[0:15] [music]

[0:24] We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance.

[0:27] » [clears throat]

[0:29] » To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it

[0:34] stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

[0:39] for all.

[0:46] Okay. Uh, the town is looking for volunteers to serve as community liaison

[0:50] and help shape Grafton's future. The municipal vulnerab [clears throat] I did

[0:54] it the last two times so well. The municipal vulnerability preparedness 2.0

[1:01] core team will help identify and address climate impacts in Grafton to make our

[1:06] community more resilient. Visit tinyurl.com/graftonmvp

[1:12] to apply. Grafton wreck will host their collectibles fair on Saturday, September

[1:16] 12th from 10 to 3 at the Grafton Middle School. There will be coins, comics,

[1:21] toys, records, trading cards, and sports memor memorabilia vendors.

[1:27] A vaccine clinic will be held here at the municipal center in the gymnasium on

[1:31] Friday, September 25th from 9 to 1. Walk-ins are welcome for flu and COVID

[1:36] vaccines. Pre-registration is required for RSV, pneumonia, shingles, tetanus

[1:42] vaccinations. Please visit grafton-mma.gov

[1:46] for more information.

[1:50] Okay, >> Mr. Chair, before you get going, I just

[1:52] wanted to let you know that Craig is online, so all your votes will be roll

[1:56] call. >> Awesome. Thank you.

[1:57] » Just before you get into the hearings. [clears throat]

[2:01] » Okay. Um, so those are our announcements. I'm going to welcome uh

[2:04] Lucas and Bob from the Veterans Advisory Committee for their announcements.

[2:11] » Good evening. Uh, Lucas Remler, 27 Flint Pond Drive. I'm currently the chair of

[2:15] the VAC and the trustees of soldiers and sailors memorials and I was looking to

[2:20] invite the members of the select board in our community to our gold star

[2:24] mothers event this September 27th. The event starts at 7:45 goes to about 8:30.

[2:32] And then I was also I'm not sure if I needed to submit anything but we were

[2:35] looking to get approval to raise the gold star mother flag from September

[2:39] 27th till October 2nd.

[2:44] All right. [snorts] Is that that's 7:45 in the morning, I'm guessing?

[2:47] » Yes.

[2:50] » So, that full the full week of >> correct.

[2:53] » Okay. >> I think the gold star mother flag

[2:55] request is on the September 22nd meeting.

[2:58] » Okay. >> Like on the agenda for

[3:00] » on the agenda. Okay. >> You might want to I mean, they're not

[3:02] going to vote no, but you might want to vote it then because it's actually on

[3:05] the agenda. >> Okay.

[3:07] » Not problem. I can come back and >> I don't think you need to come. I think

[3:11] they can just vote it, but it's it's just not on this agenda. It's on the

[3:13] next one. >> Gotcha. Okay. So, yeah, I'd like to just

[3:16] invite the members of the select board and our community to the event.

[3:19] [clears throat] We'll hold it up up over here in front

[3:22] of the senior center at Flagpole right there.

[3:25] » Nice. >> Great.

[3:27] » Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much.

[3:28] » It's been a great ceremony in the past. We, you know, appreciate you guys coming

[3:32] in and publicizing it and, you know, inviting us to to partake as well.

[3:36] » Thank you. >> Looking forward to it.

[3:38] » All right. Have a good night. you take it. Take it, please.

[3:42] [clears throat]

[3:46] » Okay. Uh we'll start our first of three poll petitions tonight uh with a public

[3:50] hearing for an installation on Providence Road.

[3:54] Uh the select board will hold a public hearing on the request of National Grid

[3:58] and Verizon New England, Inc. for permission to locate poles, wires, and

[4:01] fixtures, including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along

[4:04] and across the following public way. Providence Road National Grid to locate

[4:09] one JO pole on Providence Road beginning at a point approximately 525 feet north

[4:14] of the center line of the intersection of Main Street. Relocate pole 32, 20 ft

[4:18] closer to pole 33. The public hearing will be held on September 8th, 2026 in

[4:23] conference room A of the Grafton Memorial Municipal Center located at 30

[4:27] Providence Road starting at 7 p.m. Remote participation will be available

[4:30] using Zoom webinar ID. Those interested are invited to attend this public

[4:35] hearing and offer comments in writing in person or via Zoom. Written comments

[4:38] must be received by noon on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026.

[4:45] Uh I move the board vote to open the public hearing. Second.

[4:47] » Okay. Motion seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor by roll

[4:52] call. Uh Miss Roy. >> I. [clears throat]

[4:54] » Miss Duckworth. >> I.

[4:55] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I

[4:56] » Mr. Din. >> Dolphin. I

[4:59] » Jefferson I. We have opened the public hearing. Um

[5:05] I don't see them in those attendees, but do you have um Fritz Jolan and the

[5:14] attendees? Maybe. >> It's an excellent question.

[5:20] » No. >> Well, that is disappointing.

[5:29] Have a Mike Miller. I don't recognize anybody from

[5:36] National Grid. >> Yeah, I don't see I only have the one

[5:38] National Grid email address for tonight. [clears throat]

[5:45] Well, at any rate, um does anybody have any questions about the the pole

[5:49] relocation? I mean the it's [clears throat] always nice to have

[5:53] them here to just walk us through it, but um you know we do get the diagrams

[5:57] and the in the write up in the as part of the packet. Um

[6:03] seems seems a pretty straightforward request.

[6:09] Any comments or questions from the board?

[6:11] » Nope. >> Okay.

[6:12] » Are there any public comments? >> Just throwing it out there.

[6:17] » Any hands on Zoom? No.

[6:21] » Okay. Take a motion to close the public hearing.

[6:23] » I move the board vote to close the public hearing. [clears throat] Second.

[6:26] » Okay. Motion been seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. Uh, Miss Roy.

[6:30] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[6:32] » I. >> Miss Foley.

[6:32] » Foley. >> I.

[6:33] » Mr. D. >> I.

[6:35] » Jefferson. I uh hearing is closed. I can take a motion.

[6:39] » I move the board vote to approve and sign the pole petition by National Grid

[6:42] for Providence Road as presented. >> Second.

[6:45] » Okay. Motion seconded. Any discussion hearing? None. Uh, all those in favor?

[6:50] Miss Roy. >> I.

[6:51] » Miss. >> Duckworth.

[6:52] » I. >> Miss. Foley.

[6:53] » Foley. I. >> Mr. Dolphin.

[6:54] » I. >> Do I?

[6:55] » I. >> Jefferson. I.

[6:57] » Poll. Pition two. >> The select board will hold a public

[7:00] hearing on the request of National Grid and Verizon New England, Inc. for

[7:03] permission to locate poles, wires, and fixtures, including the necessary

[7:06] sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across the following public way.

[7:09] Westboro Road. National Grid to relocate one J pole on Westboro Road beginning at

[7:14] a point approximately 10 feet southeast of the center line of the intersection

[7:17] of Shrewsbury Street. National grid to relocate one 40 foot class 2 pole

[7:22] numbered P1 approximately 25 ft northeast on Westboro Road. All of this

[7:27] work is taking place per masked out request as they are rebuilding the

[7:30] bridge and they need to increase the working space for a crane. The public

[7:33] hearing will be held on September 8th, 2026 in conference room A of the Grafton

[7:37] Memorial Municipal Center located at 30 Providence Road starting at 7 p.m.

[7:41] Remote participation will be available using Zoom. Those interested are invited

[7:45] to attend this public hearing and offer comments in writing, in person, or via

[7:49] Zoom. Written comments must be received by noon on Wednesday, September 2nd,

[7:52] 2026. I move the board vote to open the public

[7:56] hearing. Second. >> Okay. Motion been seconded. Any

[7:59] discussion? Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor, Miss Roy,

[8:03] » I. >> Miss Doc, [clears throat]

[8:04] » I. >> Miss Foley,

[8:05] » Fley, I. >> Mr. Dolphin,

[8:06] » I. >> Do I.

[8:07] » Jefferson, I >> Okay. Um, again, uh, these two, the this

[8:13] one and the Shrewsbury Street um are tied together. They're um replacement

[8:18] slash moving uh a couple poles to um make some additional crane space as part

[8:25] of the B bridge replacement project that's going on uh right there over the

[8:30] the railroad tracks. Um are there any comments or questions

[8:34] on this from the board? >> No.

[8:38] » Any public comment? >> Okay, take a motion to close the

[8:42] hearing. >> I move the board vote to close the

[8:44] public hearing. Second. >> Okay. Motion made second. Any

[8:47] discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor by roll call. Miss Roy.

[8:51] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[8:52] » I. >> Miss Foley.

[8:52] » Foley. >> I.

[8:53] » Miss. Do I? >> I.

[8:55] » Jefferson. I. >> I move the board vote to approve and

[8:58] sign the pole petition by National Grid for Westboro Road as presented.

[9:02] » Second. >> So many motions and second. Any

[9:05] discussion? >> Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor by

[9:08] roll call. Miss Roy. >> I.

[9:10] » Miss Dworth. >> I.

[9:11] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I.

[9:12] » Miss. Miss. Do I? >> Do I. Jefferson and I as well.

[9:17] » The select board will hold a public hearing on the request of National Grid

[9:20] and Verizon New England, Inc. for permission to locate poles, wires, and

[9:23] fixtures, including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along

[9:27] and across the following public way. Shrewsbury Street. National Grid to

[9:30] install one JO Pole on Shrewsbury Street and relocate one J pole on Shrewsbury

[9:35] Street beginning at a point approximately 10 ft southwest of a

[9:38] center line of the intersection of Westboro Road and continuing

[9:40] approximately 107 ft in a southeast direction. National Grid to relocate 140

[9:45] foot class 2 pole numbered P7 approximately 5 feet southwest on Trbury

[9:50] Street. National grid to install 140 foot class 2 pole numbered P650

[9:54] approximately 107 ft southeast of P7. All of this work is taking place per

[9:59] Masot request as they are rebuilding the bridge and they need to increase the

[10:02] working space for a crane. The public hearing will be held on September 8th,

[10:06] 2026 in conference room A of the Grafton Memorial Municipal Center located at 30

[10:10] Providence Road starting at 7 p.m. Remote participation will be available

[10:13] using Zoom. Those interested are invited to attend this public hearing and offer

[10:17] comments in writing in person or via Zoom. Written comments must be received

[10:21] by noon on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026.

[10:24] I move the board vote to open the public hearing.

[10:26] » Second. >> Okay, been seconded. Any discussion?

[10:29] Hearing none. All those in favor? Miss Roy.

[10:31] » Hi. >> Miss Tuckworth. Hi.

[10:32] » Mr. Bley. >> I.

[10:33] » Mr. Do I? >> Dolphin A. I

[10:35] » Jefferson I. Um, any comments or questions on these poll movements from

[10:41] the board? >> Anything from the public?

[10:46] » Okay. Take motion to close. >> I move the board vote to close the

[10:49] public hearing. Second. >> Okay. Seconded. Any discussion? None.

[10:54] I'll play by roll call. Miss Roy. >> I.

[10:56] » Miss. Duckworth. >> I.

[10:57] » Miss Foley. >> Fully. I.

[10:58] » Mr. Dan. A. >> Dolphin. I.

[11:00] » Jefferson. I. I move the board vote to approve and sign the poll petition by

[11:04] National Grid uh for Shrewsbury Street as presented. Second motion seconded.

[11:09] Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Miss Roy.

[11:12] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[11:13] » I fully. Thank you. >> Mr. Dolphin I.

[11:16] » Dolin I. >> Jefferson. I

[11:19] Okay. Uh is there anyone here for public comment tonight?

[11:28] » Easy peasy. [clears throat and cough] First appointment tonight is Gloria for

[11:32] our Council on Aging.

[11:41] » Welcome. >> Oh, thank you.

[11:43] » Um, so we got your very extensive uh resume. It you seem like you'd be a

[11:50] great fit for this position. Your your heart in the right place for it. Um but

[11:55] for people who may not have read through the packet, do you want to just give us

[11:58] a little bit about yourself and and what drew you to the role?

[12:01] » Um I'm a retired dietician from Tri Valley. Um I uh recently retired and

[12:08] well not recently but in 17 and um since then I have um u been involved in other

[12:17] projects but I attended what I wanted to tell you was I attended the senior

[12:21] center and all the like a lot of their programs and I'm grateful for all of

[12:25] those and I got to meet a lot of new friends after co and um I heard a lot of

[12:31] things so I was able to share them with Shannon when she was here and now

[12:37] Stephanie uh when I was uh I was involved in the Alzheimer's walk that

[12:43] they had. I I was the team leader for that. Um

[12:50] uh also um I've attended uh back uh several years ago. My mother stayed with

[12:58] us every every winter. She came up from northern Maine and um I needed some

[13:04] additional equipment to help my mother rollers that kind of thing and it was

[13:09] flown to me by the senior center and I'm very grateful for that and uh needed

[13:13] advice although I worked at Tri Valley in several capacities. Um being on the

[13:19] other side was a little bit different when it's your own when it's your own

[13:22] mother. Um, you know, I'd be really interested in helping and sharing

[13:27] whatever I could uh with the board. Um, and I guess that's

[13:35] all I have to say. >> That's plenty. Um, and you just

[13:39] confirming you said you are retired. You have no problem. They I believe midday

[13:42] on Thursday. >> I don't have a problem with the

[13:44] Thursdays. So, >> great. Does anybody have any questions

[13:48] or comments? >> Thank you. Yeah.

[13:51] » Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay. Take a motion.

[13:56] » I move the board vote to appoint Gloria Pillsac to the Council on Aging.

[13:59] » Second. >> Okay. Motion being seconded. Any

[14:01] discussion? >> Hearing none. By roll call. Miss Roy.

[14:04] » I. >> Miss Stockworth.

[14:06] » I. >> Miss Foley.

[14:06] » Foley. I. >> Mr. D.

[14:08] » Dany. I. >> Jefferson. I. Welcome aboard. Um, you'll

[14:11] get a um a letter from the town clerk about your swearing in. Uh, you're

[14:16] welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but under no obligation.

[14:22] Okay. Uh, next up we have uh one, yeah, an appointment from the

[14:28] town administrator on this one. Um, our department assistant in the recck

[14:32] department, Donna.

[14:40] » Hi everybody. >> Welcome.

[14:42] » Thank you. >> Do you want to uh just take a moment to

[14:45] introduce yourself? Tell us what brought you here.

[14:47] » Sure. I'm Donna Olson and I'm happy to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.

[14:52] Um, I have a lot of experience in office management and managing the day-to-day

[14:56] operations. Um, also with customer service and working with students and

[15:02] interns and volunteers, managing budgets and planning and organizing events and

[15:08] programs from inception to completion. Um,

[15:13] and a lot of my experience really aligns with this uh position. I have a lot of

[15:17] customer service experience, too. And I've previously worked at Metro West

[15:21] Economic Research Center where I manage the day-to-day, organized the

[15:25] conferences and events as well as the library where I manage the volunteer

[15:29] program and uh obviously there's a lot of customer service involved with that

[15:33] as well and I'm very excited to be here with the town of Grafton.

[15:37] » Awesome. Thank you. Uh any comments, questions from the board.

[15:42] » Nice to have you. >> Thank you.

[15:43] » Yeah, welcome aboard. Thank you. >> Yeah, it seems like a really critical

[15:46] skill set for someone to be, you know, effective in the recck department and um

[15:53] you've already met Adam, but you're you're joining a fun team and Yeah.

[15:57] » Yes. very excited. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

[16:01] » I [clears throat] move the board vote to affirm the appointment of Donna Olson to

[16:04] the position of department assistant in the recreation department. Second.

[16:07] » Okay. Motion made second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in

[16:11] favor? Miss Roy. >> I.

[16:12] » Miss Duckworth. >> I.

[16:13] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I.

[16:14] » Mr. Dane. >> Dane. I.

[16:16] » Jefferson. Okay. Okay. We have one appointment from the fire chief tonight,

[16:20] which is our new fire prevention inspector, Taylor.

[16:32] » Thanks for having us this evening. As you alluded to earlier, we almost didn't

[16:36] make it. We had that oven fire and then uh an alarm at the congregational

[16:40] church. So, oh, >> we made it in the nick of time.

[16:43] [laughter] Um, today I'm here to ask for the uh

[16:48] [snorts] affirmation of uh Taylor Jonas as the

[16:51] new fire inspector. Um, Taylor is a lifelong resident of Grafton, graduated

[16:56] Grafton High, and has been a member of the Grafton Fire Department as a call

[17:00] firefighter for 12 years. Um, during that time, he's obtained his EMT and his

[17:05] firefighter two certifications um that came through the Mass Fire Academy. Um

[17:10] Taylor has been a a go-to guy from the start. Um he helps us on uh numerous uh

[17:18] committees from apparatus purchasing um our SOG committee and many more that

[17:24] there's too many to remember. Um [snorts] Taylor is also comes with

[17:29] this uh comes with um exper customer service experience um and is a whiz at

[17:36] small engine repair which works out great for us as well. and we were able

[17:40] to steal them from the water district. So, if we need to know where a hydrant

[17:42] is or why it's not working, he can tell us. [laughter]

[17:46] But, uh, so I'd like to introduce Taylor and we're excited to have him. [snorts]

[17:51] » Congratulations. >> Thank you.

