ensure that we don’t have any problems. I can do that I can put that on the website and you can do whatever you want outside that. Feels nice to be in the news. And so right now we do have um 3 details. Diane, sorry, just if you could stab us because my my next question’s going to be for you. We do have 33 details so that they haven’t all been filled yet, but we have had 3 details posted for some time, so we are, you know, anticipating having an officer out in the parking lot, uh, an officer assisting with traffic and crossing should folks need to park across the street in an officer that will stand inside, uh, the town has um, suspended all construction activity for Monday, so there will be no construction work done, uh, additionally, the museum is closed in any of the employees that do work that day at the museum will be parking off site, similarly, all staff, all town staff will be parking off site Town is also removed all the emergency response trailers, uh, and other vehicles that were pri priorly stored at the upper lot have been removed and brought down to the DPW facility. Uh, so, you know, we’re, we’re expecting we’ve probably gained even with the construction going on, we’ve probably gained 15 or so, 15 or 20 spots between everything or what was available at the presidential election, and we’re expecting a similar turnout at utilizing the same location. So hopefully we should be, we should be right on that front. I had a question on the, on the sign. So given that the polling place for this election will be at the Wenham Museum of Not in Town Hall, presumably that shifts the the radius and if so, does that mean that um we’re traditionally people could hold signs um in front of the uh Hop’s house, I guess, or the building next to the Wyndham Museum, to the, uh, left of the driveway if you have your back to the museum, that you traditionally that’s outside the 150. I don’t know whether now it would be within, given that the polling places at the museum. So from Main Street, looking at the museum, you’re talking about the corner Yeah, if you’re look, if you’re standing in front of the museum to your right, there’s that area along 1A that under normal circumstances is outside of the 150 because people will not be outside, so it no longer will be. So I guess all the more reason is, as Karen is suggesting that, you know, that be posted ahead of time because people are used to you know, holding signs there, um, but that will change, yeah. And to be clear, from a sign perspective, we’ve had this come up before, um, as far as an issue. All signs have to have a physical being being held. There’s nothing that can be put on a truck and then put in front of the church in one of them you must hold your sign. Correct. Yeah. I had one other question, which is probably more of a statement of seeking to get like confirmation of this because I know there was some, there was a letter or two and the Hamilton Wenham News over the past few weeks, um. sort of questioning the legal significance of this vote. So my understanding is that if this vote passes, again, majority vote of the total votes of both towns that the project is approved locally, so all of the other approvals that were required um have occurred both with respect to the authorization and the debt exclusion, etc. um, that that’s, that’s it. If it passes here. we’re on track to uh proceed with the project if it does not pass, then we obviously are not. That’s accurate. There aren’t any further votes, a town meeting or at the ballot that would be required if this passes. If it passes, that is accurate. It will move. The project will move forward Um, passes Monday, we’ll start. Tuesday getting our ducks in a row with our OPM and our architect and then begin to move forward and uh the design stages that are coming pre-built. We still believe we’re on target for both the cost and the timeline. There were some contingencies built in that we might chew into a little bit in that project, but other than that, it feels like we’re on one still on time in talking to the com we had a conversation with both the OPM and the architect to, to see where this pushed us through. So if it were to pass, it would still break ground probably To add really, I just wanted to make sure that I’m accurate with Diane that um I just wanted to make sure um in terms of the election, people are clear that that there’s no um early voting, absentee voting, are you still taking um appointments for absentee. An absentee means that you are either out of town on Monday or you have a religious reason that you are unable to vote on Monday, the 15th, or you have a disability that makes it so that you aren’t able to vote on Monday. Um, but early voting and regular mail-in voting are not available. So that’s the only thing I had to add Uh, do any board members have additional questions for our guests All right? Uh, are there any members of the public who are actually any members of the public here, either from Hamilton or Wenham who wished to speak or ask questions, seeing none online Yeah, we are very lightly attended in general tonight, which uh everyone is completely satisfied with how things are proceeding in one of them, I