[0:00] Folks online, and the folks in the room can hear me.

[0:03] My name is Nellie.

[15:00] This is not unique in this, but it is our problem to deal with, and local aid is just absolutely declining. So these are two charts that just show what the state aid has been. So it's my left. Hopefully that's your left. Your left is a chart that was published by the MMA. That's the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and charting the overall local aid apportionment to the entirety. All 351 communities.

[15:29] And you can see it's very small, so I will tell you that that first year is 2007.

[15:37] And then it's 2008, and you can see that this steadily goes down, 2007-2008 was the

[15:42] great recession, the local aid numbers have never been restored, and then when you adjust

[15:50] for inflation, this is actually worse, but they've never been restored to where they were

[15:55] before the recession and municipalities who are constrained under two and a half percent

[16:00] increases in taxes are now getting less of the local aid that we need more drastically

[16:07] and more dramatically.

[16:09] We went over Mansfield's specific state aid and so yes it goes up, however it's only going

[16:16] up $3 million over 10 years, that's an average of $300,000 a year and that's not going to

[16:24] do the trick either. That is not enough to keep pace with the growing needs and demands.

[16:29] So that is our sort of statewide output outlook. This is those same charts so that you don't

[16:36] have to flip back between a bunch of pages, but to also see our new growth figures. And

[16:41] we had a historic high in 2024. And now it is dropping, unfortunately. And this is why

[16:47] economic development is a critical part of our three-legged stool here. Hopefully we have

[16:53] four legs on our stool but this is a critical part of our strategy to really help build that up.

[16:59] The best thing for the town to have is at least 30% of commercial property and value that's

[17:07] 30% of the value we do not have that unfortunately we're at 18% so that is a bleak outlook and that is

[17:15] where we need to focus our efforts and that's where we will be focusing our efforts.

[17:21] right there. And some of this work has already happened and been started and this is that's

[17:27] good news and we'll talk a little bit more about it. The MMA wrote two sort of it's a two

[17:34] part series on our financial situation as a Commonwealth. These are linked here on the bottom

[17:39] corner. I don't know if you can see that. This bottom left hand corner here.

[17:47] The Mass

[17:48] It's linked to the main page, and you can fiddle around on there, but there's two articles,

[17:53] and it's a pretty easy to use website you'll be able to follow along.

[17:56] But one is called a perfect storm, and that's sort of set the stage of what we're dealing

[18:00] with, and then navigating the storm.

[18:02] It's developed a series of recommendations to the state to consider.

[18:08] There's contemplation of override, and maybe changing the two-and-a-half construct and what

[18:12] that would look like.

[18:13] But that is what the state legislature is contemplating, or maybe, if they put it on the

[18:19] docket, to contemplate and discuss.

[18:22] Notably, health insurance is not there, and my personal comments to our leadership

[18:29] is always, please, please, please help us with health insurance, the costor rising, way

[18:34] to quickly, and we cannot keep absorbing this.

[18:39] This is the new gross side I was mentioning, I want you to take a look.

[18:42] this is the FY 2025 growth that came in $8,500 short of our estimate.

[18:48] Estimates in this way are supposed to be conservative, right?

[18:50] So we're supposed to meet or exceed this.

[18:52] That didn't happen, and just put us further in the hole.

[18:55] We have adjusted that for our FY27 budget.

[19:01] So our new growth is now actually decreasing.

[19:04] The town is able to increase our level of limit by 2.5% each year.

[19:07] We're allowed to do that by right, of course you're voting on that appropriation,

[19:11] but that's how we can kind of move forward and depend.

[19:13] And for Mansfield, this is about $2 million

[19:16] in allowable increase.

[19:18] Exceeding the two and a half percent threshold

[19:20] will require an override vote.

[19:22] So what this means is we get $2 million this year

[19:25] of extra money.

[19:29] Nobody can see me online, I did air quotes.

[19:32] It's not really extra, but we get this extra space.

[19:36] And I want you to keep that in mind.

[19:37] And that's a 3.2% increase over FY26, but it's a small, you know, it's the larger portions of the percentages up.

[19:46] But we have obligated cost year over year that greatly exceed that $2 million.

[19:53] And when you're compounding this with a loss of new growth and the lack of state aid,

[19:57] you are now just buried under all of this stuff.

[20:01] That is why we are here, it's been happening for years.

[20:04] That's why Mansfield is where it is.

[20:07] You are not alone.

[20:07] Other communities are here.

[20:09] And it's our job to work together

[20:10] and solve it for the long haul.

[20:17] I just want to make the statement.

[20:19] Growth at this base is extremely limited.

[20:21] And more so given, our fixed cost centers

[20:23] are required, therefore, to balance the budget.

[20:25] And that's where we find ourselves.

[20:27] This is a chart to show what fixed or obligated spending

[20:30] is in our specific budget.

[20:34] It's small and I apologize.

[20:35] I will raise this up, but I will go through it.

[20:39] So over 80% of the town's budget is actually a fixed cost or obligation.

[20:43] This is mostly benefits and salaries, obviously.

[20:47] I don't think that's a surprise to anybody.

[20:49] However, it's important to see just how much of the budget that transcends to.

[20:54] So this chart contemplates FY 2027 budget.

[20:58] This is our figures now.

[20:59] Remember, we've experienced significant cuts over FY 26 and FY 27.

[21:04] and we're coming off of cuts that really started FY 24 and some rightsizing and some

[21:09] matrician that went on.

[21:10] So I start on the second line, that's assessments.

[21:13] Those are the state charges that were required, you know, the regional school's estimates.

[21:19] We can't get out of those.

[21:20] We owe it.

[21:21] Debt service.

[21:22] That's something that has been previously approved at town meeting and this is your debt and this

[21:27] is what you've decided to move ahead with.

[21:30] Insurance costs.

[21:31] and that's property insurance, employee benefits, that would be the health insurance and the other benefits we offer school salaries and town salaries.

[21:41] And so this is what we have to grapple with every year, these don't change too much.

[21:47] That top bar is other expenses.

[21:52] That's only 18.99, so let's round up 19% of our budget is where we have the wiggle room, that's it.

[21:59] So, that's why the union conversations are important, that's why it's right sizing is important and that's why it's, you know, really important that we look at how our delivery of service is impacting the budget and if there's a cheaper or more efficient way of doing it, we should be doing that.

[22:16] This is just a little snapshot of a spreadsheet that I call the budget summary here in Mansfield, that's not called that.

[22:23] but I will forever call it the budget summary. This is what I'm talking about. It's a quick snapshot of what we need to pay for, what we used for FY26, what is budgeted for FY27 and the percent change.

[22:36] This is your snapshot of your budget, and it's important for you to look at this variation column right here.

[22:42] I'd like you to see that we are actively decreasing or barely increasing where we can in those salary lines

[22:50] and the things that are obligated and mandated to us.

[22:55] So the big one is the debt service and Nick Monticello, our town accountant, is here to talk about that if anybody has questions there.

[23:02] But we, and then the other one, the town, south-eastern regional assessment, 3.97%.

[23:07] And insurance, that's property insurance, 3.92% and employee benefits, 5.83% overall.

[23:15] That those high increases are the costs we can't really do much about, that just is what it is those are our bills.

[23:22] Everything else is decreasing or barely increasing, and then I like to bring your attention to this 1.88%.

[23:30] Our budget does not grow by the allowable 2.5%.

[23:35] And it didn't grow in FY26 by the allowable 2.5%. That's how constrained we are.

[23:40] So we are the wallet and the vice grip, that's what this picture is.

[23:45] It is tough, it is tight, we have flattened it as much as we can, and this is how we're

[23:50] going to live for FY27 as we slowly rebuild and figure it out for FY28.

[23:59] This is also a super small slide, you can view this online, but this is our list of reductions

[24:04] For the town side at least, for FY27, you can see how we attempted to balance the budget.

[24:11] Important notes, that bottom part, that non-colorful section, is affects union negotiations.

[24:19] It requires a meeting with the unions.

[24:21] It requires that conversation, so that's all up in the air, but this was how we did balance the FY27 budget.

[24:29] Should agreements not take place, unfortunately the town's only option is layoffs.

[24:34] I am working diligently as are the unions to avoid that with good conversation, collaborative

[24:40] effort, and hey, what's your great idea like let's talk about it?

[24:44] Nothing is a bad idea and we have basically brainstorming sessions.

[24:48] Some of my unions are further along than others, that'll just be, but as we move forward we will

[24:54] have a little bit more certainty.

[24:55] Unfortunately, we will not have that certainty for May 5th, so we have to go this way as we re-evaluate.

[25:02] The Falltown meeting will be utilized as a corrective meeting once we know what is

[25:09] going on with our employment agreements.

[25:12] As I said, we are requesting another waiver for the library and we are not filling certain

[25:17] positions at this time.

[25:19] Everything will be re-evaluated as we figure out some of the finances.

[25:23] But right now the finance director position will remain vacant.

[25:27] There's a public buildings worker that will be vacant and a highway school laborer position that will remain vacant right now.

[25:37] So this is our to-do list.

[25:38] This is what we have in store for ourselves how we address strategically to fix the problem, to not just symptoms to actually solve our issue.

[25:49] So despite these challenges, the select board voted not to continue with an override.

[25:54] We will coordinate our messaging, we will restructure the town, we will maximize efficiencies, we will address lingering and efficient spending if it exists, we will finalize all of our collective bargaining agreements, and we must build our foundation for long term financial health.

[26:09] That is our goal, we will work together, this is not a town V school thing, this is a collaboration, and a collaboration with the unions, we are not fighting, we all just want to get to somebody said this to me and it's the best statement anyone's ever been.

[26:24] said to me. We all want to get to the same place. We just don't agree on how to get there.

[26:29] And it is very true, but we will listen and we will hear and we will learn and we will develop.

[26:34] And that's our FY27 to do list. Salaries and benefits must be addressed. The town must reduce

[26:40] dependence upon stabilization funds and one-time revenues for balancing the budget.

[26:45] Planings required to do this. We've been used to transferring this out. We can't do that anymore.

[26:50] Not only are they all gone, but it's not a good practice.

[26:54] There's a document online and I'll reference it again.

[26:57] It identifies various strategies, I've shared that with the school, I've shared that with

[27:02] the select board, I've shared that with the finance committee.

[27:04] Various strategies on how to build this foundation and to create healthy budget practices where

[27:09] we will dig out of this permanently.

[27:12] The town must further its economic development strategies, we'll talk about it in a minute,

[27:16] but those are ongoing and will only grow.

[27:18] We must identify and grow additional revenue sources outside our standard property tax base.

[27:24] We have got to capture money and get it somewhere else.

[27:27] And it's our job to find those places and actively go seek them.

[27:33] The town must build excess levy capacity for future years.

[27:37] No more super tight windows.

[27:39] If you don't know what excess levy capacity is, it's the amount left over between your levy limit,

[27:44] which is your total allowable spending.

[27:46] and the amount that you are spending through your budget process.

[27:51] There's like a little cushion there.

[27:54] You need to have a little bit more of a cushion to build the space

[27:56] so that when the quote bad thing happens because eventually the bad thing will happen,

[28:01] you have the ability to address it and not see the sky falling.

[28:07] So that's our goal too.

[28:08] Building excess levy capacity, grow steadily, grow smartly,

[28:12] and have a stable financial future.

[28:16] As of this moment, the town will have to seek an override for FY 2028, and I'd like to be

[28:22] clear about that, that everyone, so you're on the same page, I just went through the constraints

[28:28] and how it's difficult, we're reaching critical mass, and that will be what we are contending

[28:34] with.

[28:35] However, I don't say this lightly at all, override and mylingo is a bad word, don't like to

[28:40] use it, it is a last effort to make a permanent correction. And if we don't need it, I will

[28:49] be clear about that and I will explain why we don't need it. And we will have lots

[28:54] of conversations. I like to write things down. You'll say I write a lot, and I'm a little

[29:00] long-winded, but I like to put everything in writing. And so you will easily be able to follow

[29:05] along with me and what I've got going on and what my thoughts are and how I'm maneuvering,

[29:11] there won't be any surprises.

[29:13] And if you have a question, I invite you to call me up, visit, email, drop by a meeting,

[29:20] I'm here all the time, get me, get me somewhere, and we can talk about it and have a conversation.

[29:27] But for right now, it's looking like an override might be necessary for FY28 in order to correct

[29:33] our issues.

[29:33] I do believe that the select ward was pretty clear about this, but just to reiterate, the

[29:38] goal was to permanently correct it to find a long-term solution that addresses all of

[29:44] our needs and that we are given the time to really analyze what those needs are, put

[29:49] some costs next to them, and understand how we're going to grow.

[29:52] And then if we partner that with our financial strategies, we should be charting a really

[29:57] a clear course.

[30:00] So just to give you a peek into my brain and how we are going to take care of some of our issues, we need to grow revenue sources. So this involves improving and enhancing our initiatives, the town planager, the town planager. We are one of those couples that has two names. The town planter and town manager will continue our current programs. We have a lot of great programs out there. Cool things going on with the downtown.

[30:30] the Industrial Development Commission,

[30:31] I happily appointed somebody to it,

[30:34] maybe a week or so ago, they now have a quorum.

[30:36] This is a great thing,

[30:37] so they can actually do the work that they need to do.

