[0:00] It being. 7:00 August 8th, 2026. I called the Board of Selectmen meeting to order. If you all care to join me in a pledge of allegiance.

[0:10] I pledge allegiance to the flag.

[0:12] Of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

[0:26] All right.

[0:30] That being said, the next item on our agenda is public comment. And I'm going to make a little announcement here in the agenda as we get through the meeting tonight. As chair, I'm going to entertain members of the community to come forward, identify yourselves and speak to the tip. After the board has had their questions answered by our representative from tech, that's our engineer for the community. He's going to do a presentation to the board. Explain that what's what's being proposed at this point. It's still in developmental so stages. So, but I will give the community an opportunity to come up and address their concerns or ask questions. At that time after the board has had their turn. First turn and any members of the Planning Board, then the then the community can follow suit. So is there any item other than that item that somebody wants to speak to the board on tonight as far as public comment? If not, I'll move on. All right, I guess not.

[1:35] Next item on the agenda is the approval of the August 18th minutes.

[1:44] I'll entertain a motion. I'll move that the Board of Selectmen approve the minutes for August 18th, 2026.

[1:54] And the Executive Session meeting for August 2018 as well. 2026.

[2:00] Do I hear a second? S2:

[2:01] All those in favor?

[2:02] Aye, aye.

[2:03] All right. For an affirmative one absent.

[2:09] Next item is the swearing in of our new fire chief, Chief Kenneth Sellers by Michelle Jenkins. And would Chief Sellers come up? Michelle Jenkins, our town clerk.

[2:29] You just raise your right hand and repeat after me. I cannot. I cannot promise to uphold.

[2:36] Promise to uphold.

[2:37] The Constitution of the United States.

[2:39] The Constitution of the United States.

[2:41] The laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[2:43] The laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[2:45] And the bylaws of the town of Oxford.

[2:47] And the bylaws of the town of Oxford.

[2:49] I cannot.

[2:50] I cannot.

[2:51] Do solemnly swear and affirm.

[2:53] Do solemnly swear and affirm.

[2:55] That I will faithfully.

[2:57] That I will faithfully.

[2:58] And impartially discharge.

[3:00] And impartially discharge.

[3:02] And perform all the duties.

[3:03] And perform all the duties.

[3:05] Incumbent upon me.

[3:07] Incumbent upon me.

[3:09] As fire chief of the town of Oxford.

[3:11] As fire chief of the town of Oxford.

[3:12] According to the best of my abilities.

[3:14] According to the best of my abilities.

[3:16] And understanding.

[3:17] And understanding.

[3:18] In good.

[3:19] Faith, in good faith.

[3:20] So help me God.

[3:21] So help me God.

[3:21] Congratulations.

[3:22] Thank you.

[3:33] Would you.

[3:33] Like to.

[3:34] Say a few words?

[3:36] Thank you. Um, it seems like, you know, only a couple of weeks ago, we were doing this as the interim chief. It's been eight months. Um, it's been a fabulous ride.

[3:51] The men and women of Oxford Fire and EMS, um, strive every day to work their hardest for the townspeople of Oxford. Um, it is a pleasure and an honor for me to lead them. And I look forward to coming to work every single day and leading them, um, to support the town in the best way we can.

[4:11] Thank you.

[4:12] Thank you. Chief.

[4:13] Thanks, chief.

[4:14] I had the privilege of meeting Chief Sellars on my front lawn about 15 years ago. We had a chimney fire, and I tell the story. When I met him, he was directing the, uh, the crew as far as they were on the roof, in the attic and scurrying all over. But one thing I've told many times, and it is something that is worth repeating. As they secured the area and told us we were safe to reenter the home. Two of the last two firefighters came out and they said, you're fine. You're going to probably have your chimney rebuilt, but you're safe tonight. And we apologize for soiling your carpet. And I thought, wow, they're apologizing. They saved my house and they're apologizing for soiling the carpet. That says a lot of our department, the empathy. And it hasn't changed over the years. And you've got a great bunch of people. And it's funny that it's not funny. It's sad that we don't really appreciate public safety, fire and police until we need them. And then we really appreciate them. And I, as a board member, I appreciate you 365 days a year. Thank you for your your your effort and your dedication, chief.