[17:52] » Yeah. >> Well, you can tell us a little more

[17:56] about yourself if [laughter] I missed anything.

[17:58] » Um, I think he pretty much hit everything. I

[18:01] got on the fire department in 2014. I've been heavily involved ever since. Um,

[18:06] always wanted to be a part of the future long term and can't think of a better

[18:09] way than serving in this job. So, I'm looking forward to it's going to be a

[18:13] big learning experience and looking to see where it takes me. It's moving the

[18:17] department forward and we'll keep moving forward and see what happens. Yeah, it's

[18:21] a big step, you know, um adding adding another full-timer, you know, and and

[18:26] again, just throwing it out something that we had budgeted for. Um you know,

[18:30] and and was an expectation, but you know, as as we talk about that

[18:35] transition from from call to to full-time and you know, as hopefully a

[18:39] slow roll out. Um yeah, you know, like you're kind of the one of the first

[18:43] cogs. That's you know, it's pretty special. So,

[18:48] » thank you. Um, you can you don't have to stay.

[18:52] » I got more to do. >> Congratulations, Taylor.

[18:55] » Yeah, congratulations. Let's say that I know the chief has been looking to both

[18:59] create and then fill this position for the four years that we've been talking

[19:03] about the budget. Uh, and I'm so excited that this position exists and I could

[19:08] not be more thrilled that we're able to hire from within the department and

[19:12] » promote based on skill, merit, dedication. And I think

[19:17] it's uh just the best possible outcome. >> Yeah, we're pretty excited. The guys are

[19:22] giving him a good ribbon, but [laughter] >> before you go, uh Craig has his hand up.

[19:29] » Yeah, thanks. Uh Andy, just uh my apologies for being remote tonight, but

[19:33] I just wanted to congratulate uh Taylor um and the department on the

[19:37] appointment. So, I'm excited for him and excited for the department. So,

[19:45] » all right. Castle. >> I move the board vote to affirm the

[19:49] appointment of Taylor Jonas to the new firerevention inspector/firefighter

[19:53] position on the Grafton Fire Department. Second.

[19:55] » Okay. M seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Miss

[19:59] Roy. >> I.

[20:00] » Miss Duckworth. >> I.

[20:01] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I

[20:02] » Mr. Dane. >> Dany. I.

[20:04] » Jefferson. I. >> Congratulations again.

[20:08] Okay. Uh, moving right into our general update from the chief.

[20:14] um a little shorter than normal. I was hoping to give you guys a a little

[20:19] presentation that I was looking to do on retention, but uh been pretty busy, so

[20:23] didn't get it done. Um so with that, I was uh hoping to schedule a time that I

[20:28] can come in possibly next month um and discuss that. And just for um something

[20:34] to think about while I'm not here is the part of the retention thing is looking

[20:37] into um bolster the uh pay for call firefighters and also a introduce a

[20:44] merit-based stipen system for you know rewarding those that are the the more

[20:49] active and whether it's calls or training.

[20:59] So, are all three of those things going to get discussed next month? Are you

[21:02] gonna discuss >> No, next month. Just the Y. Um, and

[21:05] then, uh, so on the my update, uh, we are still doing pretty good with

[21:11] recruitment. Uh, we had one member recently graduate from the fire academy.

[21:15] [snorts] Um, and we have four members set to start the academy at the end of

[21:20] October. And we have uh just interviewed one candidate last week and we have two

[21:27] more candidates to interview in the upcoming weeks. So that's going pretty

[21:31] well. Um a lot of uh couple of these are um you know heard it through a friend.

[21:38] One of them is actually the new husband of one of our firefighters that applied.

[21:42] So it's pretty neat. Try to you know keeping the the family thing going and

[21:46] um supporting each other. So it's been pretty good. um update on some of our

[21:52] apparatus. Um our new brush truck uh that's going to be assigned to station

[21:57] two that we ordered way back in January of 25 uh finally hit the uh the build

[22:04] floor at the manufacturer and we're anticipating probably two to four months

[22:10] for completion. So they're right down in Connecticut. So it'll be a short trip to

[22:14] go down, make sure everything's going good and all that. So, um, that truck is

[22:18] a twin to another one that we have. So, the the, um, build process on our end

[22:24] was a little easier. We tweaked some of the things that we had we had noticed

[22:27] with the other one that we'd like some improvements on. So, we're hoping that

[22:30] it'll work out good. Um, and last but not least, training. Um, I can't say

[22:36] enough about the members. They do tons of training. Um, so [snorts] much that

[22:43] as much as I try to get to, I can't make all the trainings. And I feel bad when

[22:47] I'm not there, but I know it's in all in good hands. Um, but this year, um, or

[22:54] actually should go back to last year, we did, uh, four live burns at the Auburn

[22:57] facility. Uh, we up that number to eight this year

[23:01] » and they've uh little less attendance depending on the on the weekend. Um,

[23:07] some of them are close to holidays and stuff like that, so that's been tough.

[23:11] But we've been able to do carry out six so far and we have two scheduled in

[23:15] October. So those are usually ones that everybody likes to go to because it's

[23:19] not 95 degrees out. So um yeah, I that's that's the uh my update for tonight. And

[23:27] like I said, I'd like uh going to be looking for the opportunity to come back

[23:30] and discuss some future items with you. >> Sounds good. [clears throat] Uh

[23:36] questions and feedback from the board.

[23:40] I think most of my questions are going to be next month [laughter]

[23:46] » about the money. >> Yeah.

[23:49] » No, but that was that was really cool to hear that even just the live burn

[23:52] training has doubled in a year. That's that's great. So, you guys are really

[23:55] » We may end up scaling it back a little bit because it is a lot um logistics

[23:59] wise because we're trying to um maintain not having to go outside and having

[24:04] another fire department cover the town while we're doing that. So we try to

[24:08] make sure we have enough people back in town that are available to to handle the

[24:12] runs and stuff. So but so yeah, logistically a little bit interesting,

[24:16] but we've been pulling it off. So >> nice. [snorts] I'll just quickly um

[24:21] chime in that Foley family personally uh requested the the services of the fire

[24:27] department I think twice in the last month or thereabouts and just wanted to

[24:30] commend um all of you you know that show up and your professionalism and even

[24:35] when it's an instance where you're not sure in one of these cases should you

[24:40] call or not. Just really appreciate it how you guys are there quickly and

[24:43] handle it and uh just your level of professionalism is exceptional in my

[24:48] opinion. Thank you. >> Second 100%.

[24:53] » Yeah, we hear that regularly about about GFD and and I think to circle back a lot

[24:58] of it goes back to how much live training and everything that you guys do

[25:01] and focus on and you know even getting to getting us to be a part of that

[25:05] Auburn facility was something you know one of one of the first things that you

[25:09] did uh coming on board and glad to see you're you're maximizing your your usage

[25:14] over there. It's great.

[25:18] It's fun, too. >> A [laughter] little bit. There's perks.

[25:22] [snorts] >> Yeah. Looking forward to next month.

[25:25] » Yeah. It's not going to be as easy next month. No. [laughter]

[25:30] » Okay. Uh, anything else? >> All right. Luca.

[25:35] » All right. Thank you very much. >> Thanks for coming in, Chief. Appreciate

[25:37] it. >> Yeah. Thank you.

[25:40] A busy busy night. >> Okay. Next up, charter review committee.

[25:52] Welcome, gentlemen. >> Thank you for having us here tonight.

[25:55] » Thank you. Thank you. >> John Kelly 9, Countryside Road,

[25:58] » Mark Hatad, 154 Providence Road. >> We are here on behalf of the charter

[26:02] review committee and multiple of our subcommittees. We're going article by

[26:07] article and these are the suggestions for proposals that have been made to us

[26:13] so far. Figured we'd just go down in numeric order. Uh starting with article

[26:18] two. It has been proposed. And also before we start, these are all

[26:22] preliminary. You know, nothing's been decided on. These are all still in the

[26:24] subcommittees. But first up is select board recommendations to town meeting

[26:28] warrant articles similar to the finance committee how they do theirs. So rather

[26:33] than just closing the warrant as a whole and also rather than voting on them one

[26:40] by one, it would be a extremely similar process to the finance committee where

[26:44] the board would have a meeting and discuss each Warren article and then

[26:48] whether or not they recommended to passage and your votes at town meeting

[26:53] would obviously still be private. We reached out to multiple moderators and

[26:57] the belief was always the same that your votes at town meeting are of private

[27:01] citizens not of elected officials and I tend to agree with that. The process we

[27:05] believe can take place on its own timeline. Doesn't have to come before

[27:08] finance committee or after finance committee. Everyone here knows you know

[27:13] what's going on with these articles, the ins and outs. So I don't think anyone

[27:16] needs to rely on anyone else's recommendations. And then in collecting

[27:21] a list of towns and cities that already have this practice. These are just the

[27:25] people and moderators who reached out to us originally. Stoneham, Wellfleet,

[27:31] Hamilton, Conquered, Wer and Wayland. And that is before actually looking out

[27:34] to charters to see how many other cities and towns also are doing this. [snorts]

[27:41] So any questions or feedback on that? >> I I regularly attend town meeting in

[27:46] Hopington and they they do this as well. you know, select board recommends

[27:49] passage as they're reading the the motions and things like that. So, um, is

[27:54] that how you're picturing it, too, where the the board takes a vote? It's not

[27:57] like each individual board members, it's just the board recommends passage or

[28:01] doesn't >> and then if they want to know the

[28:03] individual vote, they would just watch the meeting like a fin meeting.

[28:06] » Yes. >> What we do, what we do in Grten is we

[28:08] put it actually in the warrant and [clears throat] if it's unanimous, it

[28:11] says unanimous. If there is opposition, we put the names of the select board

[28:15] members and opposed in opposition of the article printed in the warrant.

[28:19] » Okay? >> So people when they get to town meeting,

[28:20] they know how the select board feels about a particular article. And I think

[28:23] that's important. >> Okay?

[28:24] » That's how we've been tending. Uh I know for the finance committee as a larger

[28:28] board, they tend to just put the numbers or whether or not it passed in general.

[28:32] Even if it was five to four, they'll just put passage or not. Um, being that

[28:36] this is a smaller board and the highest elected board in town, our discussions

[28:40] so far have been that it would be who is in favor by name and by vote.

[28:46] » Who is in favor of it? Okay. >> Or not in favor if depending on the

[28:51] opinion. >> Okay.

[28:53] So I had a question along those lines as well because I noticed that it indicates

[28:57] select board individually you know their their um their votes and so currently

[29:02] the finance committee and the warrant does it say four to one or six to one I

[29:08] don't believe it does >> it says the vote

[29:10] » okay so it just doesn't indicate the so you want the

[29:12] » it doesn't it doesn't give like the individual members but it does give the

[29:16] you know whatever whatever it was >> and you could see the indiv individual

[29:20] members if you would go back and watch the meeting then you could see who votes

[29:24] how. >> Yeah. Which happens right now anyway. So

[29:26] there's no change there obviously. Um it's just that

[29:30] I guess I would I would tend to

[29:36] I I'm not sure why the individual names have to be there as a yay or a nay.

[29:41] Similar to I wouldn't expect that for the finance committee to be on the

[29:44] warrant. So >> thank you. I would just uh I don't mind

[29:47] us you showing the vote. Um and that it's indicated on the warrant and

[29:52] obviously people can watch it in live time or look at the minutes. Um but I

[29:57] guess I would just question what do you get from that practice? You know, what

[30:01] does what does >> you're are elected officials. We should

[30:04] know how you stand on a particular issue. Might change the way we vote for

[30:07] you the next time you're on the ballot. So I think it's important that the uh

[30:11] that the citizens know exactly how our elected top elected board is voting on

[30:15] various articles. So that's why we do it in Grten and it's been it's been a

[30:19] tradition and people expect it. So I'd like to see it here. It also serves the

[30:22] other handle of you know many of you all of you I would say are looked up to by

[30:27] many members of the community and a lot of people when they're beginning to do

[30:31] research for town meeting they want to know how the people they trust are

[30:33] voting and so that can help on both sides of the coin not only on the

[30:37] election side but on going into town meeting well I trust Ann's opinion I

[30:41] want to see how they're voting on these individual warrants

[30:45] » yeah that doesn't really convince me still I would just push back on that I

[30:49] think um I wasn't here when you were here last time relative to the planning

[30:54] board and changes that might be looked there but I know that there was a

[30:57] discussion about you know getting people to run for various offices and I think

[31:02] that um this probably wouldn't help that

[31:08] andor um I guess my other feedback would be then why not have the finance

[31:13] committee align the same way. >> No problem doing that. I'll recommend

[31:17] that at our next meeting. >> And that's not I'm I'm just I'm not

[31:20] agree with you recommendation necessarily and um but

[31:26] yeah, I'm I'm not a fan of of that change. I don't mind the the board put

[31:31] on put on the uh warrant how the board overall voted or if it was 4 to2 or

[31:36] whatever it was. Um but I don't see the need for names.

[31:40] And perhaps that comes from a place for me personally where I've been um

[31:47] the recipient of some brutal stuff relative to a vote or not, including at

[31:53] town meeting when we did the thumbs up and thumbs down. So I don't I don't

[31:58] think that that's something that I want to foster in our town any more than it

[32:02] occurs.

[32:05] » And uh thank you for bringing up the planning board. I want to give a update

[32:08] on that at the end. But sticking on this, any more comments, feedback?

[32:13] » I mean, my uh my comment is is more for I think the select board in general that

[32:19] um I wouldn't want to see this slow the

[32:23] process of getting the warrant out, uh you know, any any more than we currently

[32:26] do. Um that FINCOM has two up to two weeks prior to get their recommendations

[32:33] in right before it gets published. You know, our best practice is we like to

[32:38] get them the printed copies distributed where they typically go as early as

[32:42] possible. I I do think that having those at least the fincom recommendations in

[32:47] there are critical when you know the public goes through that. So I um I like

[32:52] the idea of of adding this to it. I would just want our board to make sure

[32:57] that we are getting them submitted submitted in a responsible timeline so

[33:02] that we're not, you know, um delaying getting that out to the public.

[33:07] » Um I do have a a question. Um have you what what say if any does the moderator

[33:12] have on this? Just the changing of the warrant? I know I know they run town

[33:17] meeting, but do they have a lot? No. Okay. Um, [snorts]

[33:21] and as far as putting select board votes on there, I I don't really take issue

[33:26] with it. It's already going to be part of the public record and part of

[33:29] minutes, part of videos. Um, it just increases transparency and and I'm for

[33:33] that. So, >> and you also can't I'm not recommending

[33:37] this, but you can vote however you'd like at town meeting. Uh, that was one

[33:41] thing that was brought up. Uh the specific actual example was the mosquito

[33:47] warrant from this spring town meeting where information changes from when the

[33:51] warrant is published to when town meeting happens. Um you know this is not

[33:55] going to be a situation where obviously you're like well I recommended it so I

[33:58] have to vote for it. Uh you will all be in attendance at town meeting. You can

[34:02] make yourselves known if things change. So we want to make sure that that is

[34:05] well known. >> Yeah. I'll say in general I'm neutral on

[34:09] it. I I tend to sort of agree that the the way that we recommend and speak to

[34:14] it is already captured uh you know in in memoriam. So putting it on the warrant

[34:19] to me is not one way or the other. Um but I I do

[34:24] agree with the timing aspect um as long as we hold ourselves accountable for

[34:28] ensuring that that does not hold up the timeline. Um that's my only real

[34:33] concern. I think that having those recommendations be individual also helps

[34:37] with that timeliness because if you're doing it completely as a board that is a

[34:41] vote that is during a meeting whereas your individual recommendations there

[34:45] could be a way to make it even more timely if you were to submit them

[34:48] individually but that's obviously for later down the line as we write the

[34:53] charter.

[34:57] Well, I mean, if we're framing it that way, it [clears throat] feels like the

[35:02] general sense would be that we would not submit individual,

[35:06] you know, we bring individual to our discussion, but whatever goes in the

[35:10] warrant is going to be a group activity and not

[35:15] oneoff lines like that. >> Yeah.

[35:16] » Yeah. >> Okay.

[35:21] Do plan board now? >> Yeah, might as well go on. Article

[35:24] three. >> Yep. Article three. The conversation was

[35:27] very productive with the planning board about shifting from a elected board to

[35:33] an appointed board. We received a lot of good feedback.