[30:40] And we can really engage with them

[30:42] and tap into them with their ideas and energy

[30:44] and really just build up some of that momentum.

[30:47] Sarah and I are exploring a pace initiative.

[30:50] We're tapping into mass development.

[30:52] Lynn Tacarsic is going to assist us

[30:54] in how we can sort of market ourselves.

[30:57] Man's field is perfectly situated in the highway.

[31:00] You have all sorts of transportation options.

[31:03] You can, you know, if a global company needs to stay here for a little bit,

[31:07] there's housing options for them, and then there's services for their families to come enjoy,

[31:11] and then there's shopping, and we're right next to Gillette, and we have Xfinity,

[31:14] and we have hotels.

[31:16] This is a very good region for people to be in, for whatever reason they want to be here.

[31:22] We need to tap into that, sell it, market it, and capture new, I shouldn't use that word.

[31:28] Encourage and recruit new businesses to locate.

[31:32] And so that's obviously top of mind and something that we are very much interested in.

[31:37] We have already started asking for money and asking for the state to do a little bit more for us.

[31:43] In one of these requests, we've requested $150,000 through the state budgetary earmark process.

[31:50] Unfortunately, the number came down today.

[31:53] It's not as high as it needs to be,

[31:55] so now we flip over to the Senate and say,

[31:57] please, please, please, please give us the rest.

[31:58] That email went out this afternoon.

[32:01] But the economics development study will be critical.

[32:04] This is what we will use to build everything else off on.

[32:07] It will give a demographic of the town.

[32:09] It will give opportunities of the town.

[32:11] It will vision what different properties could look like

[32:14] with certain smart growth ideas.

[32:16] It is something that can be sent to businesses,

[32:18] is prospective businesses or even property owners.

[32:21] Hey, have you thought of doing this?

[32:23] This is something that we've studied

[32:24] that would be successful here.

[32:26] It's a way to start a conversation

[32:27] and look at development that not only works

[32:30] for the business owner, but really works for Mansfield

[32:32] and is what we need.

[32:34] We've heard in the past parking traffic,

[32:37] I want to feel safe walking.

[32:38] We bring all of those to the table

[32:40] with the appropriate businesses and use our heads

[32:43] when we plan it out.

[32:45] Again, we will engage with state partners,

[32:47] Developing our partnerships with NAS development, we're going to lean into the manufacturing sector.

[32:52] It's a really good thing for us and our community.

[32:55] And we have some events, sort of no firm dates, but we're talking about them there on our radar.

[33:02] We'll work with local businesses on retention and recruiting new businesses.

[33:07] Again, utilizing the study for visioning and identifying those best business types and

[33:12] workforce measures that work for us and support the businesses that want to work here or

[33:16] and want to locate here.

[33:18] My focus is on global and national businesses,

[33:21] because there's a lot of reasons to love Mansfield,

[33:24] but if you're a global or national business,

[33:27] you get a lot of bang for your buck

[33:29] with our electricity costs.

[33:31] So much so that your return on investment

[33:34] for putting in a solar panel or something actually isn't there.

[33:39] That's how great the rates are.

[33:41] So it's a nice feature to be able to brag about.

[33:44] And then tourism, that's another leg on the stool.

[33:49] We have a lot to offer here, as I mentioned, the bike path, recreation spaces, outdoor festivals,

[33:55] using carry chase place, which we've talked about internally of what we can do there a little

[33:59] bit to kind of boost the downtown commercial activity.

[34:02] We need to celebrate this, we need to share it, we need meat and Mansfield and eat on Mondays

[34:07] or whatever will come up with the catchier phrase on that.

[34:11] but encouraging people to explore Mansfield and spend their money here, maybe it's

[34:17] bring a buddy to Mansfield and have dinner with them. But we really need to

[34:22] tap into these other options and other places. We're also going to re-examine our

[34:27] financial structures. So the town is lucky enough to have a split tax shift. We really

[34:32] need to look at that. This is a complicated bit that people might not be so

[34:36] familiar with, but every November select board is going to set a split rate.

[34:44] It's not your tax rate, it's a split shift, it's a ratio between what the property tax

[34:48] for residents and the property tax for commercial is going to be.

[34:51] Right now you're at 1.38 so that the 0.38 of the burden is heavily leaned towards the businesses.

[35:00] We can't go over 1.5 and to maintain our economic development strategy and our balance we probably shouldn't be going over 1.42, but there is some maneuvering that could be explored there as we kind of embark on what an override number would look like messing with the shift a little bit can maybe meet the resident in the half and make the the blow of the override a little bit less.

[35:25] So we have our own tools to address and try to make this workable for everybody.

[35:30] I think we can demonstrate the need.

[35:33] Now we have to demonstrate how it works and how it impacts your wallet specifically.

[35:36] So that's a tool we can use.

[35:38] Our opportunities for new growth are limited.

[35:40] The town is largely built out.

[35:42] I don't want to say it's 80%, but it's pretty high.

[35:45] And we only have few developable, I think I made that word, properties remaining.

[35:50] And now we have to be smart about what we have and getting in personal property and such.

[35:55] This is why manufacturing is a critical center for us because they can come in and fill up large space, but they have beautiful property, personal property inside that helps generate revenue.

[36:06] Storage of vehicles in some way is another way because you get that excise tax and we might have the space for it.

[36:12] So those are the strategies that's how we'll be looking to sort of enhance our current

[36:19] situation.

[36:20] And then of course reviewing debt.

[36:22] This came up sort of at the end of the season for the budget this year but excluding

[36:27] previously authorized debt became an option.

[36:30] How do we kind of capitalize on that and make sure that that's actually working for us.

[36:35] So analyzing our debt, analyzing our debt schedule, identifying exactly when something's going

[36:41] to come off and planning on making this up, but there's a roof assessment on this warrant.

[36:50] Planning out when the roof construction will take place and matching that up with when

[36:55] other debt is coming off. Really thinking about when and planning and making it sort of

[37:00] all systems go was status quo as much as we can. And then examine the TIFF and pilot agreements

[37:05] and plan and prepare for that term end. A TIFF is a tax increment financing.

[37:10] It's basically like a smaller payment than your regular tax obligation given in exchange for businesses locating here

[37:17] It's a bit of an incentive and we need to make sure when we we are prepared when those are coming on or off

[37:25] Which we have three coming off in 2027. So there's your good news for the night

[37:32] But planning and really engaging how we are how we are burdening our budget

[37:38] for not

[37:41] For my portion of this, you can learn more about the items that I was talking about.

[37:45] Most of this is linked directly to our website, so there's the financial strategies document.

[37:51] You might want to read that.

[37:52] I apologize as long as about seven pages, but it does identify how I plan to coordinate

[37:58] and collaborate with the other groups in town and get this job done.

[38:02] Then the snow and ice deficit document has a nice sort of overarching look at how we are

[38:08] We're going to curb spending now to prepare and get rid of the deficit.

[38:13] Just to note, the document was written in early April.

[38:17] Additional bills came in, so the actual deficit is $689,000.

[38:21] But the memo references a smaller number.

[38:23] It went up.

[38:24] And then, of course, those two publications from the MMA, that is my portion.

[38:30] And I will turn it over to Michelle.

[38:33] Thank you.

[38:34] Good evening, everyone.

[38:35] My name is Michelle McEwen, I'm the new superintendent of Mansfield Public Schools.

[38:40] Many of you know this is my first year in Mansfield and I want to begin by thanking

[38:44] all of you.

[38:46] This community has been so welcoming and you've extended such a warm welcome to me specifically.

[38:52] It's been clear from the start that this community deeply cares about its schools, its students

[38:58] and one another and when you come to this town, even meetings like this, the people that are

[39:04] in the room are all here because they're invested in our community, so I really appreciate

[39:08] you being here for those of you online. Thank you so much for participating, and we hope

[39:13] to see you all at town meeting next week. So as Mallory mentioned, this has been a very

[39:18] difficult budget season, and I think as brand new people here in the town, it wasn't the easiest

[39:24] start for either of us. These challenges facing our town required us to make some incredibly

[39:30] difficult decisions this year. The decisions impact our staff, they're impacting our students

[39:36] and frankly they're going to impact the opportunities that we can provide for the children

[39:41] at school. They're not choices that we make lightly. We fully understand the weight of their

[39:47] impact. We're committed to continuing to provide a high quality education for all of our students as

[39:53] we prepare for the future and as mentioned last week's school committee actually it was this week

[39:59] on Tuesdays and a lot of students and families where they are speaking up about concerns of losing

[40:05] valuable programs and things that have really made an impact for kids and we're listening,

[40:10] we're continuing to look at resources, we are continuing to go after competitive grants,

[40:16] looking at every line in the budget being very, very creative as Mallory mentioned about reducing

[40:21] our costs as well as making the cuts that we're going to talk about tonight. So this year our budget

[40:28] It was guided by three, no it's me, I'm trying to help, I'm trying to help, but I'm messing it up.

[40:34] Sorry, three core principles.

[40:36] And the first we prioritize student-focused decision-making.

[40:40] Of course, students need to be at the center of every decision that we make.

[40:44] We want to ensure that students well-being and their success is at the forefront of the things that we prioritize.

[40:51] Second, we work to maintain our core priorities.

[40:54] This is preserving programs and services that are essential for student success.

[40:59] For instance, we looked at elementary class sizes and there is a lot of research that

[41:04] suggests that lower elementary schools should not exceed 22 to 23 students per class.

[41:10] Upper elementary schools, 25 is kind of a hard cap and honestly, we don't want to be there,

[41:16] but we really prioritize looking at other resources before increasing those class sizes any higher

[41:22] than that.

[41:24] We also are really committed to looking on our facilities and our equipment.

[41:29] We know that while we need to maintain teachers and staff and programs,

[41:33] we also need to maintain our buildings so we have a safe place to come to school every day.

[41:38] And finally, we committed to fiscal awareness and open communication.

[41:42] I appreciate the partnership with the town.

[41:44] Mallory has been great to work with so far and we recognize that the way forward is to work together on this.

[41:50] And being one town, one budget, it's so important for all of us to think holistically as we move forward.

[41:57] So we're really committed to doing our part to balance the budget and work together.

[42:03] So while this moment is challenging, I remain confident in the strength of our town by continuing to work together.

[42:09] We'll stay focused on the needs of our community and we'll move forward in a way that reflects our values and what's important to the community.

[42:16] So now I'll turn it over to Matt Violet, our Director of Finance and Operations, who will review some of the highlights of the school budget for you.

[42:24] Thank you so much.

[42:25] My name is Matt Violet, I'm the Director of Finance and Operations, and I'm just going to kind of walk us through high level the school budget that will be showing up in Article 2 at town meeting this year.

[42:40] It's working, that's just, yeah.

[42:42] There we go. All right. Thank you. So the budget had a glance. So the total FY 2027 proposed budget is $60.8 million.

[42:51] It's $341,000 increase over the current fiscal year's budget that we're in, FY 26, or just over a half a percent increase over FY 26's budget.

[43:02] I'm going to talk in a little bit more details on this, but that half a percent is actually a little misleading because there are items that we had to bring back into the budget that in prior years were funded

[43:12] through other sources, which I will talk about in a little bit, but ultimately the budget

[43:20] is going up just over half a percent.

[43:24] So this next slide, and I know it's small, but

[43:27] it breaks the budget down by our cost centers. We have really two main sections of our budget.

[43:33] It's the goods and services budget, and then the salary and wage budget. The salary and wage budget

[43:38] The salary and wage budget is about 80% of the total school budget.

[43:42] The salary and wage budget is going up, you can see those little circles in the bottom corners there which is focusing on the total percent increases.

[43:49] The salary and wage budget is going up 0.3% and the goods and services budget is going up 1.6%.

[43:56] The only reason the goods and services budget is going up is like I mentioned earlier, there's a few items that we have to bring back into the budget.

[44:04] and there's also some contractual obligations.

[44:08] For example, on the central services line,

[44:11] if you work your way across the top there,

[44:13] that's going up 177,000.

[44:15] That is solely the Connolly Bus Contract.

[44:19] In fact, Connolly Bus Contract exceeds that 177,000.

[44:23] There were actually reductions in the central service,

[44:25] but we have to pay for the increase in the Connolly Bus Contract.

[44:29] Then technology, you'll notice it's going up $235,000.

[44:34] It looks like a big percentage increase.

[44:36] All of that is technology equipment, mostly things like Chromebooks.

[44:41] We have a schedule where we replace our Chromebooks every few years.

[44:45] All our students use Chromebooks.

[44:47] And in previous years, the past several previous years,

[44:51] those purchases have been funded through the capital improvement program.

[44:56] because of the financial predicament we find ourselves.

[45:00] Housing, capital, money wasn't available for those Chromebooks, for FY27. So we had to pull that back into the budget. We still need to provide our kids with Chromebooks.

[45:11] If you scroll a little bit further down, you'll see athletics, which is also going up $210,000.

[45:18] The athletics department has a revolving fund. That revolving fund is made up of fees for kids who participate in our sports.

[45:26] And in FYI, 2026, we were charging or offsetting the general fund with $400,000 from the Athletics Revolving Fund.

[45:37] The Athletics Revolving Fund only pulls in about $150,000 to $175,000 a year.

[45:42] So there was a balance in the Athletics Fund that could absorb charging $400,000 this year.