guess. Gary, we’ve got time for a couple of comments. Yes, please. So I think this board has repeatedly supported the school project, and I hope people will uh take a look at the fact that the school project as reviewed by two FICOs, 2 select boards, OPM, so forth, is the fiscally responsible way to go. And also, in this day and age, I think it is the best solution to make sure all the children in both towns have the safety, security, the environmental and room space and the proper classroom setup that we need. So I hope everyone will turn out and vote yes on Monday the 15th. I would just like to echo all of Gary’s comments. the right way to go. Karen or Deirdre So. OK. I would just like to make one comment I also fully support this project and as Gary alluded to, the, the board has voted unanimously on at least one occasion through this process to to support it. Um, I think we should acknowledge that, you know, there are members of the community who, um, are a little bit um unsure about the process and how we got here and no no one would point to the series of votes in the process over the last year or so as sort of a model of, you know, clarity. There has been a, you know, a shift from the town meeting 2/3 vote to this completely legally available district-wide majority vote, and so, you know, to the extent that there are voters out there who have a sour taste in their mouth over the process. I think that we should acknowledge that that’s understandable and that is as a series of boards across both towns that we can and will do better in the future in terms of, you know, having a plan in place for approving large projects such as this, but I would also say that I think looking at the substance of the matter as some of my colleagues have have commented that it’s the right thing for the students of um Hamilton Wynham, both today’s elementary school students and tomorrow it’s the best thing fiscally as both Fincons of detailed uh quite a bit. and it’s a project that’s enjoyed, um, a solid majority of support throughout all of the votes, so I hope that people will focus on the facts and the substance of what’s in the best interest for, um, the district’s schoolchildren. And uh I want to thank both of you for coming to speak on the issue. Thank you and for all your work, um, on the project. All right, that moves us to, um, item D. uh review and discussion of the iron rail best use study, including consideration of whether to advance any findings for potential action. at the next annual town meeting for Wenham in April of 2026, and we may take votes. The report itself, as the members know, is in the uh meeting packet and, um, Steve, do you wanna pick it up? Yep, thank you, Michelle, if you could just jump to page 805 on the PDF. So starting here, I think just as an overview, I think everyone probably remembers the presentation and the long and short of it was that you know, we’ve kind of divided the land into two primary areas, the one of them being the one you see before us, um, it preserves the DPW station in its current location. If you look at the, uh, on your lower left hand side, you see a, a circle and then immediately adjacent to that is where the small softball or little league field is that’s where the proposed solar farm that we discuss ed at the prior meeting is, you know, we’re currently moving that forward, trying to align anything that needs to be any votes that need to be taken on the town’s behalf for the leasing of the land take place at this upcoming April town meeting 2026. So I felt, you know, as I put together kind of our direction. I’m planning to go over the uh an update to goals and objectives at our next meeting in layout, you know, where kind of where we wanna put our capacity and work towards uh through the next fiscal year. I you know, I wanted to see if, if the board had any appetite to align um any of the findings in this report, given the lengthy timeline that it would take to arrive at any one of these options, given that it would most likely need a zoning, some sort of zoning change to the area, um, and pro and it would definitely need some sort of town meeting vote to dispose of the land, so you know, kind of open it up is there, you know, is this something that the board would like to direct the planning board to work to either uh draft some proposed zoning for the site to accomplish some of these findings, or is this something that the board is not willing or, you know, doesn’t have the desire right now to take this up, giving, um, everything else that’s going on in the likely it’s going, this will be likely another polarizing. issue but we’re talking about um next April Yeah, so it’ll be April, right, so I think, I think really two things would have to happen and whether they both happen at the next town meeting is, you know, obviously roommates to be seen, but it would have to, have to have some sort of zoning change you have to have a zoning drafted, um, and then a zoning change would have to be put in place and then also you’d have to have authority to dispose of the property. if, if that’s the direction of the town is leaning. I think that the financial overview showed that um you know, there’s