[35:38] Uh the most productive was definitely the

[35:42] accountability, the direct accountability aspect of it. Um there

[35:47] was comments about the number of municipalities across the state that are

[35:51] doing this and I think we came to different understandings based on those

[35:55] numbers. 70 municipalities across the state have swapped this model in our

[36:01] district alone. Um just our general vicinity. A quarter of the towns around

[36:06] us appoint their planning board and a lot of them do it by town

[36:14] administrator. So there's almost no, you know, elections determining the planning

[36:19] board. There are like two degrees of separation for them. Whereas what we

[36:24] felt most comfortable with was the select board approach. So that there's

[36:27] actually at least one degree of accountability where when you're voting

[36:31] for a select board, you must take into account who they may appoint to any

[36:35] board. So we are continuing to discuss that proposal. Um it was made by

[36:41] multiple members of the community. So, this isn't something that we're just

[36:44] going to drop after a meeting. >> Part of our effort this this time

[36:47] through with the charter review committee, we're trying to meet with

[36:49] people and meet with boards and committees and let them know what our

[36:52] proposals are. So, Jack and I went and we met with the the planning board and

[36:56] I'll let you guess what their reaction to that particular recommendation was,

[36:59] but uh the committee still hasn't made a final determination on that. We got

[37:03] really important correspondence though the other day and someone had pointed

[37:06] out that every planning board appointment that has been done by the

[37:10] select board has been contested. Multiple people vying for it whereas we

[37:14] have not had a contested select board election since May of 2018 planning

[37:18] board. Thank you very much. >> So the argument of competitiveness is

[37:23] certainly in the favor of appointment rather than election. But we're still in

[37:27] the early phases of these proposals. Does the board want to weigh in on a

[37:31] position on that article? >> I do have a question. Of that 25% in the

[37:36] local communities around here, were they always appointed or did they switch from

[37:40] elected to appointed? >> I believe they switched.

[37:42] » Yes, >> they switched

[37:43] » because the state law and charter says that planning boards are to be elected

[37:48] unless a home rule charter has a different

[37:51] » perfect >> want for it. So, they've all started

[37:53] elected and it's I mean like Shrewsbury is one of them. Oxbridge, you know, town

[37:58] » big. >> Yeah. people or municipalities very

[38:01] close to us are swapping to this model and it's not just your Shrewberries and

[38:05] your Worcers obviously where they are done by the town planner or the town

[38:09] administrator manager. We've got some smaller municipalities than ours that

[38:12] are switching to this model. >> And one of the arguments from the

[38:14] planning board was that the charter review committee 10 years ago proposed

[38:17] this and it got shot down overwhelmingly at town meeting. Well, we also proposed

[38:21] that the town clerk be appointed 10 years ago got shot down overwhelmingly

[38:25] and we brought it back to town meeting a second time. It passed. So, I think it's

[38:28] worthy of a town meeting discussion, but that's going to be up to the charter

[38:31] committee to decide whether or not they want to bring it forward. And again,

[38:34] just to repeat what Jack said at the beginning, these are all proposals and

[38:37] we're doing our homework. The uh subcommittees are supposed to have all

[38:40] their work done by the end of the year and come back to the full charter

[38:44] committee for decision and then hopefully we'll have something for what

[38:47] the fall of >> fall of next year.

[38:49] » Fall of next year >> is when we'll have all of them on the

[38:52] floor. >> It's been been a very deliberative

[38:54] process >> which I think is good.

[38:57] um article. Any other questions on that? >> Uh Craig has one.

[39:02] » Hi Craig. >> Yeah. Hey, good evening everybody. Um so

[39:07] I was thinking uh the same thing as far as we haven't had a lot of contested

[39:11] planning board races um in the last 10 years. So um that being said, it kind of

[39:17] makes sense for us to consider an appointment process. Um,

[39:22] also, um, I've [snorts] been involved with many, many appointments to the

[39:26] planning board, which has been a joint appointment with the board of selectment

[39:30] in the in the in the, uh, planning board. Um, is that, you might have

[39:34] touched on that. Is that process going to continue? Because I think it works

[39:37] really well. The planning board, you know, the board that's going to inherit

[39:40] whoever is applying, you know, they get to weigh in and and the select board

[39:45] gets to weigh in as well. So, it's >> we, you know, that's a that's a that's a

[39:49] great question. And under the general laws right now, when there's a vacancy

[39:51] on elected board, it's the it's the select board and the remaining members

[39:54] of that particular board that make that make the appointment. We didn't talk

[39:58] about doing that with a joint appointment between the planning board

[40:01] and the select board moving forward. But that might be something to consider.

[40:03] It's not a bad idea because it does work well now. I agree with you.

[40:06] » I mean, just right after that suggestion, I would say that's likely

[40:09] the most optimal way of doing this because they're going to have to work

[40:13] with that member very closely on important issues. And when we did

[40:17] discuss the appointment method, our options really were select board or town

[40:21] administrator. And despite the board's roles being more administrative than

[40:26] legislative because everything they, you know, put forward has to be approved by

[40:31] town meeting. So that would make it feel like it should be more town

[40:34] administrator, but that lack of accountability we feel was too far. So

[40:40] » I think that joint approach is very good. also with just, you know, so

[40:43] there'd be theoretically nine people involved with the vote versus one or

[40:48] versus five. So I think you might have a better shot at selling at a town meeting

[40:51] where >> That's a good that's an excellent

[40:53] suggestion. >> Yes.

[40:55] » Yeah. Not not to say that, you know, we shouldn't present this to town meeting

[41:00] and and let the voters decide, but I personally am very hesitant to take away

[41:04] any selection or decision from from the

[41:08] voter when it is something that they've already had. didn't love it for the town

[41:12] clerk. Don't love it for this particular idea. Uh again, not opposed to the

[41:17] charter review committee going forward and again letting the people decide

[41:20] because that would be an antithetical to my whole position. But but but

[41:23] personally um look everyone sitting up here can tell

[41:27] you that running for election is is not the most fun activity and I can

[41:32] understand why there's been uh you know several empty um slots in the the

[41:37] planning board over the last few years just like this last one. It's it's

[41:41] unfortunate but um still hesitant to to take away

[41:46] a a direct piece of democracy from the town of Grafton u as it as it stands

[41:50] today. Yeah. thing.

[41:53] » Yep. Go ahead, Greg. >> Um, yeah. I I mean, I I think our talent

[41:57] pool increases by doing this because as Victoria said, it's, you know, it's

[42:02] scary for people to have to run a campaign and put themselves out there.

[42:06] Um, but there's a lot of people that, you know, with this type of background,

[42:09] they may may be willing to serve and would do a very good job on the planning

[42:13] board, but the the thought of running is is uh intimidating to a lot of people.

[42:18] So I I think we attract cuz we have had appointments, you know, sometimes we

[42:24] get, you know, three or four people applying for one position where we can't

[42:27] get anybody to run a campaign against anybody. So um I think it might be good

[42:33] for the, you know, quality of the planning board future.

[42:38] » Yeah. My initial knee-jerk was um to agree with, you know, Victoria's take on

[42:43] this that uh you know, I appreciate the the value of of people running for these

[42:48] positions. However, having having lived here for quite some time and seeing

[42:53] what's going on in terms of these positions, including this board, um

[42:58] I, you know, I agree with Craig that I think that we would get a a greater pool

[43:02] potentially. I guess time would tell. Uh but obviously what we're doing now

[43:07] hasn't been working over the last 5 to 10 years. Um so

[43:12] pivoting isn't a bad idea. >> Yeah. And we also made it clear to the

[43:15] planning board when we went to see them that first of all as we mentioned the

[43:19] proposal 10 years ago that board did not do a ton of outreach. So we made it

[43:24] clear that you know this is a cooperative pro process. You guys would

[43:28] know more than us. So we want to hear that from all the boards that we're

[43:31] talking to. And at the same time, you know, we're going to go based off of the

[43:37] data for our proposals and then the town gets to decide at the end. So, in terms

[43:41] of the competitiveness, in terms of the number of candidates and stuff like

[43:44] that, this seems to be uh where we're leaning. And also before we go past

[43:49] article four or article three, I should mention that for article three in the

[43:53] select board, we had no proposed changes for how the select board is written up

[43:59] in the charter. Just if I might add um it is more pal it

[44:04] would be more palatable to me if I [clears throat] would know that it would

[44:08] be the select board and the planning board that would be involved [snorts]

[44:10] because again five member board depending on the makeup of the board we

[44:13] kind of get back into that you know who's who's coming up you know to to to

[44:18] apply for these positions. So um a larger

[44:22] look at behind this table in addition to the planning board obviously has the

[44:27] knowledge of what they're looking for in a candidate. Um, I think that that would

[44:30] be more palatable for me. >> I like that suggestion. I think that's a

[44:34] good suggestion. >> So, article four, uh, town

[44:37] administrator, um, there's a consensus on the, uh, on the charter review

[44:41] committee to change the title of the town manager. It's not going to change

[44:44] the duties. Uh, the the town administrator in Grafton has the same

[44:48] authority as most town managers in the state. Uh, it's more of a um, what's the

[44:55] word I'm looking for? It's more of a of a industry-wide standard that the

[44:59] position is town manager, especially with the authority currently vested in

[45:02] the town administrative position here in the town of Grafton. So, the committee

[45:06] feels that changing the town manager will do a couple of things. One, it puts

[45:09] a little more prestige to the position. And god forbid if he ever decides to

[45:13] leave, which you better not, um, when you advertise, more people look at that

[45:17] town manager title than the town administrator title, even though the

[45:21] duties are the same. Even though they're the exact same. So the the committee

[45:25] feels that making that change makes a lot of sense and again would have no

[45:28] material impact on the position itself. The the duties responsibilities were not

[45:32] touching that at all because it's a it's a pretty good position. It should stay

[45:34] that way. Um so I part of our outreach I sat down and met with Evan and I ran it

[45:39] by him and he didn't seem to object to the uh to the suggestion. So I think

[45:43] it's a pretty easy change and I don't think there's going to be a lot of

[45:46] controversy making that making that change. But I'd like to hear any

[45:49] feedback from the select board on that issue.

[45:52] » I just have a question. I think we were here when we had our first town manager.

[45:55] Didn't we start with the manager um title, Craig? And then we went to

[45:59] administrator. Do you remember? >> Um I think it's always been town

[46:04] administrator. >> Yeah, when it was Dan.

[46:05] » I could be wrong. I don't know when um >> my I looking back at all the charters,

[46:08] correct? I think it's always been town administrator.

[46:10] » Okay. I think at home I can check. >> Yeah, Dan Morgado was a town right

[46:15] administrator. >> That's why I was was thinking for some

[46:17] reason he was a manager, but Okay. >> Yeah. Another position, another

[46:22] consideration that we're talking about and we need to do more research on is

[46:25] the appointment of the fire chief. Um, right now the fire chief is appointed by

[46:29] the select board. Um, the fire chief is a strong chief. We're not touching that.

[46:33] We're not looking at changing that. The fire chief should stay a strong chief.

[46:37] The committee feels that making the the fire chief appointed by the town

[46:41] administrator, town manager makes a lot of sense in terms of accountability, in

[46:45] terms of the fact that the town manager is the professional who appoints every

[46:50] other department head position in town. So, it makes sense to add the fire chief

[46:55] to that. One of the big things and one of the main reasons that we looked at

[46:59] that and it's we're not hoping that this ever happens, but when it comes to

[47:02] discipline of an employee, the select board is going to do discipline. The

[47:06] select board can't do it behind the scenes. It has to be a public. You're a

[47:09] public body. You have to post your meetings. You have to do it in public or

[47:13] in executive session, but you have to put on the agenda why you're going into

[47:16] executive session. That leads to speculation. That leads to a lot of

[47:19] controversy. By having the town manager, town administrator is the appointing

[47:23] authority. He would also be he or she would also be responsible for

[47:26] discipline. It can be handled more professionally out of the public eye and

[47:30] and it just allows for more smoother operation of the of the government. And

[47:34] again, the the town manager, town administrator, appoints every other

[47:38] department, including the police chief and the DPW director and the town clerk.

[47:41] Makes sense to have the fire chief appointed that way. I'm going to set up

[47:45] a meeting. I have a meeting tomorrow with the fire chief to talk to him about

[47:48] this. [clears throat] I supposed to meet with him last Wednesday and I'm a I

[47:51] can't look at calendars. I don't know how to read a calendar, so I I missed

[47:53] the appointment. He was gracious enough to agree to meet with me tomorrow. So,

[47:57] I'm going to talk to him about that to get his feedback, but um right now we we

[48:01] don't understand. We have to figure out how it's done because it's not

[48:04] specifically stated in the charter. It's bylaw and we don't know how to how to go

[48:09] about making that change if we want to recommend that change. So, we have a a

[48:12] request into town council to give us advice on how that has to happen. Is it

[48:15] a special act? Is it a bylaw change? Or is it a a charter change? So, we'll keep

[48:20] you updated on that and I'll let you know how it goes uh after I talk to the

[48:24] fire chief because I'm really interested to hear on his position on this. And

[48:27] again, I want to make it clear, we want to keep it as a strong chief. It should

[48:31] stay a strong chief. So the only difference would be the appointment.

[48:34] » Are there any communities you've found that have have it structured this way?

[48:38] » Have the fire chief appointed >> by the town manager

[48:41] » manager. Grten. >> There you go. [laughter]

[48:44] So >> a lot of a lot of towns have the uh town

[48:47] manager appoint the uh town administrator town manager appoint the

[48:50] fire chief >> and it's a strong chief

[48:51] » and it's an absolute strong chief. Yeah. >> Okay. I mean for me I completely agree

[48:55] with this. So I don't have not really quite understood how it's working

[48:59] currently um having been on been the chair and overseeing Eric apparently and

[49:06] then when we come even to do his his um his evaluation I'm looking to everyone

[49:12] in the departments as well as Evan uh I'm not obviously during my day job

[49:17] overseeing him daily. So I think that this makes perfect sense to me in both

[49:21] the appointment and the oversight of the position. And additionally, um, you

[49:26] know, when it comes to even financial decisions, I think that should be going

[49:31] through Evans office and Mary's and not necessarily me.

[49:36] » It's just it's just the way you're doing every other department head in town.

[49:40] » Additionally, I that's not lost on me. It's consistent with how we are working

[49:44] as a town. >> Yeah. Assuming, you know, the the chief

[49:48] has no legitimate issues with it. I I wouldn't take issue with it either. you

[49:52] know, we're not removing any of his authority, just reassigning, you know,

[49:56] who he we and and [snorts] again to Anarie's point, we we added um

[50:03] you know, kind of that 360 review where we we talk to other people who interact

[50:06] with the chief so we can get a better idea of how he's doing on the

[50:09] day-to-day, but we're not really the people to to best answer that. So,

[50:13] » I have to tell you, as a as a municipal official for 41 years, who's had my

[50:16] performance evaluation done in public for 41 years, it stinks. And I think um

[50:22] you know what I'm talking about, Evan. So I think having you know the

[50:25] performance review any issues dealt with behind closed doors with the with the

[50:29] top manager makes sense. >> I agree with that too.

[50:31] » And if I might it stinks on for me on my FYI.

[50:36] » Agreed. I understand that completely. >> I think all the way around it public uh

[50:39] public appraisals are not fun. >> Yeah. I have a career of doing

[50:42] appraisals and and this is quite uncomfortable. Mhm.

[50:46] » So, I'll be interested to see how the chief feels about it and I'll report

[50:48] back to you once I have that conversation with him.

[50:51] » And quite frankly, that's with two folks who don't have major issues imagining.

[50:54] [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah.

[50:56] » Um the other one other article that we're dealing with right now is article

[51:00] six and that's the budget and financial procedures. One of the things that were

[51:03] presented to us and that we've discussed is how to go about doing the budget

[51:07] process. um Grafton, the last couple years that I've been involved with the

[51:12] with the finance committee, it's always been sort of a race to town meeting to

[51:16] see when we're going to make a final decision and the and I know the town

[51:20] administrator and the school superintendent have been coming in with

[51:23] 37 different budget um ideas for you to consider right up until the very end.