[45:49] But it's not a sustainable practice to continue charging $400,000 to a revolving fund that's only pulling in

[45:54] $1,750 to $175,000 a year will wipe out the fund.

[45:59] So we had to bring some of the athletic expenses back into the general fund budget this year to continue supporting our athletics programs.

[46:09] Next slide actually talks about these things, I've really just touched on them now.

[46:15] Again, these increases, they don't represent any new programming, they reflect contractual obligations.

[46:20] And the loss or phase out of prior funding sources, I think that's the real key note there.

[46:25] So

[46:28] as the town manager talked about in her presentation earlier, balancing the FY27 budget was difficult this year.

[46:35] So to achieve a balanced budget, they were $2.4 million in reductions that were required of the school department.

[46:42] Just over $2.1 million of those reductions came from within the school department budget.

[46:47] There was an additional $300,000 in savings realized on the town side of the budget where school employee benefit costs are budgeted for.

[46:58] This total reduction of $2.4 million, it resulted in the reduction of 22 full-time equivalent positions.

[47:05] We actually gave out close to 50 letters in total because there's also a number of our staff members who are going to have to move positions.

[47:16] But the 22 are being reduced.

[47:21] And then as additional reductions made to our goods and services budget as well.

[47:27] Before I'm going to get into a little bit of detail about what those reductions looked like, but I first just wanted to touch on some of our prior fiscal year reductions.

[47:36] So over the past three years, there's been a total net reduction of 21 FTEs.

[47:44] Sometimes there's positions that are reduced, and then we have to potentially sometimes hire physicians back.

[47:51] It might be a paraprofessional to help with some of our students.

[47:54] But over the past three years, there's been a reduction of 21 FTEs.

[47:59] We've also eliminated a number of programs that occurred this year, FY26.

[48:04] I won't read through all of them, but some of them, the bridge program, evening school,

[48:09] elementary summer school, and the little Hornets daycare.

[48:14] So now just getting into some of the FY27, more specific reductions, the staffing reductions were spread across every cost center across the school.

[48:25] So, administration, there was 2.75, FDs reduced, rolling green, one-and-a-half, Robinson, four FDs,

[48:33] Joe and Jackson, five FDs, QMS, five, and MHS, 3.75.

[48:38] These are teaching positions, these are, again, administration positions, these are nurses,

[48:43] these are custodians, they're across all cross-centers, special teachers, specialist teachers.

[48:53] On the goods and services side of the budget, there was just over $238,000 of

[48:58] reductions made. One of the big ones we're doing here is we're going to be consolidating

[49:01] some of our bus routes. So we're going to be eliminating some of the big buses, which

[49:08] is going to mean that kids are going to be on buses longer. We might have less bus stops.

[49:13] Kids might have to kind of consolidate in terms of where they're taking their bus stops this coming

[49:19] school year. We eliminated a number of stipend positions, curriculum, student supports,

[49:25] efforts, and also athletic stipend positions.

[49:28] We've reduced our facilities budget, which is becoming more and more difficult.

[49:32] We do have some aging schools in QMS in particular.

[49:36] We've run into issues all the time, just with power, right?

[49:40] So a lot of the things that we use nowadays, the QMS building wasn't built for

[49:46] the amount of tech and that type of thing that we are using nowadays in our schools.

[49:50] So we are reducing the facilities budget, also technology across the district, mostly through digital subscriptions.

[49:59] And also just at each school level, we've reduced our supply lines by close to 15% now.

[50:06] So that's things like that our kids use every day from construction paper and pencils papers.

[50:13] Any supply that you can think of that would be in our schools, we've reduced those lines by 15%.

[50:22] So just to touch on some of the impact of what these reductions are going to look like,

[50:28] we will be seeing an increase in our class sizes at the elementary level.

[50:32] As a superintendent was mentioning before, we really tried hard to keep those class sizes below 25.

[50:39] We will be probably hitting 25 in some of our classes this year.

[50:43] There's been reductions in student support services.

[50:45] We're going to have reduced offerings and fine arts in performing arts.

[50:48] We're going to have reduced supports in our athletic programs, as I mentioned earlier the adjustments to bus routes, increased time on buses, reduced access to digital programming, school supplies like we just talked about nursing services, custodial services, and one more that I'll mention that isn't on the list is our school libraries, which won't be available to students every day.

[51:21] So the FY27 outlook, and just kind of looking ahead, I think the town manager covered this very nicely.

[51:29] The FY27 budget reflects the town's current fiscal constraints.

[51:32] Our focus remains on maintaining our core services for our students.

[51:36] And again, to the town manager's point, we're looking towards the future.

[51:40] We work as a one town one budget, and our budget philosophy, as we continue working to meet the needs of our students and community in the years ahead, is to again work together.

[51:51] Thank you very much. That is the school budget overview.

[51:56] Thank you both appreciate it. I am going to continue on in the articles unless anybody

[52:02] tells me they're burning with desire to have a question on the budget if we could get

[52:06] through the other articles and then have our robust conversation. We still on track with

[52:11] that? No. I love it. I love that you just said no.

[52:21] So we're going to take, just so Nancy and the other team knows that we're going to take

[52:27] budget-related questions, so this would be Article 1 and 2, I'm just going to be mindful

[52:31] of the time, which it looks like it's, oh, 6.53, okay, so we did that in about 45 minutes.

[52:37] So I'll keep an eye on that, but I just would request that you come to that microphone so

[52:43] the folks at home can hear your question as well.

[53:01] So if you could come to the mic so that the folks at home and just so if you have all

[53:07] your documents like we do folks at home, she is pointing to motion one regarding the

[53:14] appropriation of the opioid mitigation stabilization funds.

[53:18] Okay.

[53:18] Take it away.

[53:19] To say the truth, I didn't know who was talking.

[53:23] So could you repeat that?

[53:25] Sure. I was just giving a directive to people from home that your question because you

[53:30] had mentioned this, they can't see you. So I'm just directing them to motion one, which

[53:36] is about appropriating $170,000, is that right?

[53:43] Go ahead, ask your question. I don't think

[53:44] what page you want. I am on page three. Okay, go ahead.

[53:51] well first of all my name is Sandra Levine hello 20 Walnut Street this is the

[53:59] first time we have met welcome to town thank you and how would you like to

[54:05] be addressed I'm very simple respectfully that's it just no tomatoes I'm good no

[54:15] So, but how would you like us, would you like to be town manager, Aaron's thing?

[54:21] Mrs. Aaron's thing is fine, that's a mouthful.

[54:25] That's fine.

[54:26] Okay.

[54:26] Thank you.

[54:27] Or the town manager, whatever.

[54:29] I'm not picky.

[54:30] Okay.

[54:31] Thank you.

[54:36] Underneath, underneath all of the writing, there's a paragraph.

[54:41] And that paragraph said on page three.

[54:44] And that paragraph says the total amount to be appropriated is $59 million plus.

[54:53] And it says that the individual, their estimates of the individual items, but the amount

[55:02] to be appropriated is not these line items, but rather one total line items.

[55:11] so that as a result of this total one number appropriation is what you're

[55:19] going to present and the town manager is authorized to spend such funds in

[55:29] such manner as may be needed to accomplish the list of items. Now you weren't

[55:39] last year. It was a different town manager.

[55:45] Truly, that town manager did not have enough

[55:49] supervision. But if you're going to tell us that the things we vote for may not be purchased

[56:04] or funded or whatever term you wish to use, then why do we have a town manager?

[56:15] Why do we have a town meeting and the people speak?

[56:23] If you're not going to listen to what they say and do what they ask

[56:29] After it's been appropriately explained, why bother to have spend the time that way at all?

[56:40] I have to tell you, I don't like the fact that you are going to or could.

[56:50] You have the possibility to override the people's voice in the spending of their own budget.

[57:00] So, thank you. Can I respond? Are you? Certainly, ma'am.

[57:05] Thank you. So, thank you for that comment.

[57:09] The way that article 1 is set up is very similar

[57:13] to how article 2 is set up. The superintendent has the same ability to move the money between

[57:18] the lines. It is not usurping the town meeting authority at all. The budget is created on

[57:25] estimate because just so right now is a perfect example we had authorization to spend

[57:30] X amount of dollars in the fuel or give me another one X amount of dollars to buy mulch for

[57:36] the springtime you know to make our town look nice and we put a freeze on it because we have

[57:40] other issues so if you're going to go that oh we offered you know ten thousand dollars for mulch

[57:47] and you're not spending that I think we have a good reason to not spend that because we have a

[57:51] fuel shortage.

[57:52] I think what the crux of your concern is is to make sure that you know what transfers

[57:58] are happening and that this is being done under some sunshine.

[58:02] And so we did talk about that.

[58:04] I'm aware what we have opted to do, and I've only been here for five weeks, so I only have

[58:09] one monthly report.

[58:10] The next one's coming in May 6th, but the first month of the report is from March.

[58:13] It covers two weeks, but there's a section in there for budget transfers.

[58:17] And it references the budget transfers, and that particular one has the budget transfers of the previous nine months, they're not mine, they're just what it was.

[58:26] Excuse me, stuck to the back of it. It's online under the town manager's page, and then the town accountant has also just put that report on there, where it's with all the other financial information.

[58:36] We have one more budget transfer, so I'm going to tell you, hot up the presses.

[58:41] It was for aerial mapping.

[58:43] We did that in FY26 to beat the leaf bloom so that you could, if you go on Google Maps

[58:48] right now, everything is our engine red and beautiful, full of leaves changing.

[58:54] You can't see much.

[58:55] So we wanted aerial mapping without the tree cover, so you can actually see what's going

[58:59] on in the land.

[59:00] We, it was approved by the CIP, the Capital Improvement Committee, and we opted to transfer

[59:08] lines in FY26 to get that project off the ground and going and not kind of held back

[59:14] on any sort of financial constraint that we have.

[59:16] That will be coming in the May 2026, excuse me, April 2026, monthly report submitted to

[59:22] the Select Board and posted online.

[59:24] So this is my sort of way in which I will be providing it to you, but I do not intend to make many transfers.

[59:31] That's not how I like to do business.

[59:33] I want to know that my police department costs me X, and my fire department costs me this, and my teachers cost me this.

[59:39] Whatever it is, I want to know what that number is, plan accordingly, and spend it on that.

[59:43] So I haven't really been able to provide the Mallory Air and Steam budget, right, that hasn't been able to happen.

[59:49] So, I can't kind of give you that for right now, but that's not my style to do things without letting people know.

[59:58] I'm probably an over-communication.

[1:00:01] That sounds good. The only thing is, by the time people get notification, the deed is done, will we be told ahead of time that this deed is about two? So it's not practical because I manage the day-to-day operations of the town and if we need to do that. But certainly, I have an open, like I've talked to both of these two individuals, substantially.

[1:00:29] really about Mansfield business. I'm pretty hands on. I like to think I'm approachable.

[1:00:36] I hope I'm approachable. I try to be. And if there's a concern that they have, I welcome

[1:00:40] them to give that. And if there's a concern you have, every other Wednesday, we are here

[1:00:45] in this room and I'd love to hear that as well. So I've only done the one. It's the aerial

[1:00:51] mapping and it came for a very specific reason.

[1:00:54] How much was that?

[1:00:56] It was $6,800 or so from each section.

[1:01:01] One was coming from what I would control, and the other five or so were coming from

[1:01:05] the enterprise funds, and it covered a total of like 31 or 32, somewhere in there, 39

[1:01:11] maybe total for the project, which is very important.

[1:01:16] This is not a simple thing.

[1:01:18] This is something we rely on in the course of our daily business, so it's an important project.

[1:01:21] I'm saying that the select board is going to see on a monthly basis along with the,

[1:01:25] with the different reports that we get what's been transferred.

[1:01:28] Do you know something I can't?

[1:01:29] Here are you very well.

[1:01:31] Is it that microphone again?

[1:01:33] I said, I said the, I said the select board on a monthly basis has seized these transfers.

[1:01:39] Okay?

[1:01:40] So on a go-forward basis, they shouldn't be an issue.

[1:01:44] Okay.

[1:01:45] Okay.

[1:01:46] Yes.

[1:01:47] Okay.

[1:01:47] Okay. It's just that the supervision from before must have been changed going forward.

[1:01:57] Because, well, the amount of money you quoted for that somehow rather doesn't even

[1:02:07] come close to the quarter of a million that was spent on one door.

[1:02:15] I don't know about it, so I'm not going to comment on it.

[1:02:18] But I appreciate the comment.

[1:02:21] We are kind of addressed of what we think is a pretty cyclical way to keep on top of it.

[1:02:26] Certainly, budget transfers don't happen with that sort of regularity.

[1:02:30] They're more rare than anything.

[1:02:32] And the budget transfer I'm talking about actually went to the Finance Committee as well.

[1:02:37] A couple of weeks ago, whenever that meeting was, actually it is all a blur.

[1:02:42] So everything is being done with residents, you know, looking at it, and I intend for that to continue.

[1:02:50] I thank you for that.

[1:02:52] Absolutely.

[1:02:52] And as I said, welcome.

[1:02:54] We're tough, but we're good people.

[1:02:56] You know, I'm also tough, and I'm a good person, so I'm in the right spot.

[1:03:00] Thank you.

[1:03:03] Okay.

[1:03:07] Very good.

[1:03:08] So this is the biggie.

[1:03:09] This is the one causing the heartburn.