significant amount of deferred capital down there, you know, we can continue to limp along for a number of years, several years, probably, but at some point, you know, kind of that that bill is going to come due and there is going to be significant capital needs that need to be addressed down there, which will likely trigger ADA compliance, which, you know is in the tune of the millions of dollars that will have to be put into that building something that we do generate revenue on probably $125,000 a year. However, that would be quickly eliminated into the negatives with any sort of debt service to fund the capital, um, improvements in any one of these uh scenarios that were presented in the report and we can go through them if, if you want tonight or another time. even the low, you know, lowest lowest alternative use, I believe it was uh a use actually and continued use where this, where the town sells the building and just basically says you gotta keep it, um, as you know, office space or general, um, retail rental space and uh you know, that in and of itself be placed on the tax row tax rolls, ignoring the lump sum injection of cash you’d get at the sale, which is probably somewhere in the middle, you know, 1 to $1.5 million range would be, you know, reoccurring tax revenue growing at 2.5% each year, probably to the tune of about the same 125 $150,000 that we’re generating now. So it would certainly replace the cash, and it would relieve the town of any the management of the property because right now where the landlords and property managers, um, we have uh relatively active iron rail committee who won’t be there forever, uh that wants to deal with the tenants and the tenants’ complaints and things like that and the DPW has always been good about remedying, you know, a leaky faucet or uh, uh, clogged toilet or, you know, whatever we are the kind of the landlords, so to, you know, kind of remove ourselves from the property management business, uh, replace any revenue that would be lost by, you know, not from not renting the building would be replaced in entirety plus some. um, and save the taxpayers money in the capital improvements over the long term. Any thoughts from members on, on how to proceed? I have a few, but I’ll open it up to So I’ll go then. Yeah, please. I think it’s 1 point that we really need to consider is as we’ve seen in the papers recently, there’s other large potential developments out that way. So I think we do need to move forward with this because I think we want to be first to market rather than Johnny come lately after uh the demand for uh senior housing or whatever way we go is satisfied by the potential other three developments. Any other comments Deirdre Can you just I know you just said this, but I’m not sure I’d grasp it. So the potentially for the Springtown meeting. we would need to both, if we move forward, request approval from the town to dispose of the land and be prepared with the zoning change at the town meeting. ideally, yes, correct. But we could ask the planning board to do that. Yeah, the planning board, I think a memo I could draft a memo from the select board, you know, asking them to draft. you know. zoning or uh maybe they have some ideas. I think the two outcomes that I thought would be probably most. uh digestible and advantageous to the community, are, um the one you see before you right now on the right hand side, which would be, um, an independent living, which actually would at least talking to Kate and Margaret would fit under our existing the Independent Living overlay district cause this would preserve existing historic structures and preserve open space, which is both requirements for that to utilize that, which is in our zoning already. So if that was something that it’s what Poulte Holmes was proposing to develop under in it ’ s also what, uh, we have a number of developers inquiring about Penguin Hall, which would be looking to develop under that as well. Another one was that’s the senior overlay district, yeah, yep. And the other one was, uh, a, a mix of, you know, uh, single family homes and uh maintaining, um, the iron own building. the exterior envelope, the facade would remain relatively unchanged, uh, and it would be converted to condos and then it would be surrounded by a somewhat somewhat cluster subdevelopment of um, you know, 3 or 4. or 5 homes within kind of that circle. Those are the two scenarios that I thought, and then on the, if you can go to page 87. Um you know, this one again, it would require, so this is moving off of the site that the residential site that seemed to be the most advantageous alternative use was, was residential of some type um for the main site immediately adjacent to the DPW buildings down on on the lower left is you have uh possibilities of development and when we did the tirades exercise at one of the public hearings, um, you know, it was the redevelopment was met with some resistance, but generally uh, a lot of folks were on board with the idea of of developing it if it continued to align with the athletic nature of the soccer field. So I think we heard overwhelmingly from the public that they did not want the soccer fields to