[51:28] And it just doesn't help the town manager or I keep saying town manager

[51:32] eventually, Evan, but the town administrator or the school

[51:35] superintendent. It helps if they have direction earlier on. So, one of the

[51:38] things that we're talking about is a budget calendar, and we're talking about

[51:41] having a budget summit in the fall where the select board and the finance

[51:44] committee get together and they provide guidance to the town manager and the

[51:47] school superintendent on how the budget should be established so that the town

[51:51] manager, town administrator knows exactly what the guidance is. You know,

[51:55] if the if the select board and the finance committee come down and say, "We

[51:58] want you to balance the budget within the confines of Proposition 2 and a half

[52:00] and not seek an override." He knows what he has to do and then he in him and the

[52:04] school superintendent can work together and get that done. It gives guidance and

[52:08] we're not doing these last minute meetings and trying to figure out how to

[52:11] get it done. Having that done makes a lot of sense. The other thing that we

[52:15] would like to do and and and clear up a little bit is to have a a date specific

[52:21] that the school committee gives the budget to the town administrator because

[52:25] right now it's it's really unclear the way it is with the with the calendar and

[52:29] so many days before town meeting and everything else. We want to have a

[52:32] specific date in which the school committee has to vote their budget and

[52:36] turn it over to the town administrator. It would be within the guidance

[52:39] hopefully and then the town administrator can take it and put the

[52:41] final budget together. But we want to have more consistency. We want to have a

[52:44] more deliberative process and we don't want to wait until the last minute to

[52:48] try to figure out what we're going to do. The budget process would stay the

[52:51] same after that other than right now the way the charter is done and the way the

[52:56] bylaws are done is the town administrator presents the budget to the

[52:58] select board and then presents it to the finance committee and then eventually

[53:02] maybe the finance committee and the select board get together and talk about

[53:04] it. That makes absolutely no sense. It would make more sense to have one

[53:08] presentation in joint session to the finance committee and the select board

[53:12] at the same time. That way the town manager, town administrator is hearing

[53:15] from all all boards at the same time and he's getting the same message. He's not

[53:20] going to go to the select board one night and the finance committee the next

[53:23] night and all of a sudden the finance committee has a different take on

[53:25] something and now he's got to go back to the select board. It's just it's a real

[53:29] disjointed process. So I think that what the charter review committee wants to do

[53:33] is make it more palatable and more consistent and more make it easier for

[53:37] the town administrator, town manager to put a budget together. Um, and then the

[53:41] budget would still go to town meeting would be the the budget of the town

[53:44] administrator as it is now and that wouldn't change. But getting guidance

[53:48] upfront early on from the select board and the finance committee will allow for

[53:52] I think a better budget process and there'll be more consistency and it'll

[53:56] prevent the town administrator from doing seven budgets. As much as he loves

[54:01] to do it and I know you love to do it, Evan, I think it would help if we had

[54:04] more consistency. So that's what we're working on right now on article six. I'd

[54:08] be happy to answer any questions that you have. Um, I love the idea of a

[54:11] budget summit, but um, I would love to see the inclusion of the superintendent

[54:16] at the summit. >> Um, just so we get some school feedback

[54:19] there, a huge part of the budget. And then it does say the intent is to ensure

[54:23] that the town manager receives meaningful guidance from both the select

[54:26] board and finance committee. I think the finance committee should attend the

[54:30] summit, but the guidance should just come from the select board. It's too

[54:32] wieldy to get that many people to agree on one set of guidance. Um, I don't know

[54:37] how anybody else feels about that. >> You'd be surprised how many times the

[54:42] finance committee and the select boards have been in sync. I've been receiving

[54:46] the same budget guidance for the last 18 years and it's never differed. The

[54:51] FINCOM and the select board when it comes to the budget have always been in

[54:54] sync and I think it provides huh >> ingrain. Well, I'm just saying, but it

[54:58] it just I think it sends a better message to the community when you have

[55:01] the because the finance committee is going to ultimately have to recommend

[55:04] that, you know, make a recommendation to the town meeting on what the budget is.

[55:07] So, having the the finance committee and the select board in sync at the

[55:10] beginning makes it a more powerful argument to town meeting moving forward,

[55:13] » which is why I totally think they should be involved in the summit.

[55:18] » But that's your point. Yeah, my um feedback was also why is the

[55:25] school committee andor the se um superintendent story not included in the

[55:29] budget summit? >> They should be. That's a good point.

[55:32] » Very important. 60 70% of our budget is there.

[55:35] » Agreed. So, um I think that should be something that should be considered and

[55:40] I would agree um I could be swayed in terms of you

[55:45] know the the wording the verbiage of you know facilitating versus making

[55:50] recommendations you know select board and finance committee together. We'll

[55:53] see I guess how you guys hash this out and how it comes back.

[55:57] » So you like the idea of having that summit moving the [clears throat]

[56:00] process so that there's direct gut >> in the in the in the very front of the

[56:04] budget season. Yes, absolutely. >> Excellent.

[56:07] » That's a great idea. >> Yeah, and you know, you made the points,

[56:11] but um things do things have changed rapidly uh you know, during during those

[56:16] few months that we're all meeting and um you know, there could be something that

[56:20] happens here that FinCom gets spun up about and then by the time we have a

[56:24] chance to meet jointly, we've, you know, pivoted into something else entirely and

[56:28] and that was basically a wasted meeting because, you know, you spent time

[56:31] focused on one thing that never ended up coming to fruition. um you know even

[56:35] even moving beyond the uh you know the override uh insights and and discussions

[56:40] it'd be great to be as close as close to aligned on what we want to what both

[56:46] parties want to see come out of um you know the the budget for that year and

[56:50] and you know what our priorities are and get those worked out sooner rather than

[56:55] later you know after we've had going through iteration after iteration and

[56:59] then you know we finally meet jointly three months afterwards. Yeah.

[57:03] » Have we met with the school committee yet?

[57:05] » You and I are supposed to do that, right?

[57:07] » I'm going to do that. >> You want me to join you?

[57:10] » No, thank you. >> Okay.

[57:11] » We have no suggestions. So, >> I I'll just go with the budget. That's

[57:14] what I was thinking with [clears throat] the budget summit. [snorts] We may want

[57:16] to bring that up to them. >> Interject. I think that, you know, you

[57:18] can start the process as early as you want or we can start the process as

[57:21] early as we want. There will be changes and it it% So, you're throwing out

[57:26] number seven, 37, however many times you feel but uh Evan has had to change the

[57:30] budget. Um, I don't see that changing dramatically if we do a summit. I think

[57:36] it's it's a good tool that we get together and look at priorities, but in

[57:40] terms of the numbers, quite frankly, they're coming in after our Maytown

[57:44] meeting. >> Um, so that's just on that and Craig

[57:49] does have his hand up. >> Craig.

[57:53] » Yeah, thanks Andy. Um so currently we have we have our town administrator and

[58:00] um our uh superintendent you know creating the budget and then the the

[58:05] kind of the two elected boards the board of selectment and the or the select

[58:08] board and the and the school committee have an opportunity to review and to

[58:12] give input um to those to those two budgets the town and the school side. Um

[58:19] the finance committee at its core is an advisory committee, right? So I don't

[58:26] want to my concern is I don't want to lose that. I like the fact

[58:30] [clears throat] that you [snorts] know we generate the budget and then the

[58:36] finance committee gets to look at it objectively.

[58:39] Um, I just feel like if if you know if if they're involved with cooking the

[58:44] meal and then reviewing the meal, I think some of that objectivity goes

[58:47] away. So, I think they play an important role as another level of kind of

[58:51] oversight to review it. Um, and I want them to be able to look at it

[58:57] objectively. Um, we present it to them just like all

[59:01] the other Warren articles. The budget should be no different. And we're, you

[59:04] know, and they review that. They ask questions. they make comments and, you

[59:09] know, they hold Jay and and Evan's feet to the fire on things that they think

[59:13] are important. I just feel like if they're if they're part of cooking the

[59:17] meal, then I don't know. Um, and then even if something say doesn't go, you

[59:22] know, something stays in the budget that they strongly think should not be in

[59:26] there during the development process, then when they're reviewing it, I think

[59:30] their objectivity goes away a little bit. So I think the role that they have

[59:33] that they've always had is that advisory kind of review of the budget. I I think

[59:39] that's important and I think we lose that if we if we start involving them um

[59:45] you know in in the development of the budget. I think that's Evan's job and

[59:50] Jay's and and our two boards to to go through that.

[59:57] So I I don't mind the summits. I don't mind, you know, communication is great.

[1:00:00] Talking about it, you know, I'm fine with all that. Um,

[1:00:07] so it's just, um, I think they I don't want to see their role changed as far as

[1:00:12] what what they currently do. I think it's important.

[1:00:15] One other piece of feedback I want to speak on. Um, during the process of

[1:00:18] crafting this proposal, I know that the subcommittee has taken great caution

[1:00:23] into making sure that this is not a very like rigid timeline because as an

[1:00:28] mentioned, we get numbers almost always after the

[1:00:33] fact of what's actually going to go into this. So, everyone is planning out this

[1:00:38] budget calendar with that in mind to make sure we don't end up in a situation

[1:00:42] where we make a decision based on numbers that aren't the reality.

[1:00:51] » Do you guys plan to be holding any public hearings to get

[1:00:54] » We've had we had one so far. Once we have all the final recommendations,

[1:00:58] we'll have another public hearing because we definitely want to get

[1:01:00] feedback on that >> because it could, you know, the public

[1:01:03] feedback coming in on a proposal, for example, the planning board issue that

[1:01:06] could change our, you know, if we get a human outcry not to go forward with

[1:01:10] that. I think that would affect the way the charter committee makes its final

[1:01:13] decision. So, absolutely. >> Public outreach is really important to

[1:01:16] this charter review committee. >> We just did that earmark survey and

[1:01:20] there's like a lot of responses, probably more than you'd get at a public

[1:01:24] hearing. Would that be helpful for you guys to potentially

[1:01:26] » I think we >> put some feelers out that way.

[1:01:28] » I think we've done one of those already um for just open input and if you anyone

[1:01:33] watching wants to go right now to the charter review committees section on our

[1:01:37] town website, you can make a suggestion right now.

[1:01:40] » Okay. >> Um once we get further down the line and

[1:01:43] we have our list of proposals, we will be doing something like that to see what

[1:01:48] the temperature is going forward. like like we said, we have until next October

[1:01:53] to be putting these out. So, we want to get a good feel of not only how all the

[1:01:56] boards are thinking about these proposals, but how the town as a whole

[1:01:59] is thinking on them. Uh, another big step of our feedback, and that is more

[1:02:03] of an open question to you guys, is um, based on this feedback tonight, and

[1:02:08] we're going to be asking this of all the boards where we're suggesting big

[1:02:10] changes, do you feel you'd like to see us again closer to when we're actually

[1:02:15] submitting these proposals from these subcommittees, or do you think that this

[1:02:19] alone was enough feedback to have us go back to our subcommittees and put them

[1:02:23] forward to the whole board? I personally would like to see you come

[1:02:27] back once they're tightened up as we get closer to the end of the process.

[1:02:31] » I like that. I think we should I I have I have a question for for the board if I

[1:02:34] may. Do you have anything else? >> One of the things the charter review

[1:02:37] committee is trying to figure out is how to go about getting the charter

[1:02:40] approved. There are two processes that you can do. You can do a home rule

[1:02:42] petition which is a majority voted town meeting and then the legislature and the

[1:02:46] governor. The other is a two-thirds vote of town meeting and then a ballot

[1:02:50] election. Doesn't touch the legislature. Do you guys have a preference? because

[1:02:53] we've done it both ways here in Grafton over the years. Is there a preference

[1:02:57] that you have on how to do it? >> How have we done it historically?

[1:03:01] Probably keep it the same. >> We've done it both ways. That's the

[1:03:04] problem. >> And you know, doing it simple majority,

[1:03:08] it's easier to pass, but then it takes quite a while for the legislature to get

[1:03:13] around to it. We've had situations, and we're looking through the charter now,

[1:03:16] where I mean, these seem like minor things, but they really aren't. when you

[1:03:20] have typos, everything's spelled differently, different capitalizations

[1:03:23] with different definitions, you know, that stuff takes time for our board

[1:03:27] where we could be spending it doing research on much more important

[1:03:30] proposals. Uh, but then when it comes to the two-third option, it's a much

[1:03:33] swifter approval, but it's a much higher threshold to actually get it passed

[1:03:38] » because you have to get the two-thirds vote at town meeting and then a majority

[1:03:40] vote at the ballot at the next annual election. So, think, you don't have to

[1:03:45] answer now. I just want you to think about that because we're grappling with

[1:03:47] it as a committee right now. >> Craig

[1:03:50] Yeah, I I would try and keep it in the town's hands as much as possible. Um,

[1:03:54] and maybe the bar should be high. I mean, these are important changes and

[1:03:58] they're going to last for at least five years, right? So, is it 10 years?

[1:04:01] » 10 years. >> Yeah. So, um I think if we keep it with

[1:04:04] the residents, I think if we if we can, I guess that would be my two cents on

[1:04:09] that. >> Okay.

[1:04:10] » And we also do have immediate examples of the legislature handing us back a

[1:04:14] charter that doesn't make a ton of sense with the town clerk change. I don't

[1:04:18] think it's mentioned in there anywhere that the town clerk is now appointed

[1:04:23] rather than elected. That position seems to have just kind of vanished from the

[1:04:26] charter while leaving a ton of mentions to town officials, which is now no

[1:04:30] longer a thing that we have. So, we are definitely going to continue looking at

[1:04:35] those different mechanisms. >> We have a lot of smart people on this

[1:04:38] committee that are word smiths that really it's amazing the the amount of

[1:04:41] time they spend. We're very lucky. It's a good committee.

[1:04:44] » It's a good committee. If I might, I would just chime in that I agree with

[1:04:47] Craig. I would go with the um the twothirds and the the majority ballot in

[1:04:52] mo for me mostly I agree to we should set the bar high. This is something that

[1:04:56] we're going to live by for quite some time and it needs to be right and agreed

[1:05:00] upon by everybody or at least the majority.

[1:05:03] » It's good feedback. Glad I asked. >> I I like that approach for the speed and

[1:05:07] simplicity. You know, it it really takes things a while to get through the

[1:05:11] legislature as we've seen. So, um you know, If uh we can we can hit that high

[1:05:17] bar mark and and get it done even faster, let's do it.

[1:05:21] » Okay. Thank you so much for your time. It's always nice to see you.

[1:05:24] » Thanks for coming in. >> Yeah, very very well prepared

[1:05:27] invitation. Thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:05:28] » Appreciate it.

[1:05:36] » Okay. Um were we going to talk budget calendar

[1:05:41] with them or is that just us as a followup? I think it was just us because

[1:05:47] that's how we started it and we can always share it with them. I don't think

[1:05:50] it needs to go in the charter. These aren't going to be an official charter,

[1:05:55] » right? >> Budget calendar and whatever they do, we

[1:05:58] we'll implement into the calendar um summit for example, the budget summit.

[1:06:05] » Okay. Um do we have updates that we want to review of the current calendar um or

[1:06:11] gather? This was gathering feedback, right? You were going to share some

[1:06:14] feedback. We were going to share some feedback.

[1:06:16] » I don't have the feedback. >> I'm

[1:06:19] » based on the new information, it feels like a reason.

[1:06:22] » The new information why I don't have it. >> Okay.

[1:06:25] » Uh no, Will and I have had preliminary discussions, but uh he is unavailable

[1:06:30] and I just don't have it. So, I need to circle back. Why don't we if it's

[1:06:35] acceptable put it on the 22nd and come back around at it again?

[1:06:39] » Everybody's okay with that? >> That's fine.

[1:06:41] » Great. October 6th is my birthday, too. So, if it has to go on that day. Well,

[1:06:45] there you go. >> Very excited for that. Great.

[1:06:47] » There you go. >> Her best birthday. [clears throat]

[1:06:50] » Okay. So, we'll bring that back.

[1:06:55] » Okay. Uh, we have a road closure request from Wreck for Apprentice Street for the

[1:07:00] fall festival. >> Sorry, Adam. I should have

[1:07:04] » asked for to get taken out of order because your stuff's going to be quick.

[1:07:07] » I I had two anyway, so funny. I had donuts, so it's good. Good evening,

[1:07:10] everybody. Um, so we're doing our annual ask for road closure on Apprentice

[1:07:14] Street, open for local traffic only. Uh, last year was the first year we did the

[1:07:18] fall festival at Nelson Park instead of the common as the event has just

[1:07:22] absolutely blown up in a positive way. Uh, um, attendance wise, um, I thought

[1:07:26] it went awesome last year at Nelson Park and I think having the playground there

[1:07:29] too was nice to have the kids have something other than the trees on the

[1:07:32] common to climb on. >> Um, so we're just asking for for

[1:07:35] requests to have local traffic only on Apprentice Street for the 18th from uh,

[1:07:38] 10:00 to 3. The event is 11:00 to 2. We're giving the hour buffer um before

[1:07:41] and after. So, >> uh any questions, comments from the

[1:07:45] board? >> Love the new location.

[1:07:51] » Craig. >> Yeah. Is it both sides of Apprentice

[1:07:54] Street? >> Apprentice is one way, so they'll just

[1:07:59] » No, I think Apprentice splits 140 is what Craig

[1:08:02] » Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, it's it's just the part of Apprentice Street that uh aligns

[1:08:05] on on the side of Nelson Park. So, it's not going to be the top part.

[1:08:09] Okay, great. Thank you.

[1:08:15] Anything else? Okay, let's take a motion.

[1:08:17] » Looking forward to it. I move the board vote to approve the closure of Print

[1:08:20] Street on October 18th as requested by the recreation department.

[1:08:23] » Second. >> Okay. Motion made second. Any additional

[1:08:25] discussion? Heading none. All those in favor? Miss Roy.

[1:08:28] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[1:08:29] » I. >> Miss Foley.

[1:08:30] » Foley. >> I.

[1:08:30] » Mr. Doy. [clears throat] >> I.

[1:08:32] » Jefferson. I >> All right. Let's talk about your uh gift

[1:08:36] account. >> Yeah. So, um, when we, uh, received the

[1:08:40] grant or had announcement of the grant for the Smile, uh, mass wheelchair over

[1:08:44] the summer, uh, the community advocate put out an article, um, about us

[1:08:47] receiving that grant. Um, and we had a, uh, a lovely person call me within days

[1:08:52] and said, hey, would you like a second one? Um, and I said,

[1:08:57] well, tell me more what you mean by that. And she says, well, how much do

[1:09:00] they cost? And I said, about $2,500. Um, we have one right now. I don't know if

[1:09:04] there's need for two. and she said, you know, would you be interested in taking

[1:09:08] those funds and using them for other accessibility purposes? Um, so, uh,

[1:09:12] we're looking to create this account so we can accept that gift in particular,

[1:09:15] but also for future projects. We're actually looking to get a, um,

[1:09:18] allterrain wheelchair that we can rent out through the department. So, this

[1:09:20] will be a huge chunk of that. Um, those wheelchairs cost $5,500. So, um, our

[1:09:26] hope is to continue to grow that account so we can, you know, anytime we have

[1:09:29] accessibility requests or upgrades, uh, we we have easy funds to tap into for

[1:09:33] that. So, we're just looking to be able be able to open an account for that.