[1:03:12] So Article 3 was placed on the warrant to serve as a potential override vote.

[1:03:17] The select board voted not to proceed with the override.

[1:03:22] There's a lot of reasons for that.

[1:03:23] Part of my presentation did discuss that, and we do have a plan forward.

[1:03:28] So those who were expecting the override, I'd like to impress upon you specifically, heard

[1:03:32] you loud and clear.

[1:03:34] We're going to get together and sort of, you know, understand each other that I'm new and

[1:03:40] I'm just getting here, but there's a commitment on both sides, a pretty strong one, and we've

[1:03:45] already attempted to set a date for July to get started on FY28, nice and early, where

[1:03:51] everybody's communicating.

[1:03:53] As I just mentioned, I'm an over-communicator of nothing else, so you will definitely hear

[1:03:57] from me, and we will have a conversation about whatever might be going on.

[1:04:02] So with this article, it is anticipated that no motion will be made because there is

[1:04:06] no contemplation for what amount of money would go in and the budgets have been balanced accordingly

[1:04:15] and we are just moving forward to FY28 in that case.

[1:04:20] Did you get up because you had a question?

[1:04:29] Well, if I could be more clear, let me know.

[1:04:33] Three main reasons are to identify the true actual cost, to provide the fix, not the symptom

[1:04:40] treatment, and finalizing some of these conversations that need to be concluded in order for us to move ahead.

[1:04:49] Article 4 is your annual, I call some of these regulars, these are your regulars, this is your annual appropriation for the Mansfield Electric Department.

[1:04:58] The Mass General Law is cited in the article itself, that is chapter 164, section 57.

[1:05:05] you can learn all about the electrical, what the governing conversation is there, and

[1:05:12] the funding comes directly from electricity rates.

[1:05:15] Article five is the appropriation for all enterprise accounts.

[1:05:18] There are four motions.

[1:05:20] Each enterprise account has its own motion.

[1:05:23] We start with the water department, and here I've broken out everybody's budget.

[1:05:27] That's at $7 million, sewer department, $7.2 million, and you can see these various lines that make up that budget.

[1:05:34] These are printed right on the right on the motions.

[1:05:38] Mansfield Municipal Airport allocation, $239,000, closer to $240, actually, $240,000.

[1:05:45] And then the parking enterprise with the total allocation of $593,000.

[1:05:49] Again, these are all listed on the motion packet.

[1:05:54] Article six is the capital improvement purchases that have gone through their vetting process with the CIP board and the committee.

[1:06:01] There are one, two, three, four, five, six.

[1:06:06] None of these have a tax impact on the property levy.

[1:06:10] The roof assessment for the Jordan Jackson Elementary School

[1:06:13] is being funded through certified free cash.

[1:06:15] The nice thing about this is the Massachusetts State Building

[1:06:17] Authority will give us around 50% back on the conclusion.

[1:06:23] It's just chicken and egg.

[1:06:24] We have to have the approval before we can go forward.

[1:06:28] So we're fully funding, and then we get funding back.

[1:06:31] so they split it with us. That is the first step in our construction project and that will dictate how we kind of move forward and what the roof actually needs.

[1:06:40] But that is being funded through this by certified free cash.

[1:06:43] The water department has a slate of programs here that they're looking to fund on the motions.

[1:06:51] You'll see that they're set up separated.

[1:06:53] The first three are all being paid through the water enterprise retained earnings.

[1:06:58] The last one is a borrowing project and that is why it's separated.

[1:07:01] You need different authorization for that to prove, to move ahead.

[1:07:06] Interesting point, the water and sewer rates underwent a study that was an interesting conversation

[1:07:13] to follow, so I can get the actual meeting date with some time in March, I believe, but something

[1:07:17] for folks to look at.

[1:07:19] Yeah, airport enterprise, they're looking for some fencing at $67,000 and that comes from

[1:07:25] the airport enterprise retained earnings, so again no property tax impact.

[1:07:30] Article 7 is our friend that got added late because the snow and ice deficit was so crippling.

[1:07:36] We have a few options to handle a snow and ice deficit.

[1:07:39] One of them is to raise it on the recap sheet which basically just carries over the deficit

[1:07:42] into the next fiscal year due to the constraints that the budget already had.

[1:07:47] And we opted not to do that.

[1:07:48] We are wiping it off with budget transfers that I will definitely be reporting on.

[1:07:53] And the Reserve Fund from the Finance Committee, they are already notified that we're doing

[1:07:59] that.

[1:07:59] There's a memo on the website, and the rest was certified free cash.

[1:08:05] And we didn't do all of the certified free cash because of course we needed to fund the Jordan

[1:08:09] Jackson assessment, roof assessment.

[1:08:12] So, the total deficit, as I said, is a hefty $698,000.

[1:08:17] Never a bill that you want to get this late in the year with these kind of struggles.

[1:08:20] But we creatively figured out how to smush all of our options together and then hold it

[1:08:26] from having any impact on FY27.

[1:08:29] So, great job to Josh and Nick, who really figured that out before I arrived.

[1:08:35] I had a nice job of putting in the spending freeze memo, so thank you also for that.

[1:08:41] Article 8 and 9 are relevant to revolving funds.

[1:08:44] Article 8 is actually changing the allowable, not the allowable expenditures.

[1:08:50] This is actually wrong.

[1:08:51] It's changing the way in which our funds come into the revolving fund.

[1:08:57] Because revolving funds are put in a bylaw, they require language changes.

[1:09:02] And on the warrant, you'll see what's crossed out so you can see what's changed.

[1:09:07] But really, it's just taking the ambulance receipts, putting them all in their entirety

[1:09:11] in the ambulance revolving fund, which is the DLS and DOR authorize way to do things and

[1:09:20] how you should be doing things.

[1:09:21] So we're making a change.

[1:09:22] Before this is posted, I will make a note, actually Nancy, if you can just make a little

[1:09:27] note that we fix that language.

[1:09:30] Article 9 is one of your regular articles that sets the upper limit.

[1:09:34] So we have spending limits on the revolving funds, as you heard earlier, we use them for all sorts of things.

[1:09:39] They're basically user fees that go in and contribute to however you provide that service.

[1:09:45] So the upper limit spending must be concentrated at town meeting every year and every year you set the upper limits.

[1:09:53] This picture on this slide shows what your upper limits are.

[1:09:56] This doesn't mean you're spending 100,000, it just for the radio master box fee.

[1:10:01] It just means you could spend up to 100,000 dealing with that program.

[1:10:08] Articles 10 and 18, so I apologize for what we're kind of going out of order, but they basically do.

[1:10:14] There are two articles that are not going to have any motion.

[1:10:18] So article 10 is a recurring article, one of your regulars that deposits into basically what accounts is savings accounts for the town.

[1:10:27] Because of our budget constraints, we do not have any money to do this right now.

[1:10:30] We are holding and we will analyze this in the fall to see whatever we have left over.

[1:10:35] So if the rolling green parcels, the three of them come in and they give us a billion dollars,

[1:10:40] that's not going to happen, but one can hope, then we would divvy up the billion dollars and put it in here.

[1:10:46] Article 18 is another appropriation that we're just not able to fund right now and

[1:10:52] we'll have to reevaluate and write size for us if necessary in the fall.

[1:10:57] So these might come up again in the fall.

[1:10:59] You'll know what they're all about, but technically they should be part of your annual slate of articles.

[1:11:05] Article 11 is a housekeeping measure.

[1:11:08] This is a safety article in the event that we had an old bill.

[1:11:12] Municipalities are not allowed to spend money outside of the current fiscal year that they're in.

[1:11:17] And if we found an old bill, we would have to go to town meeting and request a special permission to pay for that.

[1:11:23] And we didn't find anything.

[1:11:24] So that's good, but there's still a handful of days left.

[1:11:27] So we keep this here.

[1:11:28] It is not anticipated that there will be a motion for this article, but

[1:11:32] just in case we find an old bill out there, it would require a four or fifth vote.

[1:11:37] Articles 12 and 13 are bylaw amendments.

[1:11:40] These are both relative to the fire chief and his operations.

[1:11:45] Basically, this enhances efficiencies and allows us to accept and

[1:11:49] And you know, mandate that sprinkler reports be submitted electronically.

[1:11:55] We like this because there's no space for an electronic.

[1:11:57] We don't need a box of annual reports.

[1:12:00] You can just stick them in a computer and they don't take up any space and we like it and

[1:12:04] they're accessible and we can retrieve them as needed.

[1:12:07] So that's the first change.

[1:12:09] The other is to provide technical specifications administratively for alarm, how they do their

[1:12:15] alarms and with commercial properties responding right to them, right now if a radio frequency needs to change technically we have to go to a by-law change at town meeting.

[1:12:25] That is not practical nor do you want to be voting on that every single time.

[1:12:29] Let's just have it be administratively handled by our police and fire chiefs and we can expand on our economic development that way as well by being a little bit more business friendly in that regard.

[1:12:40] And on this slide I linked when this will be relevant when you can access this, but I linked the warrant so you can actually look at the language at the same time.

[1:12:49] It's too much to put on this slide.

[1:12:52] Articles 14 and 22 are both of the same premise on different topics.

[1:12:57] They are the authorization to enter into a contract term longer than three years.

[1:13:02] Massachusetts procurement laws require that we're sort of stuck with three years with very limited changes.

[1:13:07] And if we want to go beyond a three-year term, we have to request the town's permission to do so.

[1:13:12] Article 14 is specific to the fire chief.

[1:13:15] It is a 10-year lease agreement for mandated equipment for cardiac monitors.

[1:13:20] And he found a good deal, it's equipment that's generally on the capital plan.

[1:13:25] He found a good deal to lease these out and get the service agreement over 10 years.

[1:13:30] And it became financially beneficial to do that.

[1:13:33] Certainly we like financially beneficial in our difficult times.

[1:13:35] So we're requesting that he's being authorized to enter into a 10-year agreement for this one product.

[1:13:42] Article 22 would allow myself as a town manager to enter into a five-year contract for bus transportation.

[1:13:49] This is advantageous to the bus company and they could, you know, the idea is that they're going to give us a better price

[1:13:55] because they're locked in for five years.

[1:13:57] So this was a request of the school. They're definitely on board. I'm happy to help, obviously.

[1:14:01] and we are going out to bid soon for our next set of bus transportation and this just helps give us firm footing in that regard and make it the best deal for the town that it can be.

[1:14:17] Articles 15, 16 and 17, I lumped together because they're really from the planning board sort of.

[1:14:23] So, for my organization, this made sense.

[1:14:26] Article 15, if pass would allow the end of Cobb Street to be accepted as a public way.

[1:14:32] This was a little bit of an administrative oopsie daisy once upon a time, and we're attempting

[1:14:37] to correct it.

[1:14:38] The planning board will be there to give a report.

[1:14:41] Certainly, if you have a question Sarah, I'll be happy to answer it.

[1:14:44] We do expect some conversation about this, that's how meeting, some items came up during

[1:14:48] the board's meeting on laying out the plan.

[1:14:52] but we do require street acceptances at town meeting they have to go there.

[1:14:57] Article 16.

[1:15:00] Any other questions? Yes.

[1:15:08] Bill Clawney, 55 follow street. What part of Cobb Street has not been accepted?

[1:15:17] The end of Cobb Street. I don't have the station markers. Okay. I'll have a conversation with cell off line because the end of Cobb Street is actually a land that's owned by us.

[1:15:34] There was an easement in place for many years.

[1:15:38] But the easement was never finalized, so I'll take this offline with you, but I didn't know this was coming up.

[1:15:43] So I'll take it offline with Sarah and have a discussion about it, because I would like to understand what exactly is happening here.

[1:15:50] Yes, it's going to be a better person to speak to is Rick Alves, he's the one that actually placed this on the war, and he prepared all the information for the select board.

[1:15:59] Okay, I'll give Rick a call. Thank you.

[1:16:01] Okay, I'll follow up with him and make sure to the plan should be on file with the town clerk's office to want to get your eyes on it.

[1:16:08] And Article 16 and 17 both had to do with easements.

[1:16:12] Unfortunately, we did not get the plans in time to post or to have on file with the town clerk's office at the time of posting.

[1:16:18] Therefore, any action on this would be inappropriate because the public would not have been given the opportunity to look at the plan.

[1:16:25] So Article 16 and 17, we are anticipating passing with no action.

[1:16:31] We will not make a motion, but those could come up later.

[1:16:34] This is just sort of housekeeping at one point there's like a little bit of a sidewalk that kind of juts out because the polls in the way and we need to take that property.

[1:16:46] So sort of housekeeping for us but requires action at town meeting.

[1:16:51] Articles 19, articles 19 and 20 are transferring ownership of land that we own the select boards purview and transferring it into the conservation commissions purview.

[1:17:02] that affords it a variety of protections.

[1:17:05] It's their first stormwater management.

[1:17:07] There was a lovely packet put together by Sarah

[1:17:11] and my giant arrow is pointing you

[1:17:14] to where to click on that.

[1:17:16] You can learn a little bit more.

[1:17:19] We've blown up the parcel.

[1:17:20] You can see where it is.

[1:17:21] At town meeting, we're currently working on

[1:17:24] a sort of large map that would identify

[1:17:26] where these parcels are.

[1:17:29] So you know exactly what we're talking about.

[1:17:32] So that will be there and that's in the works.