go. uh, but if there was any sort of supplemental use that we could develop in such as an indoor, we’ve had, we’ve been, the board has been approached by the iron rail gymnastics with, you know, a desire to purchase and develop a structure up there for, um, indoydastics, and I know that you know, this area is generally pretty hot for indoor, uh, you know, indoor athletic facilities such as soccer, uh, and things like that. So there is space up there, it is upland and developable, um you know, and I don’t know if the board would you know, we would take this all on at once or try to do. you know, kind of chunk it up, start the process of what, what needs to take place, subdivide it, uh, work on one, and then move to pivot and start working on the other one. I’ve walked up to like 4 or 5 times. but. Am I the only one Only one what? So where the uh indoor soccer facility is that’s all woods currently. um, and the interesting thing about it is that um, as you move this way, it’s all trees So you’re you really won’t be able to see that from uh Grapevine Road. That’s correct So there was a fair amount of public input that went into this report. There were at least 2, maybe 3 public forums, including that, um, uh Charette that involved, I think a lot of people, as I recall, had a pretty good turnout. And so the spotlight was on this for, you know, a while and a fair amount of public engagement and in the spotlight has moved away from this over the last year. to some other things, like 3A and the school. So my, my feeling is that it would be appropriate to sort of to try to re-engage. the public, not to, you know, not to redo anything at all, but to have a public forum that we would lead, but the planning board and the Iron Rail Commission, you know, could co-host it with us, where the report would be either presented or forgive me, maybe represented. I don’t know if there’s been a public forum actually presenting the final report, but if, if even if there was already, we would do it again. Um. and to just get people’s feedback, so that would require, you know, a fair amount of advertisement, which you can do through social media and so on, but perhaps like towards the end of October, early November or something like that, have a public forum, try to get people back involved, remind them of the findings and of what people expressed the last time. and then maybe go from there, that would set up a situation where we as a board could meet and maybe identify those findings that we would want to prioritize and support and then figure out the extent to which the planning board would need to play an active role, which they would, but the timing of that So I sort of feel, and I certainly echo your comments, Guy, that we should, you know move on this sooner rather than later, and we definitely don’t want to sort of shelve it, um. given all the resources and public input that went into it. So I don’t know how members feel about that. I think what you’ve mentioned, what you said is, is smart. We should get this thing going. Yeah. and have a, have a public forum perhaps. you know. Theater. I’m just not sure. Yes, so first of all, yes, I agree. I think that is a great idea. I guess I’m leaning towards we as a select board should perhaps have a recommendation of where we think we want to go with this so that that people can respond to where we’re trying to go rather than trying to pick and choose at that meeting, which elements I feel like it’d be maybe a straighter pathway. to know where we stand hear the response if we need to adjust. suggestion. That makes sense to me. I mean, I think we could, we could schedule or have a tentative idea for when we’d want to do the forum and then have one or two agenda, uh, have this on meeting agenda once or twice before that, so we could do exactly as you say, at least have some maybe preliminary recommendations based on the findings or priorities that we would suggest so that it’s not just kind of a, you know, um, unguided forum, so that makes sense, a lot of sense to me. Um. Any other comments? Agree. OK All right. um, so maybe we can sort of work towards that of looking at some dates, public forum dates late October, early November, coordinating with the Iron Rail Commission Planning Board on dates and like a concept and then um. and then probably not for this next select board meeting, but maybe the one after that. Or we could do it for the next one where we, where we would begin basically having the kind kind of substantive discussion that Deirdre just mentioned. works. OK. Has, has the iron rail commission discussed the report themselves? Do they have I mean we did have, we had the public hearing where they, the, uh, where they, um, uh, oh my god, what’s the name of the group? Dots and Dodson and Flinker came in and presented the final report. Um, so you know, they’re in the, the report’s been delivered to them and they’ve had, uh, I believe, some deliberations on it in a public meeting, but I you know, I, I think it’s before it gets collects too much dust, I think it’s good to just keep it moving. They are actually meeting tonight the Commission on the property to discuss their findings as well. All right, yeah, but