[1:09:37] » Very nice. >> That sounds like a great cause.

[1:09:40] » And that would be just a separate account, Mary, in

[1:09:43] » Yeah. So, it would sit in our our our recck department. It's a separate. So,

[1:09:47] we already have one that's separate from this. Um, but yeah, we would have a

[1:09:50] secondary account. >> It's essentially creating another line

[1:09:53] in their general ledger that will be able to be tapped on, but otherwise

[1:09:58] stays static regardless of what the other budget does around it.

[1:10:01] » Okay. Would the funds be restricted to accessibility or

[1:10:06] » based on the title of uh the gift account that's it would be accessibility

[1:10:10] or inclusion based programming? So um obviously in our continued effort to

[1:10:14] focus on that in the years that I've been here um so anything that would fall

[1:10:17] in that bucket we would use those funds. >> Yeah. We we have different gifts gift

[1:10:21] accounts in different places that are very specifically worded because of the

[1:10:25] intent of the person's donation. >> Yep. So, and then 60 years from now, the

[1:10:30] town administrator will curse us for having created them because we have some

[1:10:34] that are almost a hundred years old that have pennies in them that we can't get

[1:10:38] rid of that Mary has to continually [snorts]

[1:10:41] calculate. But that's, you know, that's future Mary's problem.

[1:10:48] » That's wonderful. That's very generous of that person. And I I think it's a an

[1:10:54] awesome thing to start at an accessibility and inclusion account. see

[1:10:57] what else you can get. >> Yeah. Yeah. They two tend to be two of

[1:11:01] our, you know, heavier draws in terms of funding to to, you know, especially like

[1:11:06] the inclusionary programming and something that is uh both things um to

[1:11:11] clarify that are, you know, critically important for all of our residents and

[1:11:14] and a commonly talked about issue. So, yeah,

[1:11:19] » let's take that motion. >> I move the board vote to create a gift

[1:11:21] account and accept the funding for the recreation department.

[1:11:24] » Second. >> Okay. Motion and seconded. Any

[1:11:26] discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Miss Roy.

[1:11:29] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[1:11:30] » I. >> Miss Dan.

[1:11:32] » Dan. A I. >> Jefferson. I.

[1:11:35] » Thanks for coming in this. >> Thank you everybody.

[1:11:37] » Thank you.

[1:11:41] » Okay. Uh, next up we're going to discuss uh parking at the Grafton Historical

[1:11:45] Society. And Dave, come on up. >> Good evening. Thanks for having me. Um,

[1:11:50] my name is Dave Tyrion. I'm currently treasurer of the uh Graphen Historical

[1:11:55] Society. Uh we've we've been at that location

[1:11:59] since the uh December 19 Yeah. 2018. Just for a little background on it.

[1:12:07] Prior to that, we we finished up a 30-year lease at the the old townhouse

[1:12:12] in 2016 and became tenant at will. Uh it and

[1:12:19] then the town went to outside management and we could we could keep the place we

[1:12:24] had uh for a mere $2,000 a month plus expenses

[1:12:29] uh which wasn't feasible uh at that time. The town did offer us two other

[1:12:35] locations to look at. The present location 71 Main Street, the old

[1:12:40] library, and the other one was the uh Nelson Library. Uh

[1:12:47] the downside to the Nelson Library, it was too small and broken up. Uh it would

[1:12:53] have been probably a 50% reducing reduction in space. Uh we had a little

[1:12:59] bit of concern about uh the the 71 Main Street because we' been told that the

[1:13:05] cell was wet. Um as it turns out, um

[1:13:12] it was an easy fix. the window wells were lowered than the ground around it.

[1:13:17] So, I was down there one time when it was raining and I'm watching the water

[1:13:21] come in the windows and I sandbagged the outside and we haven't had a problem

[1:13:26] since then. Um the other the other enticement was

[1:13:31] that the town agreed that uh the lease would include uh nine Orchard Street,

[1:13:37] which was the vacant parking lot across the street

[1:13:41] across from uh the thing since 2018. It's progressively gotten

[1:13:50] packing becomes more of a problem. Uh we had a meeting Tuesday, last Tuesday, and

[1:13:55] we had to park on the street because uh the lot was full. Uh

[1:14:03] and the the lease specifically says that the area was uh reserved for parking for

[1:14:10] the historical society. Uh conditions were is that we would maintain the

[1:14:15] grounds at the building and the town would provide the space in plowing of

[1:14:19] it. In fact, they even said we may have to move vehicles to uh to allow us to

[1:14:26] allow the town to plow it. U as it stands right now, they can't plow it

[1:14:32] because um there's too many cars in there and they don't belong to us.

[1:14:38] Uh there are currently I believe three unregistered vehicles in

[1:14:43] that lot which is in violation of town town bylaw which town is actually in

[1:14:49] violation maybe in violation of their own bylaw because they have u more than

[1:14:55] one unregistered vehicle on the property. Uh and I know how that works

[1:15:00] because number of years ago I was nailed on the same thing. Uh but fortunately

[1:15:06] one of mine was the town line up in graft and goes through the property and

[1:15:12] I had anticipated a problem. So one was in Upton, the other was in graft and it

[1:15:17] didn't become an issue. But uh as far as the uh

[1:15:23] the water nine Archer Street, my recommendation or my my request is that

[1:15:28] they they post it no overnight parking and they they put signage up indicating

[1:15:34] that it's uh parking photograph and historical society. We we currently are

[1:15:40] open Sunday afternoons, Tuesday afternoon, and then there's

[1:15:44] various functions during the during the uh month.

[1:15:49] And and a lot of them you just can't park because there's no space.

[1:15:54] » Uh I've been raising an issue in this for about 3

[1:15:59] years and I finally said, "Well, maybe I got to go to the select board to resolve

[1:16:03] it." But uh it's it's become a real problem at this point and particularly

[1:16:09] in the winter because there is uh [snorts]

[1:16:11] they can't plow it and the two neighbors plow theirs into the middle. So you end

[1:16:17] up with a pile in the middle that freezes. So even with a front end

[1:16:21] loader, you can't move it. So like I said, my my request is that

[1:16:26] they uh quit a lot and they uh post put signage

[1:16:33] up uh an overnight park and I think would eliminate most of the problem. So

[1:16:40] I I guess with that I'll leave it to questions.

[1:16:46] So my understanding is the problem with that is we can put up signage but it

[1:16:51] would be non- enforceable. We can't I mean you we

[1:16:58] we can't bar people from using mun municipal lots. If it's a municipal lot

[1:17:02] it's open to the public. Um, you know, I we it sounds like we could confirm um

[1:17:10] you know, the the the vehicles that are parked there that you indicated, you

[1:17:14] know, somebody has three unregistered. We that's something that it seems like

[1:17:19] the police department could could look into,

[1:17:22] » but you know, in terms of posting signage,

[1:17:27] uh it it doesn't really we again we can, but my understanding is it wouldn't

[1:17:32] force any issue. doesn't force anybody's hand.

[1:17:35] » Well, my Okay, my question is is if if our lease covers that lot, then why is

[1:17:43] it a municipal parking lot? It's

[1:17:47] » town owned land. >> Mhm.

[1:17:50] » And we can't do no overnight parking on any of our

[1:17:53] » You can post it however you want, but the police won't enforce it. So, that's

[1:17:57] always been the rub. >> Um Dave, do you have a current lease?

[1:18:01] » Yes, I do. Okay. >> And we have we have a current lease. I

[1:18:05] have a copy here, but we have a current lease. It was this it was signed in for

[1:18:09] it was 10 year lease signed December of uh 2018 and it and it has a provision in

[1:18:16] it for uh two two extensions five years each or renegotiate the longer term. Uh

[1:18:24] we would be looking to extend it for at least the five years if not longer.

[1:18:29] I mean, I have noticed those. I didn't know that there were three, but I've not

[1:18:32] noticed at least a couple of cars that clearly are not going anywhere that have

[1:18:35] been sitting there. >> Part of part of the problem is is that

[1:18:39] along the fence line there's there's there's a there's a Toyota that hasn't

[1:18:45] moved at the front of the lot since last se be a year ago, September. Anyways,

[1:18:51] but along the fence, uh, if you go back and look at the at the GIS or the

[1:18:57] assessor's photos, uh, you'll see that 10 years ago, there

[1:19:02] was nothing parked there. And then over time, the trailer showed up and then now

[1:19:07] on unregistered C, I suspect they're unregistered. They don't move.

[1:19:12] » Yeah, I've seen the two back there. >> And the problem that creates is that

[1:19:16] when they do plow it, they've got no place to plow the snow. The logical

[1:19:20] place would be to plow to the property line in the fence, but there's a line of

[1:19:25] trailers and cars there right now, and that creates more of a problem. We don't

[1:19:30] mind coexisting. it. The problem is is that it's it's gotten so now that

[1:19:36] uh five of [snorts] the cars that are there at night, I believe

[1:19:42] uh employees of the uh facility at 73 Main Street, the one next to us. And

[1:19:50] historically, they parked in their own lot or they parked along our fence. And

[1:19:56] it's it's only since the pandemic that that moved in there into the lot. But it

[1:20:03] you know when you put five or seven cars there and then the neighbors park all

[1:20:07] there is and then you have commercial trucker park there. Um we end up parking

[1:20:12] on the street. >> What's the business?

[1:20:15] » Uh I'm not sure if it's if it's a state

[1:20:19] facility or what it is, but it's

[1:20:26] But I went back and I and I looked at on online at the uh

[1:20:32] the [clears throat] aerial photos that go year to year and it you go back 10

[1:20:38] years or so and it progressively gets more and more and more and the pandemic

[1:20:43] kind of just blew it out because nobody was using it. Uh but now that things are

[1:20:49] back active, it it just creates a real problem.

[1:20:53] » I mean, so you know, a couple of things that maybe we can impact the the cars

[1:20:58] that are potentially there that are not registered, etc. And that I think

[1:21:02] there's a trailer that I've noticed. >> There's there's two

[1:21:04] » three or four trailers. There might even be more than that. And and and

[1:21:10] » there's two properties that that lot. There's one on Archer Street and one at

[1:21:15] Samson. And I it looks to me like they've just provided additional space

[1:21:22] for their own use. >> So to get back to so maybe we can you

[1:21:25] know impact that in some way. Um additionally perhaps just a note to the

[1:21:31] group home to whoever runs manages that runs it. You know if they don't know

[1:21:35] they don't know, right? They see something that's open and there's no

[1:21:38] signage. I do want to point out that our public safety departments have said that

[1:21:44] once we move them out of that lot, then they start parking on the street and

[1:21:47] then we can't get our equipment through. Like that's one of the concerns with

[1:21:50] that area so congested and that the streets are so narrow that DPW

[1:21:57] wants people to park in the end lot when it snows so that they can plow the

[1:22:01] street and police and fire like to have people not parking along the road in

[1:22:07] there. So that's the push back that we've had on that side of the house that

[1:22:12] I want to be just cognitive of because that group home I think if we ban them

[1:22:19] from parking in the lot on at the end of Orchard, they're going to be lined up on

[1:22:25] the street there. >> I don't know about I mean I know a lot

[1:22:29] about a lot of group homes in town. I don't know about that one. Um, are are

[1:22:33] there vans associated with it or is it different?

[1:22:35] » No, it's it's it's it appears the employee because they they rotate it

[1:22:40] 3:00 or 1:00 or >> because kind of depending on how big

[1:22:43] that facility is, generally group homes that I service, there's only a couple of

[1:22:48] staff >> staff at a time. Yeah.

[1:22:50] » So, there were and the participants don't have cars, so it's generally only

[1:22:53] a couple of cars. And and I'm not and I'm not sure at this point whether or

[1:22:57] not they have more employees than they used to have,

[1:23:00] » but they they my recollection is there used to be two or three cars parked

[1:23:06] uh on the street, but they're off the street. They're up against the fence uh

[1:23:12] for the library at the back entrance uh and and there were more there appeared

[1:23:19] to be more of them parking in their own site, but now they're that there's

[1:23:24] anywhere from 5 to seven on a nightly basis. H. And then my other

[1:23:30] recommendation or idea was that um you know we could put something relative to

[1:23:35] snow removal for the neighbors, but it sounds like like you said DPW actually

[1:23:39] it's handy for them to have the cars in there. So that doesn't

[1:23:42] » align with that. >> Um I I have a suggestion. When I when

[1:23:47] I'm looking at the GIS map, I see maybe total of like 15 residents that could be

[1:23:54] potentially using this space. Have you considered maybe sending out like a

[1:23:58] monthly mailer to those 15 addresses saying, "Hey, these are the dates of

[1:24:02] events that we have coming up to just maybe be mindful and trying open

[1:24:06] communication that way with the people potentially parking in those spaces.

[1:24:12] » We we have we have spoken to the uh manager of the [clears throat]

[1:24:17] group facility and there was no they just agreed and

[1:24:24] that was about it. Uh I'm

[1:24:32] logistically I'm not sure whether or not that would be something we could

[1:24:35] practically do >> because it does sound like if there was

[1:24:40] more communication for hey this is when we would like to be using the space and

[1:24:44] the rest of the time we're open to everybody else using it. does I don't

[1:24:47] know how you communicate to to the neighborhood though that you know we're

[1:24:51] having an event from 2 to 4 on this day or um an event on 1 to 3 on this day and

[1:24:57] and or maybe if you if you had a website that you could be updating or pushing

[1:25:01] out to just I don't know maybe an email chain to to some of these residents to

[1:25:08] to see if they're interested in staying um informed to when when you guys would

[1:25:13] be likely having more cars show because they might want to know too.

[1:25:17] They might not want to get stuck in or >> well they're there before we get there.

[1:25:22] So that's that's the problem. Our evening event start at 7

[1:25:27] uh 6:30 or 7 and and by that time the whole row is already filled up,

[1:25:34] » right? >> And and that's and that's gotten worse

[1:25:36] in the last couple years. I'm not sure where the number of houses hasn't

[1:25:41] changed, >> right? Uh there are a couple commercial

[1:25:45] vehicles that are there that have showed up and I don't know whether they're work

[1:25:51] they work and they live at one of the houses or what is but uh they

[1:25:57] it's it's just you know it supposedly the space was provided for our parking

[1:26:03] and as it turns out right now we have no we virtually can't park there.

[1:26:10] Yeah. >> And from what I know of the historical

[1:26:13] society, um it's pretty slim in terms of uh volunteers and what you guys are

[1:26:19] doing with the very few hours of support that you have right now is a lot. So I

[1:26:24] mean I think you there is a website though, isn't it?

[1:26:26] » There is a website. Yes. >> And there is a newsletter that goes out.

[1:26:29] It's just a matter of >> Yeah.

[1:26:31] » Yeah. Uh and and my my gut feeling is it's it's the houses in the close

[1:26:37] proximity that would that are using the ones along the back the stuff along the

[1:26:41] back uh are clearly the two houses behind it. Uh but that's

[1:26:51] that's just it's there. I'm not sure what we can

[1:26:54] » Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, think thinking about next steps as we go through this and

[1:26:58] Evan, I mean, chime in on viability of these ideas. It seems like we could

[1:27:04] start with having GPD confirm uh you know, active registrations uh and

[1:27:11] you know, possibly remove any vehicles that that aren't registered at that

[1:27:14] point um or consider having them removed. Um

[1:27:20] we could we can again kind of take the group temperature on if we want to have

[1:27:26] uh signage get posted there knowing that it's you know it's not enforceable. Um

[1:27:32] but at the same time uh I feel like the odds are pretty good that that the

[1:27:36] people parking there aren't watching this meeting. So we're not tipping our

[1:27:38] hand in any any great way with uh with that. But um

[1:27:44] it seems like those are those are really our two paths forward at this point

[1:27:49] beyond as was mentioned you know trying the the historical society trying to do

[1:27:54] more outreach which I do understand is is difficult giving here you know

[1:27:58] limited staffing and um Craig you uh you want to weigh in?