[1:17:35] This change has no monetary impact of the sound,

[1:17:37] so it is a land transfer, it does require two thirds,

[1:17:40] but it's just going from one entity of the sound

[1:17:42] to another, and Caitlin Gagne will be available

[1:17:45] to talk about these at town meeting.

[1:17:49] Articles, yep.

[1:17:55] I'm Stan Poon, 125 Central Street.

[1:17:59] And so yes, there are no immediate monetary impact, right?

[1:18:04] for these two parcels of land transferring to?

[1:18:08] So this is more than two parcels of land.

[1:18:11] If you look, this is Article 19, and it traverses over two pieces of paper, unfortunately,

[1:18:19] I apologize for that.

[1:18:20] But there's a bunch of properties that the town owns, and this is transferring it into conservation,

[1:18:27] which gives it a certain set of protections.

[1:18:29] So once it is in conservation, can it come out, come back out from conservation?

[1:18:36] Once it goes to conservation.

[1:18:38] I think once it goes to conservation, it stays there, it can't come back out.

[1:18:42] So if somehow, I say, 50 years later, somebody wanted to farm it, and this time became nobody's land.

[1:18:51] Somebody wanted to farm it, what happens?

[1:18:52] If I'm wrong, though, a lot of these pieces, like orphan pieces, pieces that are non-buildable

[1:18:58] pieces of land.

[1:19:00] Not buildable, doesn't mean there's not formable.

[1:19:02] Rutland can be farmed by state law.

[1:19:04] And I think that there's different protections, I think is primarily a protection against

[1:19:09] building.

[1:19:10] Right, but if you're in conservation, can you say that you cannot?

[1:19:15] It could, actually, in some cases you would work the conservation agent, and you could

[1:19:20] even put an agriculture, like, a restriction on a portion of the law that might be

[1:19:24] upland and not wet.

[1:19:27] So there are opportunities there.

[1:19:29] Okay.

[1:19:29] So, is it the town's policy, like, does the town have some interesting rules or charter

[1:19:38] that say, once it's in conservation, you can never pull it back out, does that have anything

[1:19:45] like that?

[1:19:45] So, once it's, yeah, sorry, go ahead.

[1:19:47] Oh, sorry. Yeah, exactly. That's actually part of the reason of the impetus for pulling

[1:19:53] this list together. There has been a lot of conversations about selling buildable town

[1:20:00] land over the past decade or so. And the conservation plan advised us when we were doing this most

[1:20:11] most recent round of review of Townland that she's already told multiple generations of

[1:20:18] town managers and their planners that and select boards that these are not buildable parcels.

[1:20:26] For various reasons they really need to get taken out of general pop from the select boards

[1:20:36] Slate of own.

[1:20:37] Slate to conservation so that we know in perpetuity that these are not buildable

[1:20:43] land.

[1:20:44] What doesn't mean that it is not formidable in perpetuity?

[1:20:46] No, I think we answered that question before that you can do other things, but you

[1:20:52] cannot build, and that's what we wanted.

[1:20:55] Can you do other things?

[1:20:56] Yeah, and so we don't want to-

[1:20:57] How, how, that was the mechanism for-

[1:20:59] So, you would want to buy, you would want to buy a piece of this land and then farm it?

[1:21:06] no body in this town, the only thing that is viable is, I guess you can talk to the

[1:21:11] constipation.

[1:21:12] Just blew up the town I want to be in forever.

[1:21:15] No, it's not like, outside of Portland, not in any case, they're already owned by the town,

[1:21:21] so it would be us opening up farming.

[1:21:26] The parcels are already town owned, so regardless of whether, if you voted no on this, they would

[1:21:32] still remain town on parcels.

[1:21:34] Right, wait, so, sir, before you leave the microphone, sir, I'm over here, I'm speaking over here.

[1:21:41] Maureen Daredi select board, I just didn't say I hadn't experienced with this in another town I worked with.

[1:21:46] That there was conservation on land and actually we wanted it to go back to the town land for different use.

[1:21:54] It was conservation on land and we wanted to transfer it over to the golf course we had in that town.

[1:22:00] And there's a process because once it becomes conservation, it's a whole different set of rules by the state.

[1:22:07] Exactly, so we can come out, but it's a petition that has to be made by the town to the state to use something else.

[1:22:15] So that there is already a set of procedures to do that.

[1:22:19] So just because it goes in doesn't mean that if the town decides 50 years from now,

[1:22:26] Hey, we think we're going to do agriponic as that, what it's called, water farming, hydroponic thank you, that it's a mechanism that the state already has in place and you just have to follow the rules.

[1:22:40] I don't know them line by line, but that would be something for the conservation agent.

[1:22:45] Okay, well there's no monetary impact, so what's the point of doing it?

[1:22:48] Because the conservation is a guardian of the land, a protector to make sure that the land remains.

[1:22:56] Is there a risk right now?

[1:22:58] Yes. Well, not yet. These will go into it now.

[1:23:01] Are these pieces of land at risk right now?

[1:23:04] No, but the town owns those pieces right now.

[1:23:07] Okay.

[1:23:09] So when they did the review, a lot of these are not buildable, right?

[1:23:12] And you said, but they might have water. You could farm them.

[1:23:14] Some of them are orphan pieces that builders left in developments that were never,

[1:23:19] you know, stuck along somebody else's property or the town never received them in easements.

[1:23:25] So that's what this is doing, it's kind of cleaning up those areas.

[1:23:32] There's still only, right?

[1:23:33] Yep.

[1:23:34] Okay, thank you.

[1:23:36] Just quickly, Steve Shrumpel, a good question, by the way.

[1:23:40] This is the largest list I've seen a while, and some of these properties are 12.5 acres.

[1:23:44] That's a pretty large problem.

[1:23:47] Another one, 7.7 acres.

[1:23:48] A lot of them have actual addresses.

[1:23:50] They're not just, you know, on-law and laying this little section.

[1:23:53] So, perhaps maybe providing some photos during Tommy.

[1:23:57] So, they can-

[1:23:57] Yes, so that-

[1:23:58] Have them as a backup.

[1:23:59] That link there actually links to the individual parcels.

[1:24:04] I'm afraid-

[1:24:04] I'm afraid to touch it because I don't want to lose the thing.

[1:24:08] But at the end of this, I will go back and we'll pass it.

[1:24:14] But to your point about the larger parcels, those are actually, I think Chandler's way,

[1:24:20] Griffin's way, they were articulated in cluster subdivision decisions that needed to actually

[1:24:28] either go to H.O.A., the town's conservation commission or nonprofit, it ended up just going

[1:24:37] to the town.

[1:24:39] So this is actually tucking it in its appropriate style.

[1:24:42] Some of these smaller ones, did you ask the abouters if they want to purchase?

[1:24:45] We don't want them to, because we want-

[1:24:48] You don't want to add to the tax roles?

[1:24:49] Well, that's what you're getting ahead of us.

[1:24:52] That's what the next article is, but these ones are slated for protection through the conservation commission.

[1:24:56] All right, if you go through that-

[1:24:57] We'll them that way and show some photos that might be well, and I do like Marie's idea of a golf course, so we can do that with this property.

[1:25:04] We had a golf course, yeah, the other one.

[1:25:10] I will come back to this, I'm just afraid to lose the presentation, so we'll come back.

[1:25:17] Article 21 is designating land as surplus property.

[1:25:21] These are parcels that would not be given over to any protective measure.

[1:25:27] These are owned by the town.

[1:25:29] Here on this slide, this is an important note.

[1:25:32] They're all grouped together at town meaning they will be two separate motions and that has to do with how the town came to own these parcels at the origin.

[1:25:42] So there's a set of parcels that came to us as tax title and those will be grouped in one motion.

[1:25:47] And that's obviously a default on taxes and there's a set that the town just owned through various mechanisms.

[1:25:53] Also, something to know here, Thorne Road, after the warrant and the motions were posted,

[1:26:00] we determined that Thorne Road actually has an easement on it.

[1:26:02] We cannot at this time dispose of that.

[1:26:05] So that's my little cross out, so people can sort of follow along that I didn't miss one.

[1:26:10] I didn't make a mistake.

[1:26:11] Nope, we're leaving that off, and the motion will be read without that.

[1:26:15] But these, to your point, about notifying a butters that is part of the process when we're

[1:26:20] ready to sell that a butters notices will go out in case a neighboring person is interested

[1:26:27] and we have actually already received communication. So by virtue of this process alone, we are

[1:26:32] already jumping up some interest for people to purchase this. And again, selling off and getting

[1:26:38] rid of land that we're not using and putting it back on this act rolls is obviously a good thing

[1:26:44] for this town to do. So that's something that we will be moving forward. The town does have a process

[1:26:50] us here, though, it goes under a little bit of a study with an ad hoc committee and then

[1:26:56] gets on the street.

[1:26:57] So, a little bit of time goes by, that's why we can't count on this.

[1:27:00] I mentioned this earlier.

[1:27:01] We can't count on this for FY27 because there's some work to be done, but it will be done.

[1:27:07] Any other questions?

[1:27:12] Sandra Levine, 21th Street.

[1:27:16] I don't remember the year.

[1:27:18] Here, perhaps Maureen, you understand it better, but the year that a former selection

[1:27:28] died of cancer and came to our board, I was on the board at the time.

[1:27:38] And he, what you could see that he was terminal and he died a couple of weeks later.

[1:27:49] He had begged and begged for a long time to have the property across from Memorial Park,

[1:27:58] which is possibly one of the properties that are listed here for Hope Street.

[1:28:05] He had begged to have them be built by habitat for humanity, and I guess you could say his

[1:28:24] whole selection career he had begged for that.

[1:28:28] At that particular meeting, the whole Board of Selecman did vote to try to honor that request.

[1:28:43] I know the vote was taken.

[1:28:47] You know, I wish I could remember the date.

[1:28:49] Actually, they can just talk about the topic and try to search for it.

[1:28:54] So, Carrie can put in a topic and search for the minutes.

[1:28:59] Do you have a year or a span of time?

[1:29:03] No, because that, yeah, okay.

[1:29:05] We'll look into it.

[1:29:06] And the way that the town would handle that is just which,

[1:29:10] so let's pretend it's the 0.54 acres.

[1:29:13] We would put in our documents, you know,

[1:29:17] must be built for affordable housing or we would,

[1:29:19] we, if the board wanted to do that,

[1:29:21] that they would just put it in the sale as a condition.

[1:29:24] That's a pretty easy thing to do.

[1:29:26] Sandy, I just want to bring up that the housing corporation, right now,

[1:29:34] they've gotten other land that was given to them by the town to build on.

[1:29:40] So they have a good piece of land now that they can build multiple houses on it.

[1:29:45] So I think that is something that they're using their money and their resources now to do on that, so they might not be able to do something like this.

[1:29:57] I know it was Steve's dream. I was the one.

[1:30:00] Who? Yes, who took the, who fulfilled his dying wish and got the housing

[1:30:06] cooperative incorporated. And then I left and turned it over to Louie on Baruso because

[1:30:11] we had a conflict. I managed his contract when I worked with the state so we couldn't

[1:30:15] be on anything together. So Lou is taken over it now, but they are ultimately very, very busy

[1:30:23] with this other piece of land that they're working on. I will say I'm going to put out a

[1:30:27] It's plugged down there or anybody wants to get into a portable housing and developing this land.

[1:30:32] They need members, they only have three people and

[1:30:36] it's they need more people to step up and apply for that committee.

[1:30:40] So I think that they would probably tell you, we would probably tell you that this would be a better use for the land, let them work on what they have.

[1:30:49] is there a possibility that this particular, I don't know if Steve was thinking about

[1:31:03] these two pieces attached because at that particular time, I don't think anybody had

[1:31:14] I really measured the land.

[1:31:17] Senator, let's do this.

[1:31:17] Let's start with pulling the minutes.

[1:31:19] Why don't we try to pull the minutes?

[1:31:21] Well, in the minutes, and then I will direct the ad hoc committee to understand

[1:31:25] the situation and look at it, and then we get with the map.

[1:31:28] You might be able to search by address, you might be able to search by a Slack board, or whatever.

[1:31:32] The lot numbers lead me to believe that they don't connect, but we can look into it.

[1:31:38] And then that can be directed to ex.

[1:31:41] Okay, then maybe they could hold it to a later time or something.

[1:31:46] I would like to follow through on that, sure.

[1:31:50] Just because this gets voted through, it doesn't mean it goes to sale the next day.

[1:31:54] No, I know that.

[1:31:55] I know that.

[1:31:57] Yes.

[1:31:57] Things are bringing it up.

[1:31:58] Okay, thank you.

[1:32:01] So you'll run with having carried, dig it up.

[1:32:05] I'll get you the dates.

[1:32:06] I'm writing some notes here, my to-do list.

[1:32:09] I'll get you the dates of Steve's death tomorrow.

[1:32:11] Thank you.

[1:32:13] Okay, and we are going to switch over to Article 23, which is a zoning.

[1:32:20] Okay, and I'm going to do a great job on this.

[1:32:23] Okay, Sarah Raposa, Director of Planning and Development.

[1:32:26] I'm going to run through the planning boards only zoning article this year.

[1:32:31] I know it's a relief that there's only one, but it's kind of a doozy.

[1:32:35] The planning board is proposing an article that would regulate data centers in Mansfield.