I told the chair that eventually you might have a joint meeting perhaps with the select works yeah. Great. All right, I think that moves us to the next agenda item, which is discussion of Gordon College’s response to the select board’s request for an informal meeting, including exploration of opportunities for collaboration and general areas of interest. Votes may be taken. Uh, Steve, do you want to update us on what the Gordon College response was. Sure, Gordon College responded. Mike Hammon, their, their president, responded to the select board’s letter requesting uh an informal meeting to discuss, you know, um, two organizations you know, relationship and, uh, you know, ways to collaborate and share resources in the future. And he got back to us and you know, was um, you know, would be very happy to host an informal meeting at Gordon College, hosts a luncheon, uh, any staff and board members that are interested in more than happy to have us over and, you know, and collaborate and discuss. So I wanted to put this agenda, Ben and I want to put this on the agenda so that you know, I, I think that the way, at least the way I, I envision it probably going, working out the best would be allowing me to pull together a working group, uh, interest in being in the working group could be um voice tonight and a way to, you know, given the informal nature of the meeting, a way to not have to have the meeting if the, if the board, if the board formally appoints members to participate in the meeting. It becomes a subcommittee and has to be held to OML open meeting law standards, so that means a public meeting. If I call a working group uh, we can continue its informal nature. So, uh, I thought, you know, tonight if we could, you know, talk about who would be interested in being on, uh, in, in the working group, and then also discuss, you know, we can bring this back to your um next time but discuss points, um, of collaboration, uh, you know, messaging that the wants to get across, uh, in discussion and things like that. So the individuals uh that do participate in the informal meeting and deliver, you know, the, the sentiments of the board as a whole. How many members can or should be in the working group of the 5. No more than 2 So if it’s not a work, if if it were to, if it were 2 but not in a working group, even though that’s not a quorum. It is treated as a subcommittee and it would need to be posted as a public meeting. If you have a working group that’s as you explained, those things wouldn’t be required, but you can’t have a quorum. You can only have 2 or 5. OK. So are there any, just on that, on that piece of things. is, does anyone want to discuss pros and cons of working group model which would not require posted public meeting versus another model which would Um, does anybody have any issues or concerns with the working group non-public Posted. model. I like the working group. OK. All right. Um, so, and so do I. So I think that we have a consensus per your recommendation, Steve, that it be a working group, um, and so what’s left to talk about either tonight or at the next meeting is who’s interested in being in the working group, which would be the representatives of the select board obviously in this dialogue and, and a lunch meeting possibly that Steve would also be out, of course, with Gordon College leadership, and then there’s a separate question of what are what are the board’s objectives for this meeting or series of meetings with Gordon College. Um, we’ve sort of laid out general concepts of trying to, that were put in the letter that was sent about more collaboration and trying to find, you know, areas of common interest and just to, you know, strengthen the relationship between the institutions of the town, government, and Gordon College. Um, and I think also it’s been discussed that the use of Gordon’s facilities as has occurred with the special town meeting when it had to be moved because of um uh size limitations for Bukker and there were some concerns that arose from some citizens about that issue and whether the town should be utilizing, um, the facilities of a private, um, religious college. So I guess all of those things are sort of in the mix, but probably we would want to either tonight or subsequent meeting, as Steve mentioned. think about, OK, what, what actually do we want to accomplish at this lunch meeting. Um, so those seemed to be kind of the, the two things to focus on. So why don’t we talk about who would be interested in being in this working group and being the two representatives of the um of the board and whatever discussions ensue. Um, I, I, um, will not be on the working group, um. basically, I have, um uh. siblings who for many, many years worked at Gordon College. They don’t any longer, um, but I, uh, have enough of a family connection to the institution that I would just assume not, uh, participate in the working group. So, um, who else would be interested in? I would be more than happy to do it. we have Deirdre’s interested. Peter’s interested. So I was going to say I’m more than interested being that this was initially my idea. Right, I know you, you, you brought up a couple of months ago that