[5:21] Not my dedication. It's theirs.

[5:24] Any other board member want to speak? Well, thank you again.

[5:28] Thank you. Congrats.

[5:30] Congrats.

[5:41] Well, following that, we have Senator Ryan Fattman, who's going to be presenting some citations for a firefighter, Scott Rudman, advanced EMT of the year, firefighter Hilary Town Public Communication of the year, and dispatcher Stephanie Devaki's, EMS Communications Specialist of the year. We're blessed with three outstanding individuals, uh, that are being recognized by the state this evening. And that speaks to what I just said prior with with our department.

[6:17] So, Senator Fattman, would you like to come up and say a few words? S6:

[9:55] Congratulations. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Senator. Thank you Senator.

[10:03] All right. The next item on our agenda is the donation. Acceptance for the Oxford Community Center was received $209, $209 for their fitness program.

[10:15] I move that the Board of Selectmen approve and accept the Oxford Community Centers donation of $209 in support of the fitness program.

[10:25] Second.

[10:26] All those in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. Next item is the vote to order the investigation by our animal control officer for a dangerous nuisance dog complaint filed by the animal control officer, Kathleen Kelly Flynn. The owner of the dog is Heather McDonald at 165 Old Webster Road, Oxford, mass. 01540.

[10:55] I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the investigation of dangerous nuisance dogs owned by Heather MacDonald of 165 Old Webster Road, Oxford, mass.

[11:07] 01540 I hear a second.

[11:10] Second.

[11:10] All those in favor?

[11:12] Aye.

[11:13] Passes unanimously. All right. The next item let's say this is 730, right? Pass over this. Yeah yeah yeah. It's it's only we're going to pass over the next item because it's not 730 yet. We'll come back to that because it's a public hearing. John Dixon So now we're up to, uh, John Dixon from tech. He's going to come up and address the board on the proposed tip, and he's the project manager for tech Associate consulting engineering on the Oxford Main Street Transportation Improvement Program at TIP. And, Mr. Dixon, do you want to come up here? There you are. Thank you.

[12:09] Um, I'm John Dixon, um, as you mentioned, the project manager at DC. This is John Rockwell. He's a principal at tech as well. Um, and we've, uh, we have some slides to just go through where the project is currently at and we'll go through that and then talk through any, any areas you want to discuss with. Oh yeah.

[12:45] All right. I'll just grab this.

[12:51] All right. So, uh, Main Street. I think most people here are probably familiar with it. Um, this is a rendering that we've done, uh, to show, you know, what we're expecting, especially around the intersection with Charlton Street and Sutton Ave. Um, but essentially our project location, um, it's going. It's about a mile long, uh, centered around the signalized intersection. Essentially, what we're looking at from Fairlawn Ave to Front Street is essentially the town owned portion of the roadway. Um, the project does extend a small bit into the state layout. Um, and that's just to allow things to transition well into it. Um, some of the project goals, uh, to introduce safe transportation alternatives, um, have a more accessible town center. Vehicle speeds are one of the biggest challenges on this roadway. Um, then the safety that comes with that. Um, there's a crash history on this roadway that is substantial. And that's part of why, you know, it was prioritized by the state to want to fund part of this project. Um, we also want to improve signal operations. We want to limit the delays at the signal while making it safer, because safety is really one of the priorities when it comes to a project like this to really reduce the amount of crashes, especially with pedestrian crashes, you know, just in the analysis period for pedestrians and bicyclists were hit in the six year period that was studied. That's, that's substantial. Um, so we also want to minimize impacts to parking. We want to create an attractive town center that preserves some of that historic character and introduce landscape streetscape items throughout the process to make it a livable, walkable community. Um, and to enhance what it already is.

[14:47] So our next steps, we're looking at a design submission in the spring of next year for the 75% design, 100% design would then be in the summer final design in the fall. It would then be advertised in the winter between 27 and 28. Uh, right now we're looking around February for that. And then construction would begin spring of 2028 and go for about two years.