[1:32:46] The board voted unanimously to recommend approval following a public hearing held on March 25th, 2026.

[1:32:56] Why this article?

[1:32:57] So right now data centers are not defined in our zoning by law.

[1:33:02] That means they could be treated like office or warehouse uses, but of course they're

[1:33:08] very different.

[1:33:09] They're very infrastructure heavy facilities, so this article puts clear rules in place

[1:33:15] before any proposal comes forward.

[1:33:18] I want to stress most importantly that right here at the outset that this proposal bans

[1:33:24] large data centers from being located in Mansfield.

[1:33:31] What is a data center?

[1:33:32] They are facilities that house servers and digital infrastructure.

[1:33:38] They require significant electricity and cooling systems.

[1:33:42] They often include backup generators and specialized equipment,

[1:33:46] and they do not function like traditional employment centers.

[1:33:53] This by-law is intentionally conservative.

[1:33:57] It only allows smaller, lower impact facilities.

[1:34:00] Large-scale data centers are not allowed in any proposal that would come forward in Mansfield if this was approved would require a special permit from the planning board so that we can evaluate impacts on a case-by-case basis.

[1:34:21] These uses are limited to appropriate commercial and industrial areas.

[1:34:25] They are not allowed in residential districts or most business areas.

[1:34:30] Even in the allowed districts, they require a planning board special permit to ensure

[1:34:36] site-specific review before any approval is issued.

[1:34:40] The districts that they may be allowed in, industrial one, industrial two, the planned business

[1:34:47] district.

[1:34:48] So we're looking at the zoning districts that are shown in shades of purple and orange.

[1:34:58] The special permit process focuses on the real impacts, which include energy demand, water usage, and noise.

[1:35:07] It also ensures that our infrastructure, electric, water, and public safety can handle the use.

[1:35:14] If it can't, a project cannot move forward as proposed.

[1:35:17] For the small-scale data centers that could be allowed in Mansfield, the planning board

[1:35:24] can set clear limits on operations to protect our shared electric and water resources.

[1:35:30] They are enforceable standards for noise and infrastructure use, and projects are required

[1:35:35] to report regularly to demonstrate compliance.

[1:35:39] Importantly, these approvals are not permanent.

[1:35:42] They must be renewed every five years, giving the town the opportunity to ensure ongoing

[1:35:48] compliance. Again, this article is not tied to any specific proposal. There is no project before the town.

[1:35:57] This is simply about putting rules in place so that we are prepared.

[1:36:02] It does not change anything in residential neighborhoods.

[1:36:08] The bottom line is that this is a proactive measure.

[1:36:11] It protects the town's infrastructure and resources, and it allows only limited, lower impact uses.

[1:36:19] And ensures the planning board and the town retain, retain control over any future proposal.

[1:36:26] And again, the planning board recommended approval by a vote of five to one.

[1:36:32] The dissenting member just felt like the concept was new and

[1:36:36] they didn't have enough information to vote in favor, but the other five members did.

[1:36:45] So thank you, I would take comments.

[1:36:51] Thank you very much.

[1:36:52] That was well done.

[1:36:53] Steve Schoenfeld again.

[1:36:54] I see you members up there.

[1:36:55] The two not attend.

[1:36:57] So the planning board has seven planning board members and one associate member.

[1:37:03] So the associate member doesn't vote on zoning under 48 section five and we had one member absent.

[1:37:11] So it was six members.

[1:37:12] And is there another associate member vacancy right now?

[1:37:14] There is a vacancy, so again, if anybody wants to join the planning board or the ZDA.

[1:37:19] So the question is, you talk about what it doesn't do, and I ironically want to chat GBT,

[1:37:25] which is a data place to ask this question.

[1:37:27] There are four types, and I think you mentioned the four of them.

[1:37:29] The small ones aren't as painful, and they could actually bring in $3 million

[1:37:34] of tax revenue here.

[1:37:35] What does this allow?

[1:37:37] Not by right, obviously not by right.

[1:37:39] It's going to go through a lot of that same small facility.

[1:37:42] it takes 10 megawatts of power potentially. So, clearly it's got to go through a lot of

[1:37:47] conversations, but does it allow something somewhere if a very small one wants to be built?

[1:37:52] Indeed. There are, as you've mentioned, there's different types of data centers

[1:37:58] that we translated into tiers. So your smallest facility is going to be an edge or micro

[1:38:08] data center and that's more in line with what we're thinking that could be

[1:38:13] located here in Mansfield. Your research may have indicated that that was

[1:38:19] maybe like a 10 megawatt usage. Based on our conversations, based on our

[1:38:26] conversations with MMED, we're looking at a max of two megawatts. So it's

[1:38:31] substantially less but it is enough to provide the data center type of

[1:38:38] service that is ancillary to most businesses that rely on data services.

[1:38:44] And it's a lot of personal property in those facilities.

[1:38:48] Clearly, it could be a $3 million gain, day one, day two.

[1:38:52] Yeah, and that's the, and so when we're talking about personal property, that's the hope that

[1:38:58] if one were to generate income that way, because they're certainly not generating income

[1:39:03] through, you know, being a manufacturer or multiplier or something like that.

[1:39:09] And not that there are too much expense because people aren't going to work there in bringing kids into the town and other things like that, so not much traffic, either.

[1:39:16] But I'm glad you're talking more about that time being and talking more about what it can do versus what it can.

[1:39:22] Thank you for that feedback.

[1:39:25] I was trying to walk the line between getting to specific and actually just letting the folks who wanted.

[1:39:33] more details like that, ask the questions, because I didn't want to drown the techno-speak.

[1:39:42] Yeah, the techno-speak.

[1:39:44] Two megawatts is a good starting point, and obviously, there's going to be conversations

[1:39:47] about what I want to do this, but thank you.

[1:39:49] Thank you, Steve.

[1:39:50] I'm actually going to switch to, I will, is it about this particular item, sir?

[1:39:56] No.

[1:39:57] No.

[1:39:57] I mean, there's a, I see a small number of four, I think there's questions on the webinar,

[1:40:03] So, I'm just going to switch to the virtual space for a minute if that's okay.

[1:40:06] And I think the virtual team for their patients, Nancy, if you want to, it looks like people

[1:40:14] may have inputted, I don't know, my contacts are fresh, but I can't see that.

[1:40:18] So, if you have joined us in the webinar virtually and you would like to make a comment or ask

[1:40:25] a question, please use the raise your hand tool to indicate your interest.

[1:40:30] If you're not sure where that is, the raise your hand tool is at the bottom of your screen.

[1:40:38] And I will identify by name those who raised their hand.

[1:40:47] Francis M, if you would unmute yourself, maybe just a moment here.

[1:40:55] And then once you have unmuted, you are free to ask your question or make a comment.

[1:41:01] Hi, good evening.

[1:41:02] This is Francis McDonald.

[1:41:03] Can you guys hear me, okay?

[1:41:05] Yes, we can.

[1:41:06] Thank you.

[1:41:07] Perfect.

[1:41:08] So, with the data center, my concern, definitely, is the impact on our child's resources

[1:41:17] and also environmental and health.

[1:41:20] As many data centers, there's starting to be health issues surrounding the people who

[1:41:29] So has that been researched and thought of before we try to get into this space?

[1:41:38] Thank you for your question.

[1:41:41] Bila has subsections regarding performance standards.

[1:41:46] So you're going to see sections having to do with electrical demand and infrastructure capacity

[1:41:51] where we're going to need information from an applicant on their proposed electrical

[1:41:58] demand that MMED can review.

[1:42:02] If upgrades are needed to the system, then the applicant would be responsible for the

[1:42:09] cost of those.

[1:42:11] The second performance standard is water use and cooling systems, very similar responsibilities

[1:42:18] for the applicant for impacts.

[1:42:25] The noise section is new for the town of Mansfield.

[1:42:29] We don't have a general noise by-law in Mansfield,

[1:42:32] and we rely on mass DEPs requirement.

[1:42:36] That hadn't been updated since 1996,

[1:42:39] and they are actually in the process of updating the DEP noise by-law now.

[1:42:46] now, but we wanted to take some of the really good portions of the DEP by-law and put them

[1:42:55] into our local zoning for data centers having to do with noise requirements at points of compliance.

[1:43:07] So, basically, it's a shift away from the standard sound decibel reading at the property line, and it actually shifts that over to where houses are residential zoning districts and houses that may be near industrial districts where they might be allowed.

[1:43:34] So professional noise studies will be required to be peer-reviewed, pre-construction, baseline

[1:43:43] levels, and post-construction.

[1:43:47] The next two sections have to do with backup-powered emissions and site design and physical

[1:43:54] impacts, where we're also looking at air quality and emissions, and then general municipal services

[1:44:00] and infrastructure.

[1:44:01] So, the planning board did meet with the folks from the Electric Department and the Water Department to really understand the infrastructure capacities that we have now and the types of impacts that we generally hear about, particularly with the large data centers which we would not be approving, but even on the small scale, we would be looking at what the impacts of that law.

[1:44:31] would be. Okay, so so I appreciate that. We didn't answer the question of the health issues.

[1:44:38] So there's actually been documented health issues of people living near data centers that have been in existence for a few years now.

[1:44:47] Portland, Oregon is an example of one. They're having major health issues of people living near data centers that have one big issue.

[1:44:55] The other issue is I don't think we want to run into an

[1:45:00] We're not in a situation where we allow them to build, right? And then because maybe we have all these restrictions on the area that they don't stay, right? And then you're kind of like, well, another failed business in the area, right? So, I think it's a balance. It doesn't make sense to put it in such a highly populated town like ours. Or, you know, maybe this is just something that isn't a good fit.

[1:45:29] for our town at this time until they can produce more efficiently and more effectively and more responsibly.

[1:45:41] So the alternative would be to just ban any data center uniformly, is that what your alternative to this would be?

[1:45:56] I think if we do not have sufficient information

[1:45:59] for the protection of our town and our resources,

[1:46:02] yeah, that would probably be something we need to look at.

[1:46:06] Sorry, you should explain that.

[1:46:07] Until we know, I'm not saying I can't.

[1:46:09] I'm just saying I should look at you.

[1:46:11] And I don't think you know.

[1:46:13] Well, I just want to make one comment about it.

[1:46:16] I don't know if you can see us, Jill, but this is Mallor Earnstein.

[1:46:21] The attempt to sort of put in some parameters and guardrails I think is very important in this space because it's rapidly developing and if we don't have something that we can hold folks looking to do business in this way, if we don't have something to hold them to, then we're a little bit more liable to not have, you know, some say in the way and how they're aware and where they're located.

[1:46:49] and what they're doing. It does require special permits, so that's important, and I think what really landed with me, because this is not, I don't love these either.

[1:46:57] I find them to be kind of a drain, and so that worries me when times are limited.

[1:47:03] But our bi-law proposal contemplates the smallest here, and it allows us to sort of baby-sep into this, protect the town by dictating terms by which you would locate here with something like this.

[1:47:15] But I think your points are pretty valid and we should all be looking into that with any new technology.

[1:47:22] So I didn't want to, I just wanted to address that because it was a good point.

[1:47:30] Any other hands raised on, well sorry, I'm still on my digital space here.

[1:47:35] Any other speaking of data centers, any other hands raised?

[1:47:38] Any other hands raised?

[1:47:40] Okay, I'm actually going to go to the gentleman behind you because he was first.

[1:47:45] Oh, okay, sorry.

[1:47:47] Sorry, I'm trying to keep my order.

[1:47:54] You're doing well.

[1:47:55] Sandra Levine, 20 won't.

[1:47:59] I agree wholeheartedly with that last speaker,

[1:48:04] because even if you open up the door, a small amount,

[1:48:11] that particular data center, again, even if it's tiny,

[1:48:17] is going to be a bother to somebody that's close to it, but it also,

[1:48:29] if nobody has

[1:48:30] anybody I should ask, has anybody requested a data center permit? No. Well,

[1:48:39] everything that we're doing now, the research that we're doing, the culling

[1:48:46] of spaces where this could go within the town would have to be started again, if somebody

[1:48:58] applied for it, if we don't pass it.

[1:49:04] And my thought is, if you don't open the door, perhaps the rat doesn't come in.

[1:49:11] And I think that's a whole lot simpler than having to say put it in this place and can't

[1:49:21] have more electricity than this.

[1:49:24] And I've spoken to Joe Salicito and also Sean about the amount of resource that we have

[1:49:34] to give up for them.

[1:49:38] last year we gave we sold a ton of water to Adelboro if we give that same ton

[1:49:47] of water to a data center we're not we're not improving lives we're just making a

[1:49:57] data center work at the cost of our water supply suppose we have a drought

[1:50:06] that's horrendous. I don't want to jeopardize our water, the amount, the quality. I think it's,

[1:50:20] well, I'm not in favor of it. And I just think if you don't put it on the books,

[1:50:27] you don't ever have to worry about a larger one or that one. Thank you.

[1:50:35] The reality of the situation, the reality of the situation in the data center is that the square footage that you need is hundreds of thousands of square feet.

[1:50:43] We really don't have a spot in town that's going to have it.

[1:50:46] The micro ones, the hurdle on the micro ones of finance, you're not going to be able to put one in town.

[1:50:51] These places are hundreds of thousands of square feet, they're huge.

[1:50:56] And we don't have spots in town that would be able to accommodate them to begin with.