you wanted the president of Gordon College to come to a select board meeting, and we’ve had multiple conversations about that, so what’s that? I just wanted to point that out. Yeah, I mean, this was an initiated because of some conversations that we had had, um, regarding Gordon after the town meeting and this was something that I brought to the table, so I just wanna throw that out there. Yes, and does that mean that you would like to be on in the working group, OK. um did you say yes? I did. All right. OK. All right, Gary, are you I got 3 volunteers, that’s, good. But, with the 3, I can make a determination as to who I want in my working group. Right, because the other piece to the working group is that it’s, it’s an extension essentially of the town administrator. Yeah, it’s, it’s, and that’s, that’s takes out of all now, OK, so, so there are 3 people who are interested in the working group and um I’m uh you can select. All right, great. Right now, but, and, you know, um. So we’ll put together a group of select board members and staff and myself, and OK. Yeah. Great. Um, and then, does anyone want to talk tonight about objectives or maybe that should be handled at a future meeting, especially once the working group representatives are picked, then you know, that probably makes sense to at that point have those members kind of it does the discussion. Great. All right. Anything else on item E? All right That moves us to item F, uh, discussion of potential voter on a community project to designate two senior parking spaces at all major town locations, schools, parks, library, etc. The project includes a community-wide sticker design contest for kids with the winning design distributed to seniors through the Hamilton and Wyndham’s councils on Aging. The goal is to foster intergenerational engagement and improve accessibility for older residents. Karen will provide a conceptual overview, and as the board saw, um, Karen, uh, put together a detailed proposal on this issue that is in the packet that was sent to each of the members. So Karen, would you like to elaborate? Yeah, so what it comes down to is I had had a, a brief meeting with Jim Reynolds at the new Amazing Fields, and there was a conversation of how do we really pull in the senior folks of the community, um, to make sure that they’re engaging and that they have um uh ability to be able to attend a lot of the functions. They, there was concern about walkability. There was concern about parking. Um, there is designated spots around town for handicap, but it’s not specifically for seniors. And then the conversation escalated from there of if we were to ask for specific senior spots, which obviously would not be regulated by the police. This would be a an honor system type of, of, uh, policing, but we had said that outside of the fields, where else would it be beneficial? And in order to really ensure that we have um reached out and have the olive branch between the seniors and having them engage more with the children that we would have them at all of the elementary schools and then looking at what else would be beneficial, whether it be the library and then at Patton Park, um, which would also allow them to be able to attend other functions, and in the conversation with Jim, it was escalating to, all right, we have these two said parking spaces. How do we get people to know that there is a parking space for seniors, um, you know, outside of the DPW putting a sign up that says senior parking Only. How do we police it? Um, or who, how do we, how do we engage with it? And then the conversation was, well, if we’re looking for an intergenerational, uh, connect connection, then why don’t we have the kids involved? And so it really came down to us just brainstorming what it is that we would do with that. But the overarching outside of the stickers and the kids involved and picking up a sticker. Um, it was really to ensure that the seniors in town had a place from a parking perspective to be able to, to attend some of these events safely. And looking at the amount of people that have attended not only the football game Friday, I attended a field hockey game, I think it was Thursday, and there’s a lot of people that are attending and those parking lots get filled pretty quickly The flipside of that is understanding no, you know, police are not gonna actually ticket for this and that it doesn’t necessarily have to be senior parking for just necessarily Wenham residents, obviously, grandparents from opposing teams are more than welcome to, to take the spots. Um, but this is something that, that we wanted to be able to allow, um, folks from the COA to participate in. It seems like a easy win. Mhm. Yeah, sounds like a great idea. So you’re envisioning, um I just so, you know, when I work with timing through rich, um, and his folks in, in, uh, funding to of the, the, the signage that you thinking like the, uh, you know, like if we spray paint on the, I don’t know, like you get a stencil that says senior parking and then you paint the spot, or are you thinking like standing. We were standing signs, yeah. I want to, Keith is our ultimate signage person. And it came down to is we said how do we