[15:13] This is just a more detailed version of that same timeline, breaking it down with more specific details. That's more there for reference to the view. Um, so we can go through that in more detail if there's any questions. Essentially, that's just the long form of this timeline. Um, the total estimated construction cost for this project is $21 million. Um, that cost doesn't include the right of way acquisition and it doesn't include design, which I understand, which is now in majority covered by a earmark from the government, from the federal government, I should say. Um, it is the project is programed on the statewide tip. And so what that means is that there is a year that the state is planning to fund this already. It is on the schedule for fiscal year 2028.

[16:08] Um, and then also for fiscal year 29 because it's a two year project. Um, so the construction portion of it, uh, federal aid would cover 80% and state funds would cover the other 20%.

[16:23] Um, and this is sort of a typical cross section of what the roadway would look like through most of the road where we, where you have, uh, 11 foot travel lanes going in both directions, eight foot parking lanes on either side, uh, separated six foot bike lanes on either side, and then concrete sidewalks, which for the most part will remain similar to where they are now. So there were still keeping them towards the edge of the right of way to keep that historic character to it.

[16:54] Um, just walking through the project, we can show some slides here, but essentially, um, this would be looking down at it. Uh, Don't. This is this is diagrammatic. There's the the bike lanes wouldn't actually be painted blue. This is just to highlight where they are. Um, they would just be asphalt. Um, but you can see where the sidewalk and a few locations. Uh, the existing sidewalk is outside of the right of way. So that would be moved in just to the edge of the right of way. Uh, but for the most part, the sidewalk would be staying in a similar spot to where it currently is. Um, continuing along as we go, we're proposing new bus stops, um, near, uh, the housing area. Um, and that was Oxford Housing Authority. Right. Um, that was through coordination with the senior center. Um MWTA and the town we were able to meet, go through and decide, you know, look through where is there an appropriate opportunity to increase bus service and try to, you know, Utilize the busses that are already running through Main Street more efficiently. Give more opportunity. They're.

[18:12] Coming closer to Charlton Street and Sutton Ave. We're, you know, keeping a lot of the angled parking. It is reduced a bit in order to move it away from the intersection with safety concerns of vehicles backing out. Um, you know, part of this being funded by MassDOT, we do need to have them on board for the safety aspect of it. And so that, you know, comes with certain requirements. Um, and part of that is keeping parking a safe distance away from intersections. Uh, things along those lines. So, you know, in areas where cars are currently parking closer to driveways than they legally should be, you know, we're showing that there would be less parking because of that. Um, the other side, you know, we are looking at left and right turn lanes in both directions on Main Street. There was a question at the design public hearing about incorporating a right turn lane on Sutton Ave. That's something that we're going to evaluate going forward. Um, it's just that's one of the comments that came in from the public that we want to, you know, evaluate in addition to what's been done here. So this, this is still a dynamic plan. This could still change. Um, it's not set in stone essentially, but there's certain aspects like that that we want to evaluate and make sure that this is the best project that it can be. Um, you know, formalizing some of the bus stops that are already existing, you know, providing landing spaces for Ada accessibility onto the busses, carrying along and keeping a lot of, um, uh, same sort of pull off off near Church Street, shifting the parking to the other side. Incorporating Ada accessible parking spaces near the park. So a handful of things along those lines, and then incorporating a new crosswalk at Front Street, where the project will tie back into the existing state highway layout. So that's just a very quick, broad overview of the changes that are being proposed. The project does include full depth pavement reconstruction because the pavement is in pretty bad shape at this point. The project actually started with a mill and overlay. And as the pavement has deteriorated more, it's turned into a full depth reclamation, which MassDOT, through the tip process, will fund that full reconstruction.

[20:40] So that's what I have as far as slides to go through. Happy to to walk through any of them with the board with any questions. Um, and we can go through in more detail. Um, anything about the safety or costs or right of way, anything like that, you have specific questions on. I'm happy to go through any of those in more detail.

[21:00] So with the timeline right now, yes, this is just a concept basically. So nothing is in stone. We have, as you delineated in the beginning of your presentation, another 75% of design work in front of us. So.

[21:15] Um.