[1:50:59] I think it's great that we're putting guardrails around them, but at the end of the day I'm thinking it's more of a waste of time than someone trying to sneak in the back door.

[1:51:07] And it also requires a special permit, so that's how you shut it down at the end of the day.

[1:51:11] And then we're also the light commissioners, and we're not going to have them drive the price of our electricity through the roof.

[1:51:17] We know how much of a buffer we have between what we use and what we're contracted for.

[1:51:23] So I think it's great that we're putting guardrails around it, but there are other safeguards in place.

[1:51:28] including a water connection, too.

[1:51:30] So your comments about water?

[1:51:32] Yeah, and the water connection was because you weren't here, but

[1:51:34] Natalboro, they went dry in the reservoirs, and we hooked up so they could do.

[1:51:40] Oh no, that's great, I like it in the neighbor.

[1:51:42] I just mean, when the new business comes in and they have to pay for a water connection.

[1:51:46] Right.

[1:51:46] You know, how much draw they can have about that.

[1:51:47] Yeah, but we would also look, we would also look at the water department tell us we can do this, we can't do it, right?

[1:51:52] Right, right, so.

[1:51:53] So, but thank you, Sandy.

[1:51:55] Speak a little louder next time.

[1:52:01] Standphone from 125 Central Street. May I go back to Article 3? I'm just curious, what's

[1:52:08] the outlook for two questions for Article 3? What is the outlook for 2028 in terms of

[1:52:18] override and stuff like that? And the second question is, how did we arrive at the conclusion

[1:52:28] that we are not going forward with the override for this year.

[1:52:33] Okay, so I'll answer from the select board's perspective.

[1:52:38] We have the override last year and I got voted down at town meeting, and

[1:52:42] the override last year also got voted down at the ballot box a couple weeks later.

[1:52:47] At that time, all the groups got together and we had discussed, we know that we're in a situation,

[1:52:53] again this year, that we're going to have a 2 million plus override.

[1:52:55] And I think Matt, and I think would agree, Nick, that if we don't do anything we're going to have another two million dollar override, at least as a minimum for next year without any, without any changing of the infrastructure, right?

[1:53:11] And the infrastructure to me is, we have the, go ahead, Matt, did you want to go ahead, Nick?

[1:53:16] Right, Nick?

[1:53:17] Yeah, more just like a course correction in terms of expenses, as I think what the board really wanted to go in the direction of that for this year without just arbitrarily putting up a number that we thought would get us through for one year.

[1:53:30] So, at the end of the day, we have the contracts that have come up on the school side, the contracts coming up on the town side, and that includes wages and health care.

[1:53:40] And at the end of the day, everyone's going to, you know, everyone's going to have to take a hit, you know, we're going to pay more in taxes, the union's going to have to take a hit on wages or health care or something in order for us to fix the curve on a go forward basis.

[1:53:54] We felt that without fixing the curve, you put it up this year, it gets approved or doesn't get approved, we're in the same boat next year because we haven't changed the drivers, the drivers of the health care costs overall, salaries and wages are driving it.

[1:54:07] You saw the conversation earlier about state aid as a percentage has really hasn't moved in the last you know 10 years

[1:54:15] So we're you state even though the states collecting more money the politicians using it for their pet projects

[1:54:20] They're not pushing it back to the cities and towns. So we felt that if we didn't have a solution

[1:54:26] We weren't going to vote for it because yet the town has to remain affordable too, you know

[1:54:30] You can't just say I mean, oh if you can afford to pay it that's great

[1:54:33] But there were a lot of people who can't afford to pay an extra 500 to 600 dollars this year

[1:54:37] And then $1,000 next year, and then $50,000 a year after.

[1:54:41] So that was the thought process behind it is that we felt that we have a chance as a community to try to fix this.

[1:54:47] So we're not in the same situation next year.

[1:54:51] Can I piggyback and so, I'm sorry.

[1:54:54] So I put up this slide just as a refresher.

[1:54:57] So we did contemplate and hemdenhawk quite a bit and

[1:55:00] decided that we have some to do items to accomplish before we go back to the town and

[1:55:05] and ask them.

[1:55:06] Part of it is to identify exactly what we need specifically and then what that translates

[1:55:11] to in services.

[1:55:13] It requires our economic development strategies to be granted the opportunity to come into

[1:55:20] play.

[1:55:20] And some of these things are already going on, it's just going to take us some time.

[1:55:24] We want to really examine and write size the budget.

[1:55:26] We want to really analyze exactly, instead of making reactive cuts because we're coming

[1:55:33] up and, you know, oh, what if we get the override?

[1:55:35] We'll just do this and then just cut it all to really take a look and redesign what needs

[1:55:41] to be redesigned and expand our efficiencies, all of those things.

[1:55:44] And we just want to, or at least I do, I really want to get my hands on the budget in a, you

[1:55:49] know, elbow's deep kind of way and really just look at it.

[1:55:52] So we do need that opportunity.

[1:55:54] It is very difficult as Dr. Keane discussed it.

[1:55:58] And we really tried to give the least impact possible.

[1:56:03] As far as the town side goes, we still need to have all of our union conversations.

[1:56:06] They're not done and we still need to have those.

[1:56:09] So I cannot go to you, the voter, and say, please support this $3.8 million override.

[1:56:16] Because I don't feel that I've done my due diligence or my homework to say, yes, that's exactly what I need, it hears why.

[1:56:23] Again, I don't know when you came in, but I said the phrase that override is a bad word for me.

[1:56:27] Like I don't like to use it, it's a kind of last-ditch effort and it's a correction, a permanent correction.

[1:56:34] That's why you have to have the permanent adjustment to the tax levy because we have all these constraints

[1:56:39] that are in the slides before and nobody's denying them, they exist.

[1:56:43] We need to get a better solution that contemplates everything for everybody and then present it to you

[1:56:51] and explain how we arrived at that situation, how we arrived at these determinations and what

[1:56:56] that they ultimately cost you so that you know what you're buying in an override because taxes equal services.

[1:57:03] So you need to know what services costs and you need to tell us where you want the money to go, which services.

[1:57:10] And also, you remember we end up in a better position the next couple of months based on the negotiations with the town and the schools.

[1:57:17] Then we have a full town meeting and maybe we make an adjustment there.

[1:57:21] So, you know, we're making an adjustment based on the fact that we haven't done everything that we can do, but that might not be the case come 90, 120 days from now, but right now at town meeting, we haven't had the negotiations on the health care, on the salaries, you know, with the unions, et cetera, they're in process, so we have to see what those land, and if they land in a positive place, then maybe in the fall we come back and is an adjustment that we can make to schools and towns.

[1:57:51] in the town.

[1:57:53] Um, another question, actually.

[1:57:55] Please educate me.

[1:57:56] Um, so that 2.5% is it on the tax rate or is it on the total taxed levy?

[1:58:05] Like the total million dollars of levy?

[1:58:07] The total levy.

[1:58:08] The later.

[1:58:09] So, a tax levy is the total amount a town can spend in a year.

[1:58:15] And we are allowed to go up two and a half percent every year.

[1:58:19] plus growth.

[1:58:20] Plus growth.

[1:58:21] Which is small.

[1:58:22] That's what you're doing.

[1:58:22] Our growth is declining.

[1:58:24] It was a half a million right last year.

[1:58:26] It was small.

[1:58:26] Yes.

[1:58:27] What's the growth?

[1:58:28] What's the population growth or something else?

[1:58:30] No, growth in the levy.

[1:58:33] In fact, so that's what this slide behind me is all about.

[1:58:36] Generally, our 2.5 percent increase from year to year

[1:58:40] is landing around $2 million.

[1:58:42] And what we're trying to communicate is that our fixed costs

[1:58:45] are far and away more than $2 million

[1:58:48] dollars increasing year over year and the state aid is not cutting it to help us address

[1:58:54] this. So then we look at our new growth which came in $8,500 under budget which an estimate

[1:59:02] for your growth is usually very conservative so that you meet it and don't end up in the

[1:59:07] situation where we didn't make that revenues or we didn't meet that bottom line. So now

[1:59:16] Now we are decreasing our amount of growth to just half a million dollars when in a town

[1:59:21] like us we should have something around like 800, we should be able to develop.

[1:59:25] So we need to tap into how we can develop maybe we get a cost center and that adds $3 million

[1:59:31] of value and we can get the revenue from them.

[1:59:34] So that's why our economic development part of the stool is just so important.

[1:59:40] So our new growth is going down and that is growth on buildable, taxable entities.

[1:59:47] Does that make sense?

[1:59:49] A little bit.

[1:59:50] Thank you.

[1:59:51] All right.

[1:59:52] How do I get a farm from you?

[1:59:54] It's a farm.

[1:59:56] You know, if I'm through the time with all of you, I'm sorry.

[2:00:01] We can figure it out, I don't know. If it's a recent land, but come on up.

[2:00:15] And I live on benefits straight. And I had two questions. One is some of the slides was so impossible to see the detail in my sight. It's not that great. Is there a way of getting them before the town? Yes. So I do have to make one change that this exercise showed that I had the wrong language there. And then it will be up online so that you can read, you know, we're going to have

[2:00:35] Printed copies as well, correct?

[2:00:37] Well, I'm probably going to update the town meeting one,

[2:00:40] but those will be available as well.

[2:00:42] Okay, that's great.

[2:00:43] This specific one will be online as soon as I make that change.

[2:00:47] With all the attachments that went with it?

[2:00:49] Yes, there are links.

[2:00:51] Yep, there, like see right here, it's like a hyperlink.

[2:00:55] Okay, okay.

[2:00:57] The other question is, my husband would love to have a meeting

[2:01:00] with you to talk about an issue we've been having

[2:01:02] with snow removal for at least five years.

[2:01:06] I just ask that you wait till after May 5th.

[2:01:08] Is that okay?

[2:01:09] That's okay.

[2:01:10] After May 5th, please.

[2:01:12] May 5th.

[2:01:13] May 5th, you can wait.

[2:01:14] It's like, what date is that?

[2:01:16] After May 5th.

[2:01:17] After May 5th.

[2:01:18] No, but we can wait till after May 5th for that.

[2:01:22] Absolutely, come on in.

[2:01:23] Thank you.

[2:01:24] I just request after May 5th, if you don't mind.

[2:01:26] Hopefully it doesn't snow.

[2:01:29] No.

[2:01:30] We don't have any money for it anyway, so.

[2:01:32] So, good

[2:01:37] afternoon, I may have known who I am, but I'm Amos Robertson from 178 Mill Street

[2:01:43] out of East Mansfield, next to the Northern line, so I served in this community and I feel

[2:01:52] for you guys and ladies and whatever, because the year that I was the first year I was the

[2:01:58] like we was facing the same thing. And yeah, we had to make some tough calls. And I feel

[2:02:07] for you, you know, I know the pain, I know the phone calls I got and everything. You

[2:02:15] know, what are you doing? But, although we can get, we've gotten through it then, we get

[2:02:23] through it now. I don't know I know I'm sure on my age but when Prop 2 and a half came in

[2:02:30] we all thought we was at a disaster but we found ways to get through it.

[2:02:40] And we're going

[2:02:41] to find a way to get through here. I mean if I can be any help to anybody you know most of you know

[2:02:48] I don't get around town like I used to, but when they give them period of time, if I can

[2:02:57] help, I'll be able to help you.

[2:02:59] One thing that struck my mind was that they talk about the bussiness.

[2:03:07] I do not want to see a kindergarten of first to second grade going to a bus stop.

[2:03:14] The people in this town drive too fast and too reckless.

[2:03:19] How you know because I was hit by a car as a runner and I just don't want to see that

[2:03:26] happen to a child in this town.

[2:03:31] I mean, many people, you know, they, I get calls saying, you know, why don't you run for

[2:03:36] select men again?

[2:03:37] You are such a, you know, enhanced of bringing the town forward.

[2:03:42] I said no.

[2:03:43] It's time for young people.

[2:03:44] I'm a senior citizen now. I want to enjoy my senior life. And that brings us to another thought and it just I don't have any particular. I'm just saying this. So, you know, who, you know, I came. I was talking with another fellow. That's the same age as I am.

[2:04:01] And he was saying that you know, he said, it's in tough to live in town. He said, I'm on a prescription medication now.

[2:04:09] Black pay $50 for a month supply.

[2:04:16] In the new prescription coverage to a contract that we get, I'm going to pay $400 a month.

[2:04:23] I know, my gosh, I understand pain, I said, you know, I don't know what to say.

[2:04:32] I mean, you know, I understand everybody wants to make a dollar, but you know what?

[2:04:39] But it's come to stop some place because we, my age group, won't be able to live in

[2:04:47] town.

[2:04:48] And if you wonder how long I've been here, I've been here 52 years.

[2:04:54] When I came here, this was just a sleeping community,

[2:04:58] you know, that's basically what it

[2:05:00] was.

[2:05:01] But I found a home, I found people that accept me, I found people that enjoyed having me and

[2:05:08] And I'm here, but that's just some of the things, and for the town manager, please, I hope

[2:05:16] I can get a list of what's on the capital improvement, because it seems that some years

[2:05:24] it's balloon,

[2:05:27] and I just want to see before I get to town mean, because I am not a person

[2:05:33] that will not speak out.

[2:05:34] I'll speak my mind in a minute.

[2:05:37] Are you looking?