how do we then bridge the gap between informing the seniors and if the idea is really to bring the seniors to the children’s events, how do we engage with them? So, which is where the sticker idea came in, have a contest, have Diane hold the contest at town hall where hopefully parents come in, fill out their dog licenses as well as they’re putting in their um their sticker um information and then the stickers can easily be made and and handed out at the COA for fun that could be displayed on the dashboard. We just for more for like funding, I’m just thinking, but as far as like operationally, you know, who’s going to put up the signs, um. The signs are the only part that that came. I mean the stickers are easy, that that would be fundraised. We wouldn’t have to worry about that. Um, and the right. I just, cause I’ll that’s all. I just want to make sure that we’re planning for the right thing. And then the West one and Park was also in there. Um there isn’t a lot of parking spaces, so the answer would be it would be one parking space instead of two. because if anybody’s been up there, I think there’s only 10 sparks, 10 spots. So for the properties that are not town of Wenham properties. So, um Miles River slash High School certainly Pingree, um. Patton Park, uh is Angry as us Pingres in Hamilton No, it’s us. No, Ping, Pingree Park. I’m sorry. I thought, I thought I saw Pingree, I thought Pingry School, forgive me, Pingree yeah, um, so ones that we would need would be the high school, the new fields per se and patent. Right. And um so we would we would, um, just need to get like the buy-in from, from the school committee or from Eric on that was unclear, which is why I was ask Hamilton school committee uh, they, they control the land where we own it, but they’re, they’re lease, they control. What you’re going to do, say no No, I’m not saying they would. I’m just saying we just got to coordinate with Hamilton and the schools. Like we can’t make the decision, I guess. Do I think they’re going to say no, no, but. I can’t say we’re gonna put them there, is all I’m saying. Any other questions, uh, for Karen or comments about the program. My only other comment, it’s really not an honesty system. if we see people that clearly aren’t seniors parking there. They’re going to get abused They might get egged. That might be a thing, but, um, from a, from a police perspective, we can’t go in there and say, you know, the police are going to issue tickets at all, or there would be. No, I, I, that I understand, but I think it’s it’s not honesty. It’s going to be, I think it’s going to be a shame. It’s going to make this thing work. Well, let’s hope not. I’m, I’m hoping that that’s not. Well, there are people that are actually like violating it. it’s a favor of public shaming, but I think it doesn’t have to be public. OK. You can just go over to the person and say vigilante shaking either. Right. The idea is, is really just to make sure that the seniors feel comfortable also in attending some of these things and a lot of folks coming out of the conversation with the COA is that they would have liked to attend on Friday night, but they were concerned about parking. And so obviously in in Friday’s case, they would have had to get there at 3 o’clock. But, um, but to have this there, hopefully that’ll alleviate some of their they just put that, you know, or the cases that Jim and I talked about that maybe they park at Bukker and they’re bussed over and that’s where the bus is for the seniors, you know, the senior, um, van is pulled into that spot, so it’s right in front. So there’s, there’s many different options, but the idea was just that we start to bridge this gap. I like it. I think we do need to define what a senior is. I mean, I, I think it’s 60 and over for senior centers to serve that population. but you know, I thought it was either 65 or 68. I What’s the definition Because we don’t want the wrong people being shamed first of all. So perhaps Jim Reynolds can, uh, work on this a bit, flush it out. and talk to him. Yeah, we’ll, uh So when I, uh went to the, uh, football game and uh they had a special price for seniors, and I said, so how do you qualify what a senior is and the guy said, you’re paying 4 bucks. which was OK. Well, you should have felt good, you, you know, I’ll save 2 bucks, yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re going to argue that you wanted to pay sex. All right, so I don’t think there’s no action, any further action or any action to take on this tonight, but Steve’s going to, um, the only action I believe is Steve is going to follow up with DPW and figure out the signage. Right, and Council on Aging, I think as well, or do we have to present this to the select board at the and the um Hamil Hamilton folks. Or can you take care of them Um, yeah, I mean, we can, yeah, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll bring it by I’ll bring it to Joe and see what he wants to do. It’s OK by me What’s Joe You’re all set. All right, um we have no old business, no further new business, and so at 7:37 I would entertain a motion to adjourn. All right, 22. All right, Deirdre. Yes Peter, yes, Karen, Gary, and Bennis, yes.