[1:28:04] » Yeah, thanks Andy. I guess a few thoughts. Um,

[1:28:08] how if if we were to say [snorts] make that a real parking lot and pave that,

[1:28:13] like how do we have any idea how many parking spots we could we could get in

[1:28:17] there? >> Um, I no, I mean, I could put that

[1:28:22] together like an estimate, but um, >> yeah,

[1:28:27] » it's got a kind of a funky little layout, too. So, it it would take me

[1:28:31] just a little It's not a rectangle, you know,

[1:28:33] » right? I mean I you know I if not more >> growing up had friends that lived on

[1:28:37] Orchard Street and I know that that park and you know that dirt corner has been

[1:28:41] used by the residents there for for decades and decades. So not that that's

[1:28:45] right but it's just been you know they've had the luxury of having that

[1:28:49] that vacant lot there at their disposal. Um so I don't know how the library

[1:28:54] worked before that. um if it was an issue for for the library when it was

[1:28:58] there. But um I would say that the the girls home that's down the street a

[1:29:03] little bit, you know, they do have um you know, it's a big big house with a

[1:29:09] big front yard. They probably could could uh make make some parking there

[1:29:13] for themselves um if you know they needed to. Um, and the third as far as

[1:29:21] their if there's unregistered cars there, we just we need to find out, I

[1:29:24] think, whose they are and just give them, you know, 7-day notice of getting

[1:29:28] rid of them. I mean, there shouldn't be unregistered cars in that public lot.

[1:29:33] Um, and then I guess to David, how many spots do you think um you need um on any

[1:29:41] given day? Say on average between staff and um because you're only open how many

[1:29:46] days are you open down there, David? >> We're open uh Sunday afternoon, Tuesday

[1:29:52] afternoon. Uh there's normally somebody there on Thursday. It's it's advertised

[1:29:57] as it call if you want to come in and then there uh uh we do a director's

[1:30:04] meeting once a month and we have we have other functions. It's it's it's

[1:30:12] getting harder and harder to find places to hold functions out

[1:30:17] uh bigger venue. So we've been pushing to have more at the museum. So, you

[1:30:23] know, probably the maximum we need is probably 20 uh

[1:30:30] on a on a if there was a function, but on on a on a normal director's night, uh

[1:30:38] there's 10 directors, 12 directors, so almost nobody capital. So, you you end

[1:30:44] up with that many casts. as as far as parking spaces, if you if you

[1:30:52] there would be there would be another 10 spaces along the fence if if the trails

[1:30:58] and stuff weren't there and it was cleaned out. Uh

[1:31:02] and I suspect if uh if there was some way to to put lines

[1:31:08] put parking lines in, you could probably triple the amount of packing it. The

[1:31:12] problem is right now it's it's a it's an oddshaped lot and the street line is

[1:31:18] really unclear. So people pull in on a curve and then you

[1:31:25] could theoretically park behind but nobody wants to. So you uh and then when

[1:31:30] you put snow in there it's it's just a horror show.

[1:31:33] » Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess I'll make, you know, one suggestion is maybe we can

[1:31:39] have, you know, Paul and Brian and maybe they've already done this and, you know,

[1:31:44] put their heads together and look at the kind of the layout of that corner. I

[1:31:47] know it's just one big radius, >> you know, maybe that there's a way to

[1:31:51] square those lines up and make it more to to to, you know, specification, I

[1:31:57] guess, and and look at doing that lot correctly because

[1:32:03] it's just always been there. They they all go back to the 1933 layout for this

[1:32:10] subdivision when the when the mill sold off the property. And uh all the lots

[1:32:15] went to the center line of the road because it was a subdivision prior to

[1:32:18] town approval. Uh and I think that lot just says by the radius of the street or

[1:32:25] the center line of the street. So you you you could establish the back lane

[1:32:29] one but you can't you'd be hardressed to do the front.

[1:32:34] Just thinking maybe it would be helpful if there was just a sign um you know

[1:32:38] town land or property of the historical society or something to that effect for

[1:32:43] folks that are just randomly parking there. I think that if I knew

[1:32:47] » it was parking for someone, I would think twice about it. Maybe might it's

[1:32:50] not going to solve your entire pro problem, but

[1:32:53] » um at least a way to let folks know that this is actually supposed to be used by

[1:32:58] by someone >> might help. I'm I'm not entirely sure

[1:33:01] that the the people that park it in know the problem.

[1:33:05] » That's Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

[1:33:06] » And that's the other that's the other issue.

[1:33:10] » When we were having the issue at the lot out here with the senior center, did we

[1:33:15] end up posting signage or no? And then we've had people complain over the years

[1:33:19] at Norcross Park as well where there people who live in apartments around

[1:33:22] there are parking in there and we didn't post signage there at all. My concern

[1:33:26] about if we put signage here, we're going to hear back from all of the other

[1:33:29] parking lots that we've had requests for signage and we've told no to as well.

[1:33:33] » Well, there's signage up here that now says no parking between 7 and 3 or

[1:33:37] something behind the senior center in all those spots, right?

[1:33:40] » I >> there's something up there. It's no

[1:33:42] parking 7 to 3. >> Yeah, it wasn't

[1:33:44] » 9 to three. >> There's there's posting in this lot, but

[1:33:47] it's just not enforceable. So, we can >> So, we did put signage up. Uh there's

[1:33:53] signage here that's pre-existing and then there's that hasn't been added

[1:33:56] since I've been here. >> Okay.

[1:33:58] » And then um Norcross, I don't believe there's anything. I was just over there.

[1:34:02] There's there's nothing there. But I mean you could you can post this, but

[1:34:08] GPD is not going to take it and tell anybody.

[1:34:10] » Mhm. >> Okay. But the difference between the

[1:34:12] park, it's like it's kind of obvious this is a park and that's the parking

[1:34:15] lot for the park. Whereas this little circle, you really it's super random.

[1:34:20] You know, if you don't know, you don't know.

[1:34:21] » That's right. >> And you know, quite frankly, even I know

[1:34:24] and you're still not sure what is that for. So,

[1:34:28] » it can't be enforced, but it can't harm in my opinion that at least folks would

[1:34:31] know that oh, that's meant for the historical society.

[1:34:34] » Yep. >> Like, like I say, the the only reason

[1:34:37] that it it's been the last four or five years that that it's escalated

[1:34:43] there. I I know some of the neighbors that park there and I know they go there

[1:34:47] when there's a snowstorm, but they usually move them out. Uh the last

[1:34:52] couple of snowstorms we've had is they they were buried. They would they'd be

[1:34:56] there for a couple days, three days, and uh and then the town can't plow it. So,

[1:35:04] » has there been any consideration about adding spaces on the lot that the the

[1:35:09] museum is on? Like on that back square property there between that and and the

[1:35:15] the home. >> There's about a six foot drop from the

[1:35:18] where the fence line is to >> ground topographically. It won't

[1:35:22] » not good. >> There's nothing really around the

[1:35:24] library at all. >> The the f the fence line is is about the

[1:35:27] top of slope. >> Yeah. The grade So, all right.

[1:35:31] [clears throat] What I've got so far is that we'll we Evan will uh talk with the

[1:35:38] chief about, you know, confirming the status of the cars and and whatnot that

[1:35:42] are over there now. Um it sounds like we're leaning towards posting signage.

[1:35:48] Is how how is how is the board feeling on that? Let's get a a temperature. Is

[1:35:52] that something that we want to post, you know, a um

[1:35:58] uh you know, Grafton Historical Society parking sign, even though, you know, we

[1:36:02] know it's it's non-inforceable, but it implies that hopefully people will

[1:36:06] consider that. >> I wouldn't want to post anything until

[1:36:09] we're confirmed that safety vehicles can get by where these vehicles end up as an

[1:36:14] alternative. Like these vehicles are going to end up somewhere. And what I'm

[1:36:17] hearing is that it's it's better for fire trucks and safety vehicles and

[1:36:21] plows to get by if they're here. >> But if that's not the case, then I'm

[1:36:26] okay with the sign. But if that is the case, I'm not okay with the sign. That's

[1:36:30] me personally. >> Craig,

[1:36:32] » I mean, >> yeah, it sounds like there's no rhyme or

[1:36:34] reason to the parking down there. I mean, I haven't been down there

[1:36:37] recently, but without lines, you know, people,

[1:36:41] you know, it's amazing how some people park. they just don't think about it

[1:36:44] when they pull into >> Yeah.

[1:36:46] » into even a parking lot with lines, you know what I mean? So,

[1:36:49] » we're not doing us ourselves any favors. It's probably not not efficient. And I

[1:36:53] don't know if we can put, you know, even some um you know, spend a little bit of

[1:37:01] money down there um just grading the place. And even if we have to put some

[1:37:05] wrap in there and just, you know, some hard pack or something in there,

[1:37:08] something we could put lines on. I don't know if we can do that or not. Um,

[1:37:13] » yeah, I think I think we should have Evan

[1:37:16] uh, you know, draft up a lot plan similar to what we did with ThreeWor and

[1:37:21] figure out how we can maximize, you know, parking there currently. Um,

[1:37:26] [clears throat] you know, and I know we're we're focused on solving this one

[1:37:29] problem, but um, whereas we had the facilities assessment committee in at

[1:37:34] our last meeting and I'm sure they've talked to, you know, the historical

[1:37:38] society as well. Um, that building is in really rough shape. Really rough shape.

[1:37:44] » I did the walkth through with Ray me and and the other two and

[1:37:51] the article I read in the Grafton News doesn't actually reflect

[1:37:56] the comments that came out of that walk through

[1:38:00] the the >> I'm not sure what appeared in the in the

[1:38:02] Grafton News article. I mean, I know there was a copy of the report that we

[1:38:06] were given that was in our our last packet. That was that was pretty damning

[1:38:10] » and their recommendation was that you consider the Nelson Nelson Park Library

[1:38:15] again. Um, we also met with the Nelson Park trustees, uh, I believe that same

[1:38:20] meeting or the meeting after, um, who expressed that, you know, at the time,

[1:38:25] uh, back in 2018 when you had initially moved, they wanted to keep at least the

[1:38:29] conference room area for themselves and that that's not the case anymore. Their

[1:38:33] priority now is making sure that that building is occupied. Um, and according

[1:38:38] to that report, we could put somewhere around 100 or so thousand into what it

[1:38:43] currently needs. um things like new sliding doors and and you know minor

[1:38:49] stuff um and that make that a a more viable facility for historical purposes.

[1:38:57] The building and the envelope are in much better condition. It alleviates a

[1:39:00] lot of the parking issues. um you know so again starting the conversation as

[1:39:06] one member I think it would be worthwhile for the historical society to

[1:39:14] you know a start discussing that idea and b um start you know getting some

[1:39:20] pricing from like professional movers and and things

[1:39:23] » we we moved eight years ago and and and as of right now

[1:39:29] » we have a lease would would an option to extend and the the North Graffton

[1:39:36] Library is even with the conference room is too small and too disjointed. It's

[1:39:41] » they are it's not a feasible location. Uh

[1:39:47] » I'm I'm just I'm going to urge you to consider it because we're talking about

[1:39:50] putting money into a parking issue and then also the assumption that we're

[1:39:54] going to continue to put money into that building and I don't think those are

[1:39:57] reasonable assumptions to be working under. What what do you do with the

[1:40:01] building if you if you don't use it? You going to tear it down?

[1:40:05] » That would be a future discussion. >> Our priority is is making sure that that

[1:40:12] » your you know, your group is in a is a a viable location. You know, for sure. Um

[1:40:18] but you know this was part of the facilities assessment review is that

[1:40:22] we're going to have to have some difficult discussions about some of the

[1:40:26] municipal municipal properties and unfortunately you know you the

[1:40:31] historical society falls falls in one of those areas. So I'm just while we are

[1:40:37] talking about parking and I take that point that we need to stay focused on

[1:40:40] that. I do want to just remind everybody that, you know, I think we we need to

[1:40:46] look at the make sure we're looking at this globally and that, you know, we're

[1:40:50] it's not just about putting money into parking. It's going to be about, you

[1:40:52] know, a commitment to that building in the future and, etc., etc. So,

[1:40:56] » it's just some forward thinking and if we have two two-ish years left on the

[1:41:01] lease, it gives us some runway to to start some planning on that and have

[1:41:05] those discussions. >> Could I just circle back to B? We were

[1:41:09] we were coming up with um a punch list of things to look into and talk to.

[1:41:13] » And I thought at one point I heard that maybe some of the the residents down

[1:41:17] here are even unaware of you know that that that the historical

[1:41:21] society is having an issue even though I'm hearing that it's been an issue for

[1:41:24] at least three years. But if they're unaware of it, is there a way that the

[1:41:27] town could send out just like a pretty generic mailer to the these um

[1:41:32] neighborhood to say, "Hey, do you guys have your when when is your um monthly

[1:41:38] meeting typically? Is it like every third?"

[1:41:40] » Uh first first Tuesday of the month. >> First, so the first Tuesday of the

[1:41:44] month, you know, if if possible, could you make the lot available and and just

[1:41:48] see if what kind of response you get from that?

[1:41:52] We've got a we've got a function coming up in two weeks or on Friday, Saturday,

[1:41:56] and Sunday. >> So So that might I mean, if those are

[1:41:59] oneoff things, but if if you know if it's the first

[1:42:02] » Sorry, what was it again? Tuesday. The first Tuesday of every month, you know,

[1:42:06] you're having a parking issue and that's a standing thing, maybe just some, you

[1:42:10] know, neighborly communication is is something that's easy and and we're

[1:42:14] missing that before we start dumping tons of money.

[1:42:18] My understanding was is is the the intent of putting the parking spaces in

[1:42:24] our lease so they would be available, >> right?

[1:42:27] » And we we should not have to go out and get

[1:42:30] » if the town can send a letter on just a like a generic.

[1:42:34] » I understand you're you're saying that you guys have at least 10 people and

[1:42:38] that might not be enough for you to continue the communication.

[1:42:40] » Well, there's I believe at this point there's 13 directors.

[1:42:43] » So 13 directors. Yep. And I understand that you guys are busy doing other

[1:42:48] things, but it does sound like a communication issue is at the heart of

[1:42:52] what's going on here. And everybody has different objectives, right? The public

[1:42:56] safety's objective isn't going to align with the objective that you have that's

[1:43:00] going to align with the people who are using those spaces. But I think if

[1:43:02] everybody could at least be aware of an issue, I think that could be somewhat

[1:43:07] helpful. At least one Tuesday night a month is my hope. um you know, in

[1:43:14] addition to all of the other things we're looking into. Is that Do you think

[1:43:16] that's possible to send a letter out like that to the neighborhood?

[1:43:20] » Yeah. Or we could use our code red and probably catch

[1:43:23] » Yep. >> more of those people.

[1:43:25] » Okay. Whatever you think would be more effective on that I think would be and I

[1:43:29] don't think it has to go out every month, but just like a hey, just

[1:43:31] friendly reminder in case you're using a lot first Tuesday of every month at 7:00

[1:43:36] the historical society does have an event. And if you can make that space

[1:43:39] available, might alleviate some of the issue is what I'm hopeful for.

[1:43:44] » There'd be more dates, though. That's the catch.

[1:43:46] » No, it's not going to it's not a perfect solution,

[1:43:48] » right? >> But it it's it releases some pressure is

[1:43:51] what I'm hopeful for. >> My my reason for bringing the issue up

[1:43:54] now is is in is in anticipation of snow again in the winter.

[1:43:59] » Uh we can live with parking on the street if we have to. There's no other

[1:44:04] choice. But the way it currently configured with the

[1:44:10] with the number of cars that are in there, it uh they can't do snow removal,

[1:44:16] which means that if we get an early snowstorm, we're without parking for the

[1:44:20] whole winter. >> No, it's at this point my concern is

[1:44:25] just ant in anticipation of problem more problems in the winter. Mhm.

[1:44:31] » Um

[1:44:34] » well at the le at the very least we can look into the vehicles that we we're not

[1:44:38] sure if they're owned by anyone and we sort out what happens with those. If

[1:44:42] there's three or four of those at something and then for me I I like you

[1:44:46] know the idea of some sort of signage whether it's enforceable or not. At

[1:44:49] least I know if I'm driving by this isn't just a random parking lot for

[1:44:52] anybody. Um, and then um,

[1:44:59] » sorry, I don't know what my third point was, but it'll come back to me.

[1:45:03] » Calculating the spots that we could have if we paved it.

[1:45:05] » No, I don't know about that. I mean, that's like down [clears throat] the

[1:45:08] line if we're looking at trying to pave something. We all know, you know, we

[1:45:10] have financial issues that we have to to look into. So, that's No, it wasn't it

[1:45:16] wasn't that. It was Oh, sorry. um if you know in fact the group home seems to

[1:45:20] either have increased in volume with their vehicles or whatever's going on

[1:45:24] there. I think if we're looking at targeting a mailing, I would target that

[1:45:28] facility and just indicate, PS, this is municipal parking was meant to it's in a

[1:45:33] lease for for the historical society. If at the at least they could be mindful of

[1:45:37] it because to Colleen's point, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't even

[1:45:41] know. >> If all random people are parking there,

[1:45:44] there's vehicles that we all know aren't moving for years. Anyone's going to park

[1:45:48] there, of course. Right. Why not? There's one Toyota that sits in the

[1:45:53] middle of the front that like I say it hasn't moved since sometime last

[1:45:58] October, November. >> I think we all already agree like at

[1:46:02] least looked at that about further. Yeah. uh in in regards to to the Nelson

[1:46:09] Library, I will take another look at the uh floor plan, but I looked at it eight

[1:46:17] years ago in Eman even using the entire facility. It was it was it would have

[1:46:23] required us to we we took about a 30% reduction in space moving from the

[1:46:29] townhouse to to South Grafton but the floor plan was

[1:46:35] open so it >> you [clears throat] didn't lose as much.

