[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.