[2:05:39] for just what's being voted on this year or the whole plan.

[2:05:43] Okay, so it's listed right here in the motions.

[2:05:46] If you grab a packet before you leave, it'll be there.

[2:05:49] And it's article six, and they're all there.

[2:05:53] So it's certified free cash for an assessment for the Jordan Jackson element you will have.

[2:05:58] My last point is for the board of select, but you guys got it me because you want to meet twice.

[2:06:05] When we went through this idea before, when I was my first year on the board, we met

[2:06:10] every week we had to because we were determined that we was going to get through this, and

[2:06:18] we was not going to ask the people for an override because we could hear it in the community.

[2:06:25] It's going to be dead when you guys get there, so that's all I got to say.

[2:06:30] Before you leave, sir.

[2:06:33] So the gentleman that you had referenced whose prescription was rising at such a drastic rate.

[2:06:40] If you could just encourage him to contact the council on the Z-Live in town.

[2:06:45] If you could contact the council on aging for benefits, there's some outreach available there,

[2:06:51] and explanation of services that could potentially yield some savings.

[2:06:55] But there's conversations that can be had to maybe help him in his way.

[2:07:01] I guess the only thing I was trying to say is I'm sure is somebody else in this town is in the same position

[2:07:08] People

[2:07:10] How do you say people don't like to say well look? I'm poor. I can't afford this

[2:07:15] When the last time you eat oh two days ago. I mean, you know people just yeah, they're very private independent people and

[2:07:23] You know

[2:07:24] No, it just,

[2:07:27] it's okay.

[2:07:28] My name is Don't Break, don't wreck the place on us.

[2:07:31] Michael, the microphone is clear on us.

[2:07:34] I'll pay for it, I mean, you know, I'm not that poor, but I thank you for

[2:07:43] hitting me out and, you know, I hope that everything works out.

[2:07:54] All right, we'll see you Tuesday.

[2:07:55] Thank you.

[2:07:55] And Amis is one of the new young people who stepped up for the board.

[2:08:02] I just want to say I'm on the Capitol Improvements Committee and

[2:08:04] I'll sit down with you any time to go through everything.

[2:08:07] Yeah, because you know, I don't know where to go.

[2:08:11] It'll be like the old days.

[2:08:13] All right, you're wearing us down, you can have a farm.

[2:08:16] So, come on up.

[2:08:18] I'm just going to actually go to the last article.

[2:08:21] I'm going to go to the last article and then we'll finish up with questions.

[2:08:24] if that's okay. Mr. Fleming, would you like to discuss this? And this is the slide we put

[2:08:33] together, so it's a zoning petition, and we have the citizen here. If you want to just give

[2:08:38] me a little nod, and I will move this along for you. You can leave it on that slide for now.

[2:08:45] William Fleming, I'm the petitioner of this citizen's petition. It was presented with

[2:08:51] Just planning board back in April, end of March, beginning of April.

[2:08:56] The petition is basically asking to rezone the large possible land six acres behind the shores and

[2:09:02] staples that separates the plaza from South Walnut neighborhood.

[2:09:08] The land is currently zone I-1 and it was changed to I-1 in 2012.

[2:09:15] At the time, retail growth was going well and we thought that we could continue to expand the plaza.

[2:09:20] and the town agreed that that would be a good thing for the town to have.

[2:09:24] Unfortunately, over the last 10, 12 years, retail has not grown the way that it was expected to.

[2:09:30] And what we found is a lot of the people that wanted to have retail wanted to be on 140,

[2:09:35] because they want to expose it to the 20,000 cars that come down the road every day.

[2:09:40] So at this point, this article is requesting to change the zone from I1 back to I2 residential.

[2:09:47] The key reasons for that is almost all of the potential retail customers want to be on 140, not behind shots.

[2:09:54] The retail opportunity for this site is limited at this point, and at this time we have no interest in developing it in other I-1 uses.

[2:10:06] Going back to R-2 will allow for assisted care facility potentially, over 55 development or

[2:10:12] across the development for assisted care facility for regular houses.

[2:10:18] Leaving it, I-1 would potentially allow for other industrial uses, other than retail,

[2:10:23] that could be more intrusive to neighbors.

[2:10:27] The, you go forward a couple of slides, so it might be easier, one more.

[2:10:31] One more?

[2:10:32] That's just a bigger picture of the same thing.

[2:10:35] So, we did go to the planning board for the recommendation in the beginning of April.

[2:10:40] The planning board voted five to one to recommend the article to the select board for

[2:10:45] town meeting.

[2:10:47] Some of their quotes included zoning chains was better for the abouters and the neighbors.

[2:10:51] Some of the I-1 allowed uses would not be conducive to the neighborhood.

[2:10:55] I-2 would better serve the town by encouraging productive use of the land rather than leaving

[2:10:59] it vacant.

[2:11:01] I-2 is a less intense and better use of the land.

[2:11:04] I-1 allows many uses by right without oversight from the planning board or import from the

[2:11:10] the neighbors, whereas the R2 uses are more limited, more restrictive and often require special permits.

[2:11:17] The final thing was R2 would be enabled, would enable needed housing, especially for 55 plus.

[2:11:22] And all of those are quotes from the planning board before they recommended it for

[2:11:27] the town meeting with a voter five to one.

[2:11:30] So we ask the town to please support this article, a town meeting.

[2:11:34] And what, you know, our idea is that we'd like to take it from the retail use and make it a an over 55 or small, small neighborhood, whatever it might be at six acres of land, it could be maybe 10 to 12 houses, it could be over 55 assisted living.

[2:11:51] But what it could be doesn't matter because that goes back to the planning board and most of those require a special permit.

[2:11:57] So, what is trying to change it back to R2, and then we'll have the opportunity to present whatever plans we have to the planning board.

[2:12:05] Thank you.

[2:12:09] Here's an explanation, too.

[2:12:10] And this, again, will be posted.

[2:12:13] So, here's the real slide for questions.

[2:12:15] I am going to go to digital, and then to you, I think it's just the number one.

[2:12:19] So, that's good. Nancy, do we have any raised hands?

[2:12:23] If you'd like to make a comment for your question at this time, you're welcome to raise your hand, and I will identify you by meeting.

[2:12:33] I do see that Francis, him, has her hand up.

[2:12:41] Yeah, time for me to go back to the school budget.

[2:12:45] So I know this has been brought up in the past when I feel like each year in the slide is just ignored in the comments, but over the past 10 plus years, our school population has dropped dramatically like I think like 1000 students or so.

[2:13:07] And yet, it seems like the positions and the admin positions have significantly increased

[2:13:14] over that time.

[2:13:16] So I was wondering, is that something that, you know, like you guys kind of just always

[2:13:23] put up like a few positions that are lost, but it's really like what is still staying and

[2:13:30] And what is supported overall, like where are all the positions in the schools, right?

[2:13:37] And what is necessary, I guess, compared to things that have been added on over the years, in the good years.

[2:13:47] So you look at for a list of how many teachers they have, is that, like not the name is but the number, so I can address a few things there.

[2:13:54] So we have addressed this in probably over a dozen meetings over the past several months.

[2:14:04] The FTE accounts have gone down consistently every single year.

[2:14:09] We have that data in slides.

[2:14:11] Our administration costs are actually lower than all of our comparable districts.

[2:14:20] We have a lot of times I think what people see is our power professional numbers have grown.

[2:14:25] over the years, out of necessity, but we obviously have all that data.

[2:14:31] If you go on the school's website under the budget information, there is a public hearing presentation which we presented in March, and there's also a supplemental presentation that contains pretty much every data metric compared to in some cases over 30 other communities that you can look at.

[2:14:52] And I would also add, I appreciate you bringing this up.

[2:14:56] We heard that loud and clear this year and Matt and I are both-

[2:15:00] Both new to our positions. I can tell you we went line by line through the entire school budget this year. We met with every one of our principles in the entire leadership team, including directors of technology. Anyone who might be responsible for a dollar of this budget sat with us and talked about what they need, why they need it, and why it supports our students. I feel like we did a really responsible job cutting where we did.

[2:15:29] And we are going to continue to do that.

[2:15:31] The backup document with the supplemental information tracks over 20 years of enrollment.

[2:15:37] And over the last few years, the enrollment has stabilized.

[2:15:43] And the projections are out for the next 10 years that we will continue to operate right around the same number that we're at now for students.

[2:15:52] So while there may have initially been, it seems like an over abundance of staff members.

[2:15:58] We have corrected that and we are in line with state averages for class size recommendations and for teacher student ratios at this point.

[2:16:08] Okay, I think it's just maybe more your slide.

[2:16:12] Sure.

[2:16:12] We can add something.

[2:16:13] Unicated is my feedback, I guess, so that if that's the point you're trying to make, your slide just seems to continually call out the individual positions as well as positions we all saw last year.

[2:16:28] we know that versus kind of overall numbers and maybe that compares them to what the average

[2:16:38] is in the state to feel for people to feel comfortable with it.

[2:16:41] That's all.

[2:16:42] I just think it's more of a just laying the data or communicating the data to the people

[2:16:48] then.

[2:16:49] Because I will be honest, I don't have children in the school anymore, but there were a lot

[2:16:56] a lot of positions that don't seem a capacity when I did.

[2:17:01] And so maybe the position's there, but are there really a capacity?

[2:17:05] I guess this is my question.

[2:17:08] So, and then, that was it, actually I think that's all.

[2:17:13] Thank you.

[2:17:15] Thanks for that feedback, we appreciate it.

[2:17:17] Do you have one more question that can't be about the farm?

[2:17:30] I'm kind of curious, like, so the interest that we pay, that service, I guess, the interest

[2:17:36] that we pay, right, has gone up, like, 40 percent for something percent.

[2:17:41] That we know.

[2:17:42] Go ahead.

[2:17:43] What do you talk about?

[2:17:43] It's all of it.

[2:17:44] Yeah.

[2:17:44] So it's a collective principle and interest short-term, long-term debt.

[2:17:49] So there's a lot that kind of is encompassed in that.

[2:17:53] Most recently, there has been multiple authorizations for borrowings.

[2:17:59] For the last few years, we had been doing like road bonds, so those were 2 million or 2.5 million.

[2:18:04] There was also a lot of school projects with the gym floor, track and field, Robinson playground.

[2:18:10] So all of those are kind of coming online now for debt payment, so that's kind of why we see this big jump this year for that.

[2:18:17] So even though they were voted three or four years ago, you voted, you go out to bid, you build the project, then you get the debt.

[2:18:26] I'm curious how much of them are floating rate or flexible rate, how much of them are fixed rates?

[2:18:34] They're all fixed rates.

[2:18:36] All fixed rates, thank you.

[2:18:38] Thank you.

[2:18:40] Okay, we are rounding out at two and a half, it's like, oh, you have a question.

[2:18:43] All right, we're you're going to be our final no pressure into Corpo eight seventy nine west street man's field

[2:18:51] I just want to say a word of thanks to everyone here in this room. I

[2:18:56] Value the partnership between the town manager and the superintendent of schools and I applaud the school committee

[2:19:04] I mean the select board for their efforts to write the ship. I look forward to what you all bring to our to us the voters in

[2:19:13] I'm writing the ship in 2028 and feel confident that what you ask for in 2028 will be valuable and will be accurate and therefore greatly supported by members of the town.

[2:19:29] My wish is that our school committee and our finance committee members, I wish they were here at the table this evening to be on the same page with all of you in the building here.

[2:19:43] And I just to plead out the school committee members sat in the audience, but the chair of the school committee is here tonight.

[2:19:50] Thanks, Jen Walsh for being here.

[2:19:52] And a finance committee vice chair is also here.

[2:19:55] I apologize for any questions.

[2:19:56] And as I mentioned, I did share my budget strategies ahead of time with those boards.

[2:20:03] I've mean it when I want collaboration, and I am going to walk the walk if you know what I mean.

[2:20:09] So we are, it's a new day, I guess, right?

[2:20:13] Thank you, and I apologize, I didn't know they were sitting there.

[2:20:15] They're incognito, I think they would rather that, right?

[2:20:18] We saw you.

[2:20:19] One of them stressed like a homeless man.

[2:20:21] One of them stressed like, Scott, no more questions.

[2:20:24] What part of no more questions did you not have?

[2:20:26] We've got a hit problem.

[2:20:27] But Scott, Feeley 49, Bruce Street, and member of the Finance Committee.

[2:20:31] Look, you guys have made the call, the decisions made.

[2:20:35] The Finance Committee is here with you, I can't speak to the school committee.

[2:20:37] We have a job to do over the next year, and that's to follow the path that's been laid out.

[2:20:42] You made the decision, you laid out the path, it's a tough one, we've talked about it, made our comments.

[2:20:47] Now it's time to get on board and get the job done.

[2:20:51] Well said.

[2:20:52] I would just like to extend a sincere thank you for everyone who's spent their time to-

[2:20:57] Oh, I just want to echo what's not said, because I think that there's a lot of inaccuracies.

[2:21:05] We worked hard together, you know, ultimately the decision way with the select board, it is what it is now is the time for the real work because we can't be in this position next year.

[2:21:16] So I think that putting everything aside and continuing to work, everybody wants to provide services to the town on both the town and the school side.

[2:21:25] So it's just looking forward to a productive.

Town Meeting Article Presentation 4/30/2026

Transcript