[1:46:39] Uh when we did look at Nelson the the floor plan was terrible. uh you you're

[1:46:45] back to a number of rooms and it it just doesn't make for an easy flow on a

[1:46:53] exhibits. So I I will take another look at it, but uh I

[1:47:00] not confident that you're going to get much of a different answer out of it.

[1:47:04] » Yeah, just ask that you you know look and try and be open-minded. Um, you

[1:47:09] know, looking at the those reports, they are pretty comparable in square footage,

[1:47:13] the two the two buildings, but like you said,

[1:47:16] » the library has much a much more open floor plan than than the other. But,

[1:47:20] » um, >> yeah, maybe maybe there's something that

[1:47:23] can be done with that, too. >> Um, okay. So, I think um my suggestion

[1:47:30] is going to be that we have a few items that in our punch list here that Evan

[1:47:35] can go through and and we'll start to get some answers on some of these

[1:47:38] things. Um, we'll add this back to a future agenda so we can check in on how

[1:47:43] the progress of those things are going. And then we'll we'll also keep the

[1:47:47] historical society updated as to, you know, as that information rolls in and,

[1:47:51] you know, make sure you're aware next time it's going to be on the agenda and

[1:47:54] we're going to discuss it and all those things and we'll see what what sort of

[1:47:58] progress we can make with this. >> Okay.

[1:48:01] Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> Yeah. Thank you for coming in.

[1:48:08] » Okay. Um, next up we have the uh street light locations on Clear View Street.

[1:48:19] » Mhm. >> We talked about this briefly earlier.

[1:48:22] Um, seemed like this was part of a road acceptance.

[1:48:26] » Yeah. Yeah. Stand by for one second. I think

[1:48:35] » [snorts]

[1:48:45] » Neil Rybecki. See, is there a Neory Becky here?

[1:48:49] » Yep. >> Oh, I mean [clears throat] I have one on

[1:48:52] the list. [laughter]

[1:48:56] There's nobody on Zoom. [clears throat]

[1:49:02] Essentially, what this is, this is a project that was started by uh Fiona

[1:49:08] [snorts] before her departure. Um and so it it

[1:49:12] appears that um

[1:49:17] you know what, let's let's push this to a future agenda.

[1:49:21] » All right, easy enough. >> Because I I thought Mr. uh Neil was

[1:49:26] going to be here to speak to it. >> Okay.

[1:49:28] » So, I didn't uh review enough, so let's just move it.

[1:49:33] » That's great. Okay. Earmark survey results.

[1:49:37] Um it was

[1:49:42] I would I was pleased with the um feedback that we got and the the level

[1:49:47] of engagement. I feel like we you got got pretty pretty good engagement from

[1:49:52] the town overall on this uh for for you know compared to some of our other

[1:49:57] outreach sess sessions and whatnot. Um

[1:50:03] yeah I don't know how we want to kick off this discussion. I went through um

[1:50:08] the responses that that Amber provided us

[1:50:11] with and and put them into, you know, numerical order from the highest

[1:50:15] percentages to the lowest percentages. And um throughout each one, you know, in

[1:50:22] the first choice category, water treatment facilities was first uh at

[1:50:27] 59.4%, 4%, municipal roof projects at 12%, adding sidewalks at 11.3, and then

[1:50:35] funding additional funding for safe streets and roads for all at 10.2.

[1:50:40] Um, while the order of those four things change throughout the the eight options,

[1:50:45] um they are the the same top four in the second choice in a slightly reordered

[1:50:50] fashion. And then in the third choice, they are the top five um with aquatic

[1:50:55] invasives edging the water treatment uh for that fourth spot. So those four

[1:51:00] things it felt like to me were um important to consider in sending our

[1:51:06] request. Um I don't know if we want to if we want to limit it to four or you

[1:51:11] know simply provide them like say the list of eight and this is

[1:51:16] uh you know kind of give them again a ranking um an overall ranking for for

[1:51:22] the order of importance for the town. Guess I'll just open that up for some

[1:51:26] discussion and see what y'all think.

[1:51:32] I [snorts] am hesitant to

[1:51:37] provide anything other than the top choice as a

[1:51:42] request. There's risk and there's reward in that. Um but I I think we we have a a

[1:51:49] quantitative ask here. This is and and this is precipitous. 60% of respondents

[1:51:56] said that they were the most interested in funding water treatment facilities or

[1:52:01] or infrastructure. [snorts] Right? So my my my fear is that if we

[1:52:08] um structure our ask and give too many options um

[1:52:16] maybe worst case scenario is they specifically create write fund grants

[1:52:22] that that are so small because we've now taken a limited pool of money and split

[1:52:28] it up that there's not an impactful amount for anything, right? We can't

[1:52:34] actually make an action on any of that with any of that funage meaningfully. Um

[1:52:43] I I also fear um if we go with a a long list or a list at all, but you could

[1:52:50] probably convince me top three. Um that we

[1:52:56] uh ourselves look as though we are unsure about what we would like for the

[1:53:00] community and that might be less compelling for the the federal grant

[1:53:06] powers that be to actually give us anything at all.

[1:53:10] Right? Like if we if they say, "Well, the town of Grafton seems to not even be

[1:53:16] sure of what is a priority for them, like is this something we should even

[1:53:20] think about or consider >> because this is not a guaranteed pot of

[1:53:24] money. This is not a guaranteed grant. This is just an ask, right?" Um, so I

[1:53:29] think being directive and quantitative

[1:53:33] [clears throat] is is is going to be the most helpful. And part and parcel to

[1:53:37] that is I think we do kind of have to approach this like a grant, right? So

[1:53:42] just for an example, we we go and we write this up and we say 60% of our

[1:53:47] respondents have said they would like additional funding so that we can

[1:53:50] bolster our water treatment facilities or infrastructure for problem areas and

[1:53:54] this is how much money we would like and this is where we would spend the money

[1:53:58] and how and potentially who, right? Like we we'd probably have to have some sort

[1:54:02] of actual thought out plan or or or true grant proposal as it

[1:54:09] were to be as compelling as possible to do the work for them so that they're

[1:54:13] more likely to give us the fundage. And if we spread ourselves too thin, um

[1:54:18] we're less likely to be hyper compelling on every individual line item is another

[1:54:24] fear of mine. If we if we go too if we spread ourselves too thin. Anyway,

[1:54:27] that's my thought process. Um but I'm not

[1:54:32] I've just I do a lot of grants, right? So this is just a sort of an experience

[1:54:37] writing grant to the federal government. >> Um

[1:54:42] even if that's an it's in a scientific capacity, but yet still um it's it's

[1:54:47] just a watch out if we if we do the list approach.

[1:54:52] » Can I add the question? >> Sure.

[1:54:54] » Um I didn't consider it that way at all. So it's it's like very interesting to

[1:54:58] hear that. My my thought was to send top three and give compelling arguments as

[1:55:03] to why. And I think the top three would be easy enough to do, you know, with the

[1:55:06] water treatment, the roofs, and federal um safe roads. We we have compelling

[1:55:11] arguments for all three of those pretty much ready to go, I would imagine. Um

[1:55:16] but my thought of doing a list of three is like what if they're like, "Oh, well,

[1:55:20] hey, we have like these two opportunities here and they send us more

[1:55:23] money than we were anticipating." I didn't think about it your way. So now I

[1:55:28] guess I'm wondering what's more likely. Is it is it more likely

[1:55:33] that if we give them too many options they say you don't know what you're

[1:55:36] doing it or is it more likely like oh look they actually have a couple

[1:55:39] opportunities and there's some grants available for that let's send them this

[1:55:41] and again none of it's guaranteed but I guess I didn't think about it that way

[1:55:45] and now I'm wondering what's more probable.

[1:55:48] » So what we do when we work with the state on earmarks is that we give them

[1:55:53] our top three choices and ask them to pursue whatever they think is most

[1:55:58] likely or they're most most passionate about.

[1:56:01] um because if they're most passionate about it, they're they're likely to

[1:56:06] actually advocate for it. Um and they know what opportunities are going to be

[1:56:10] available and and more likely than than we are. So that's how we do it with um

[1:56:16] Senator Moore and Representative >> Meridian

[1:56:19] » and that's worked out pretty well for us.

[1:56:22] » Okay. >> So I would definitely be in favor of of

[1:56:26] sending three. >> I mean, if there's a track record, I'll

[1:56:28] take it. This is this is federal. >> No, not state. So that is also something

[1:56:34] to think about. >> Um but I will

[1:56:40] » expertise is much appreciated. >> Food security is a huge McGovern issue

[1:56:44] too and I think I saw that in one of the additional ideas. Um, so it wasn't in

[1:56:49] the survey as one of the choices, but maybe kind of do the top two that we saw

[1:56:54] in in the survey and then include something for the Grafton Food Bank or

[1:56:59] some other food security initiative in in Grafton that um could benefit. I

[1:57:05] don't know what that would be exactly. Um, funding for the senior center or I

[1:57:10] don't I don't know what that could look like. Yeah, he did a he did a

[1:57:14] refrigerator refri milk milk refrigerator

[1:57:17] » with us and he did some community harvest project

[1:57:21] » related grant work as well >> in in recent years.

[1:57:25] » Okay. >> But that personally that's why I like

[1:57:27] the here's the here's what the community is

[1:57:31] telling us is an important need. >> Um water is obviously

[1:57:35] » very important >> very important to everybody. Um

[1:57:40] and then let let that office tell us what the process is going to

[1:57:47] yield the best the best option for us to yield a positive result.

[1:57:51] » Okay. >> My my opinion

[1:57:53] » I like that. >> So does this is the suggestion there

[1:57:57] then to sort of do the opposite of what I I'm advocating for which is to be more

[1:58:03] vague and less prescriptive and say this is the goal. How is the be how would you

[1:58:08] best >> Yeah. Because in my opinion, we're not

[1:58:11] this isn't really a you're not asking for a grant. You're asking for an ear

[1:58:14] mark. >> So this is, you know, pork essentially

[1:58:17] they would call it, >> which there is in in every budget and

[1:58:21] and you want to try to get >> what we can for the residents of

[1:58:23] Grafton. So >> what you're essentially looking for is,

[1:58:27] hey, here's the in my opinion, these are the veins that the community finds most

[1:58:34] important. here's the things we have going on locally that are related to

[1:58:37] that. Right? There's your specificity a little bit.

[1:58:42] What what can you do to help us? >> Okay,

[1:58:44] » that's that's how I would fra frame it. >> I guess when you're talking about the

[1:58:51] water, you know, I would think that the water district already had a bite at

[1:58:54] this apple. I mean, they went for federal funding before they started the

[1:58:57] projects, right? >> And Yeah. and they have received some

[1:59:00] federal money, >> but as a as a as a resident, I don't

[1:59:05] think that they necessarily care that much that we've already gotten federal

[1:59:09] money. They want to see it faster. >> And I I don't know that money any amount

[1:59:12] of money is going to do that for them, right? Is part of the problem.

[1:59:16] » Yeah. So, I guess I'm just saying for residents to know that the water

[1:59:20] district already had this opportunity before they put a shovel in the ground

[1:59:24] in terms of >> I can't remember what the name of that

[1:59:27] grant is now. Draw a blank.

[1:59:32] » Might not even be a grant. Might be a loan.

[1:59:35] » I think it's a loan. >> Yeah.

[1:59:39] » Craig, you have your hand up. >> Yeah. Um just two cents. I I think

[1:59:45] um Evan's right. We got to be pretty specific about our ass so they're not

[1:59:48] guessing at it. I think that's what he said. Um, and

[1:59:54] the roofs. I love the roof idea, but I think if the the feds, you know, they're

[1:59:58] all probably going to figure out that there's, you know, state money that's,

[2:00:02] you know, grant money that's out there for roof repair. So, they may I don't

[2:00:06] know if they would um buck at that because there are state funds to repair

[2:00:11] school roofs um a program for that. So, I guess for me it would be like what we

[2:00:16] think would resonate most with the feds, whether it's, you know, public safety,

[2:00:22] the, you know, the environmental stuff like with the water chestnuts,

[2:00:27] um, the DMs, you know, feds that might resonate with them. just pick on some

[2:00:33] things that we think um they would, you know, that maybe that they funded in the

[2:00:39] past, had programs um to to help municipalities out.

[2:00:47] » Might it be helpful for us to draft a earmark request based on the survey

[2:00:53] results and bring it back to the board rather than looking at this

[2:00:57] » entire survey? We can narrow it down. >> Sure.

[2:01:01] » Okay. Okay, I think we can work on that. >> We can do that.

[2:01:05] [clears throat] >> Okay,

[2:01:07] » I'm just going to keep picking whatever the is the opposite of what Victoria

[2:01:10] said. [laughter] >> That's cool. I really like that.

[2:01:14] » So, I it's my new barometer. >> No, but it was it was helpful hearing

[2:01:17] that perspective because it's not the lens I brought to it. Um,

[2:01:22] » so was I liked I liked thinking about it that way. As a general rule, when you

[2:01:26] are going [clears throat] out for something like that, a a grant

[2:01:30] specifically, I mean, you you want to basically say, I've already done all of

[2:01:34] the planning. I've thought everything through and I know who I'm going to use

[2:01:38] for this. Trust me, >> right? And so that's kind of the lens

[2:01:42] that I'm going through it with. Um but but but but heard like there are

[2:01:49] functions and triggers that exist to already take these sorts of um inputs

[2:01:55] and create [snorts] money tree output and let's

[2:02:01] utilize that if it exists

[2:02:06] » because that what I heard is that you know how to shake the money tree. Evan,

[2:02:11] » I do work for the government. All right. So, you you would just take

[2:02:16] the the top three that you saw from there and kind of present it in a

[2:02:20] different way for us to discuss. >> Yeah, I think so. I mean, you asked the

[2:02:24] residents for their input. So, I think it's good to be honoring honoring what

[2:02:28] they asked for and >> we may be able to [clears throat]

[2:02:32] massage it a little bit. >> I I also wanted to say I love the

[2:02:36] survey. I love the responses. I love that people were taking the time and I

[2:02:40] think we should [snorts] be doing these more if we can because it it was good to

[2:02:45] read all the additional ideas for funding or just the general comments,

[2:02:49] but you know, we don't typically get 152 people showing up to a public outreach

[2:02:54] meeting, but will someone take five minutes online and provide that same

[2:02:58] amount? Oh, yes, please. I think how do we do more of these?

[2:03:02] » Yep. >> Sorry for that.

[2:03:05] » No, I mean I think it's great. It's a great way to solicit feedback.

[2:03:10] » I didn't go through I mean and write up something for all the feedback that we

[2:03:14] received, you know, in the additional ideas and whatnot, but there were there

[2:03:17] were some things that I felt like we should highlight just because they are

[2:03:20] in progress things and hopefully it just helps get the word out. You know, in uh

[2:03:25] the invasives were a big deal, not just the aquatic, but the terrestrial ones.

[2:03:29] Um you know, we do try and get those those stadium marks. We've been pretty

[2:03:33] good about getting those and and um doing our water chestnut treatment. It

[2:03:37] would be great to get some additional >> funding to to take care of some of those

[2:03:41] terrestrials. The Route 122 corridor came up a few times, which is something

[2:03:45] that, you know, we're ongoing doing ongoing work with Mass DOT over the next

[2:03:50] year as as they start to, you know, address some of those issues and get

[2:03:54] ready to repave upgrades to our emergency communications which are, you

[2:03:59] know, going to be um part of the the wreck. the regional emergency

[2:04:04] communications. Um, repairing old sidewalks, adding new

[2:04:08] green spaces and parks. Uh, for the old sidewalks, we've added them sidewalks to

[2:04:12] our asphalt management management plan in an effort to address those things.

[2:04:17] Um, new parks, green spaces are are an ongoing commitment. Um, there was a

[2:04:22] suggestion to about an independent auditor for um, municipal spending.

[2:04:27] That's something that we've discussed and are in the progress of

[2:04:29] investigating, you know. So, uh, things like that that, um, you know, were are

[2:04:34] good suggestions, but I I want to just, I guess, uh, comfort the residents to a

[2:04:40] degree that that, uh, we're already invested in some of those things and and

[2:04:44] trying to seek some answers. >> I'll call out one more, too. The

[2:04:47] protected bike lanes with physical barriers between cars and bikes. Um, I

[2:04:51] would highly suggest going down Main Street in Hopington, um, where they did

[2:04:55] implement that, and it's been a nightmare. I would strongly advocate

[2:04:59] against anything like that coming here. Um, it's really difficult for emergency

[2:05:03] vehicles to get by, cars get by. It's it creates a real pinch point and it's not

[2:05:08] even it's just not awesome the way Hopkinson implemented it.

[2:05:13] » If you're able to plan for those types of infrastructure, it's great. But

[2:05:17] trying to go back and retrofit Grafton >> would be difficult.

[2:05:22] » Okay. Um we can move on to the findings implementations of strategy to reduce

[2:05:27] fatal and serious injury motor vehicle accidents

[2:05:30] » rolls right off the tongue. >> Um yeah so and there was a little

[2:05:34] confusion on how this got back on here and for what the purpose was. Um and so

[2:05:39] it's my understanding having reviewed the previous meeting that really we were

[2:05:43] just coming back to see if anyone had any feedback before issuing this because

[2:05:47] it's in draft form now. So before issuing this in a more finite version

[2:05:54] and um before starting to implement some of the some of the discussion in in the

[2:06:01] document

[2:06:05] » I have additional >> yeah just I I think um you know going

[2:06:11] through it it was it was very well very well broken out um when you talk about

[2:06:17] developing the local road safety action plan. It seems like CMRPC would be a

[2:06:21] great partner in that. That was one of the op one of the routes that you um

[2:06:25] threw out there that we could go. Perhaps we have some hours available

[2:06:29] with them that we could, you know, put towards that.

[2:06:32] » Um establishing a fatal and serious injury crash review team seemed like a

[2:06:37] no-brainer. Um I was kind of honestly kind of surprised

[2:06:43] that we don't already have a municipal fleet distracted driving policy. Um,

[2:06:49] does that would that have any bargaining implic implications to put something

[2:06:54] like that? >> No, I don't I don't think so. I just

[2:06:55] don't think we have it. Like I don't think it's ever been added. it. I'm not

[2:07:01] going to go into it right now, but that is something that we're going to be

[2:07:03] discussing in the near future with the way that our personnel bylaw is written

[2:07:10] and versus how many municipalities have moved away from the personnel bylaw

[2:07:15] because doesn't allow us to shift very quickly because it's in bylaw form. Um,

[2:07:21] so they [snorts] wind up with a very short bylaw that has to deal with

[2:07:24] personnel and then they create another layer, right? It's usually through my

[2:07:29] office or TA office, TM office, whatever to create indiv, you know, these these

[2:07:35] subset policies because there's probably a number of areas that we are lacking in

[2:07:42] local policy as far as for our staff. I mean, that would take us a very short

[2:07:46] amount of time to push out. >> Yeah.

[2:07:49] » The bargaining component only becomes if they if it's used for discipline.

[2:07:52] » So, we'd have to figure out what we're how we would approach that.

[2:07:56] Um the everything listed under uh 13, the strengthen transportation safety

[2:08:02] requirements and developmental review. Um is that more to like codify how we

[2:08:08] how we do all those things because a lot of them seemed like they're current

[2:08:12] practices whether they're something that's legally mandated or good

[2:08:17] practice. Yeah, I think that we have a lot of these things um that we're

[2:08:22] already doing, but it would kind of codify that in a way that's [snorts]

[2:08:28] every board committee and staff member knows that these are priorities when

[2:08:32] we're doing um I liken it to, and this is not the same thing, but um you know,

[2:08:38] I had sent a memo to the planning board and the zoning board to ask them to stop

[2:08:43] adding fences to developments um like to the entryways because they would add

[2:08:48] these really pretty like split rail fences or all these decor decorative

[2:08:52] fences and then we don't we have no means to maintain any of these things

[2:08:55] and we wind up owning fences that we don't so we put out a memo that just

[2:08:59] says look at that you can have a fence there but it's standardized and this is

[2:09:02] what it is so that we can go to Home Depot and get a post and put it in and

[2:09:07] fix it. um and that was very wellreceived. So it would be kind of

[2:09:10] taking that idea and just reiterating some of these things that are probably

[2:09:16] already happening in practice but bringing them back to the forefront and

[2:09:19] saying here here's what graft and values in in this particular area. That's the

[2:09:24] intent there. >> No, it makes a lot of sense. Um the only

[2:09:27] other I wouldn't even say concerning ones but um I wanted to highlight uh

[2:09:32] number 10 which is conduct datadriven high visibility enforcement.

[2:09:37] » Yeah. Um because I I I do think that's a great idea. Uh my understanding is that

[2:09:44] currently, you know, our traffic enforcement hours are pretty minimal

[2:09:47] compared to the other, you know, the the necessary police work that's happening.

[2:09:52] Um so, you know, I think is is that's something that's discussed. We need to

[2:09:56] just consider that from a budgetary perspective. um you know and and whether

[2:10:01] that's asking the chief to revise the way he currently all lots some of his

[2:10:05] funding or um if we're going to you know seek additional annual public safety

[2:10:10] funding through the budget as part of that process. Um and then 15 uh install

[2:10:17] visual traffic monitoring cameras at high-risisk intersections. Uh I thought

[2:10:21] you really detailed our approach to that very well. I think it it would require

[2:10:26] that and a very, you know, careful roll out with lots of public outreach and

[2:10:30] education based on how the whole flock conversation went. You know, this is

[2:10:34] something that's drastically different, but we need for people to understand

[2:10:37] that and and understand, you know, what the where it's coming from. So, that was

[2:10:42] that was it for me.

[2:10:47] Anything else? Okay, we can move on then. um

[2:10:53] representative for the CMMO information and member selection. Uh this was

[2:10:59] something that was emailed over. The CMMO is a central mass metropolitan

[2:11:05] planning organization. They uh responsible for prioritizing

[2:11:09] federal funds on roads, bridges, transit in, you know, Worcester and the

[2:11:15] surrounding suburbs. Um it was asked if we'd consider um at least sending a

[2:11:22] representative um from from the Grafton board there. So uh is that something

[2:11:29] that we would be interested in? And if so, is there somebody who has an

[2:11:32] interest in fielding that position?

[2:11:37] » I'm going to throw out there that I cannot attend that day and time. Five

[2:11:41] o'clock is really hard for me on Thursdays. I'm still cleaning teeth.

[2:11:45] It's not great timing. >> Um

[2:11:49] » Craig's hands up. [clears throat] >> Craig, go ahead.

[2:11:53] » Um just a suggestion. Could we um could we nominate our town planner

[2:11:59] um as our representative for that? >> That's a good question. I

[2:12:03] » mean, I know we can we can appoint people that are not on our board to

[2:12:08] represent a position, >> right? The designate.

[2:12:11] » Yeah. but

[2:12:14] » he has a background in this kind of stuff.

[2:12:16] » Email does say specifically a select board member. Town administrators and

[2:12:19] town managers are also included, but the select board member um it looks like

[2:12:23] they're looking for somebody from this board.

[2:12:27] » It's a good idea though. >> My my question and you not to burden

[2:12:33] anybody further. I was I was wondering if we should handcuff this to one of our

[2:12:39] CMRPC reps as well because CMRPC is one of the organizations

[2:12:45] that sends representatives to the CMMPO along with representatives from Mass Dot

[2:12:52] and the uh WRTA. So, it it seems like an area where there'd be a little bit of

[2:12:56] overlap. Um, if you're already our rep to the CMRPC that that this could

[2:13:03] dovetail easily, but I don't want to make that commitment for anybody either.

[2:13:08] Um, that said, we have two reps. I am one of the CMRPC reps. Um,

[2:13:15] I could should be able to make the the CMMPO meetings. Um, but I don't want to

[2:13:21] deny somebody else that opportunity if if they're looking for it.

[2:13:26] » I'm all set. >> So, I could attend this on the 24th. I

[2:13:34] have a conflict that has come up this upcoming Thursday that's going to

[2:13:40] make attending the quarterly meeting difficult, but not impossible for me.

[2:13:45] Um,

[2:13:49] » would you be able to make this Thursday if I attend?

[2:13:52] » Yeah, I'm I'm definitely going to the the quarterly meeting Thursday. So,

[2:13:56] » okay, perfect. >> If if if you're down with that, that

[2:13:59] could be something that we can coordinate offline, too. I can catch you

[2:14:02] up on, you know, what happened at any of the CMRPC meetings if you're not able to

[2:14:06] attend and then you can take that information here. You really anybody, I

[2:14:10] guess. But >> that works for it.

[2:14:12] » Yeah, I'm settled. open the war. >> No, [laughter] but this this meeting in

[2:14:17] particular is I I wish I could go to it because they're talking about federal

[2:14:21] funding for roadway, bridges, transit, transportation, and that's all part of

[2:14:25] our earmark request. So, if there's, >> you know, some language or if they

[2:14:29] mention something for us to be including. I I would love to

[2:14:34] capitalize on that information. >> It'd definitely be good to be aware of.

[2:14:38] My [clears throat] my gut is that is this is very forward

[2:14:42] facing you know like over the next 10 years what what are we projecting what

[2:14:46] projects are we prioritizing that type of stuff you know just thinking about

[2:14:50] like >> the railroad bridge in particular and

[2:14:54] how many times we had to approve the Chrissy grant as they you know as uh

[2:14:59] Grafton Upton apply applied for that siding and we just kind of waited for

[2:15:02] that project to come up every year but who knows um but Yeah, great. We can

[2:15:08] Victoria's on board. Moving on. >> Thank you, Victoria.

[2:15:11] » Okay. >> I move the board vote to have Victoria

[2:15:15] Duckworth represent us at the CMMO information and member selection

[2:15:19] meeting. >> Second.

[2:15:20] » Motion made second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Miss

[2:15:24] Roy. >> I.

[2:15:25] » Miss Duckworth. >> I.

[2:15:26] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I.

[2:15:27] » Miss Dolphin. I. >> Dolphin. I.

[2:15:29] » Jefferson. I. >> Congratulations. Thank you for

[2:15:31] presenting us. >> You're so welcome.

[2:15:33] » Okay. And let's uh take another motion to open the fall town meeting warrant.

[2:15:36] » I move the board vote to open the fall town meeting warrant.

[2:15:39] » Second. >> Okay. Motion seconded. Any discussion?

[2:15:42] Hearing none. All those in favor? Miss Roy.

[2:15:44] » I. >> Miss Duckworth.

[2:15:45] » I. >> Miss Foley.

[2:15:46] » Foley. >> I.

[2:15:46] » Mr. Dolphin. A. >> Dolphin. I.

[2:15:48] » Jefferson. I. It's open. >> Okay. Select board reports.

[2:15:56] » I can't think of anything. >> Anybody?

[2:15:59] » Um, I'll throw a thank you to uh Troop 107. I got to um sit in on an Eagle

[2:16:05] board of review for Lucas Pelgrren last weekend. Um of interest to the to this

[2:16:10] board. Uh Lucas built the second 48 foot equestrian pedestrian bridge over at

[2:16:15] Hassan Ames Woods. Um so both of those upgrades are now complete. He worked

[2:16:19] with the trails community to get this done. And he's also a camp counselor for

[2:16:23] Grafton Recre over the summer. So um pretty dynamite kid.

[2:16:29] Young adult. I shouldn't say kid, young adult.

[2:16:33] to your report. >> Yeah, great.

[2:16:36] Wrap it up, Andy. It's getting late. All right, so I'm going to skip um so I've

[2:16:41] got Route 122. We're probably not going to hear anything for the next month to

[2:16:45] two months, I would think. Uh out of Masto, I'm going to leave it in here so

[2:16:48] that we don't lose track of it, but I don't think we're going to see uh a heck

[2:16:52] of a lot coming out. There's a lot of um planning work to be done. Um so, George

[2:16:58] Hill construction update, this will be on the website. uh tomorrow morning. Um

[2:17:04] we will be doing this monthly. That is our goal. Uh and this should give a

[2:17:10] breakdown week by week of what they'll be doing and where. Um but I also

[2:17:15] created an overview. I'm going to just unless anybody wants me to read this out

[2:17:20] loud, but it's essentially they're doing drainage for the rest of the month.

[2:17:25] Um and that'll >> subject to change.

[2:17:28] » Subject to change without notice. I put it on the bottom because we don't

[2:17:31] necessarily control that. Um, but I also created kind of a a phased plan. There

[2:17:39] are no dates in the phase plan. And that's because [snorts] as we move into

[2:17:43] fall and winter, if we have a mild winter, um, crews will then be pulled

[2:17:47] off of other work and we will make better time. Um, or we may have a bad

[2:17:54] winter and make less progress. So um but these are the these this is essentially

[2:18:01] what's going to happen. Um so we did the tree work on the full length. Again

[2:18:05] there may be more tree work to come but the preliminary work is done. Um we are

[2:18:11] currently working on completing the widening and drainage from Leland to

[2:18:15] Soaphill. Once that's complete we will pulverize the road, grade it and put a

[2:18:21] binder on it which is essentially the base coat of of asphalt.

[2:18:26] » [snorts] >> Phase two is soap hill to Miriam. We

[2:18:29] will same as we did on Leland to soap. We'll widen it. We will install the

[2:18:35] drainage and we will pulverize and binder that section. We will then do FA

[2:18:39] Mountain. We will do soap pill and then we will pave the full area as the top

[2:18:45] goes. Um [clears throat] crews may turn up at other places at

[2:18:51] other times as they make their way through the project. So this is a

[2:18:56] overview uh purpose only.

[2:19:01] Other updates, we finished the senior center ramp. That came out great.

[2:19:05] » We also uh finished the installation of the pavilion over by the senior center.

[2:19:10] Um we do have some picnic tables off to the right that will be moved back under

[2:19:13] this pavilion. And then we have um sourced

[2:19:18] uh ADA accessible uh picnic tables that that have spaces uh on either side for

[2:19:24] wheelchair or other accessibility. So now that we have finished this, we can

[2:19:30] start uh hopefully doing some landscaping around this and finished

[2:19:34] landscaping around the exercise court because it'll all be kind of contiguous

[2:19:39] over there. Um so this is this is good. We've been waiting for this for for

[2:19:44] quite some time. >> Looks great.

[2:19:45] » But I think it I think it I think it does look great.

[2:19:48] » It's a really nice structure. >> Yeah, I like it and I think people are

[2:19:51] going to enjoy it, both staff and residents and senior center folks. So,

[2:19:56] uh very happy with that. Uh other updates, there's no changes to this

[2:20:02] slide. Staffing updates because it never ends. Uh Amy Barry, our town clerk, is

[2:20:08] leaving. Uh we will be posting that position this week and I would request

[2:20:13] that the select board uh get a volunteer to do the exit interview.

[2:20:20] » Anybody want to >> I mean I've done a number of them. I'm

[2:20:23] happy to do it but I'm fine if someone else wants to take it too.

[2:20:28] » I haven't done one so I don't I don't mind doing one. Amry, do you want to

[2:20:32] kind of give me a rundown of how you handle them?

[2:20:36] We have a we have a form which is a template now and just have a

[2:20:40] conversation. >> Amber will send it over.

[2:20:43] » Okay. Yeah, I don't mind doing it either.

[2:20:46] » Okay. Um

[2:20:51] Bob Doma is retiring. That's not new information, but I'm putting this on

[2:20:55] here uh just to kind of keep track of it. Um we're going to try to post that

[2:20:59] position this week. That's our goal anyways. [snorts]

[2:21:02] Um and then Paul Canoyer is retiring as DPW director. We have been working

[2:21:07] internally on a different management plan. So we are going to not fill the

[2:21:11] DPW director position. Uh I am going to serve as the DPW director uh on a trial

[2:21:18] basis. That's uh allowable under the charter. Um so Highway Cemetery Sewer

[2:21:24] and Engineering will report to me uh until about May 1st. Again, this is a

[2:21:29] trial basis. We're going to see how this goes. Um, if we get to May 1st or a

[2:21:35] little earlier and it's not working, then we will have a conversation about

[2:21:38] posting that position. Um, but there is a considerable savings to the town if we

[2:21:43] don't fill the position and given what we've been discussing, we're going to

[2:21:49] see how it goes. If we can save folks some some money, we we will.

[2:21:54] And that's it. >> Your hands are going to be full. Brian,

[2:21:58] Daryl, Kevin. >> Yep. is full already because I've been

[2:22:01] we've been pretty much doing it. We've been piloting it a little bit and then

[2:22:05] um that did allow me to I shifted some day-to-day management over to William so

[2:22:12] we can kind of get his feet wet on some of that

[2:22:14] » great work as well. So, um yeah, it's been

[2:22:18] » I will say the three names that you mentioned are all, you know, seasoned

[2:22:23] Yep. >> competent guys that hopefully will make

[2:22:26] your job easy. >> Hopefully. Okay, that section [laughter]

[2:22:29] that section of your >> hopefully hopefully

[2:22:31] » well I put it out into the universe. >> I appreciate it will be

[2:22:34] » take all the help I can get. >> Any correspondence anybody wish to

[2:22:39] discuss? Take a motion for meeting minutes.

[2:22:43] » I move the board vote to approve the meeting minutes for February 17th of

[2:22:47] 2026 as written. A second. >> Okay. Motion been seconded. Any

[2:22:50] discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Miss

[2:22:53] Roy. >> I.

[2:22:53] » Miss Duckworth. >> I miss Foley.

[2:22:55] » Foley. I >> Mr. Do.

[2:22:57] » Dawan. I >> Jefferson. I take a motion to adjurnn.

[2:23:00] » So moved. >> Second.

[2:23:02] » Okay. By roll call, Miss Roy. >> I.

[2:23:04] » Miss Stockworth. >> I.

[2:23:05] » Miss Foley. >> Foley. I

[2:23:06] » Miss Dan. >> Dolphin. I

[2:23:08] » Jefferson. I We are ajourned.

Select Board 9-8-26

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