[21:16] Well, if I may. Yeah. Um, so we've submitted 25% plans. So we're going from 25 to 75. Those numbers are not exactly, um, it's more that we're probably a little beyond 50% going to 75. Um, to as far as design work goes.

[21:33] Well, let me, let me ask the question. I'm sure that's on a lot of people's minds, including mine is how much more time do we have as a community to voice any other additional concerns we may have or any ideas we may have? Because I have two letters here from the Planning Board and a letter that was addressed to us as a board. It's in our packet, I think, uh, delineating some concerns from the Planning Board, who I will allow to speak on their if they're here tonight. Any member and, uh, our planner, um, and I know that one of the concerns is loss of parking. Uh, I know you mentioned in front of Days Inn and the diagonal parking that's there in front of subway. We're going to lose some of those spots.

[22:20] Yes. Yeah. Um, some of those spots would be lost in order to provide, you know, the, the safer options that MassDOT is looking for. And, you know, ultimately our job is we represent the town. Our job is to balance what MassDOT will accept and still pay for with what the town is looking for. And so our we're, you know.

[22:40] I know you're, you're you work for us. You're, you're, you're hired to advocate for our.

[22:45] Yep.

[22:46] Okay.

[22:46] And so there is still time for things to be incorporated. You know, we want to have any changes for the 75%, and if there are substantial changes, we would probably bring those to MassDOT ahead of that 75% submission to get, you know, some early approval on it.

[23:03] My understanding and one question I have is I heard and you can tell us, and I didn't see it here in the renderings, they're going to bury all the utilities.

[23:13] Uh, no that's okay.

[23:15] No, that's a rumor. I'm trying to dispel the rumors from fact. Okay. So the the wooden poles will still be there.

[23:22] They will be, um, during the utility walk, there was some discussion that some utility poles that were there were utility poles on both sides of the road could be consolidated to one side of the road. That is a little bit more up to the utility companies as far as what they're willing to work through. Um, so we haven't heard formally from them. Uh, what they're willing to do on that, but there is the potential for that, which is a benefit from the safety perspective. You have, well, less things to run into.

[23:52] You mentioned, you know, the safety issue with the queue. They're too close to that intersection as far as where CVS is. And I and I know for a fact that we're not legally. And I can defer to our police chief here. I don't think we're supposed to turn left and cross a double yellow line. I think that's illegal. It happens on a daily basis. I've been guilty of it. So, you know, don't I'm not proud of it. I normally go around the Oxford insurance. There's a little enclosed parking area, hit the stop sign and then turn right and go down Barton Street. So I don't cross that double yellow line. I'm wondering how that safety issue is going to be addressed in this layout because.

[24:32] Is there going to be a barrier there? Some yellow paint doesn't seem to be a prohibitive factor as far as people crossing the road.

[24:39] Oh, we don't have a barrier proposed at this point.

[24:42] I'm just wondering, how do you.

[24:43] Yeah.

[24:44] Police that.

[24:45] We did have in there to formalize the no left turn coming out of there. One of the things that we can also look at is angling the driveway to not allow. Well.

[24:55] Yeah, you can, you can make.

[24:56] A juggernaut right.

[24:58] Within, you know, with what's within the right of way. And, you know, along those lines. Um, the, the width going across, you know, that does present some challenges as far as putting a solid barrier in. It's something we can look at, but there's not with the angled parking. Let me back up. Uh, there's not a lot of space to work with, but we could see what's possible.

[25:21] The other thing is diagonal parking. I mean, you're talking about losing some spots that are diagonal. That's the only spot we have on on Main Street. That's diagonal. Everything else is parallel. Yeah.

[25:41] Was there any thought of putting diagonal parking somewhere other than that area where the intersection is closer to Jocelyn Park, say, or is there any was that brought up in discussion to increase parking? S8:

[26:04] You know? All right. We're thinking, you know, this is our village overlay. And hopefully over the next ten years or longer, uh, we're hoping that some of that in time that will evolve into maybe some shops, whether it's a bakery or a ice cream shop or something like that. Small businesses we want to attract in downtown and then parking is the one of the things that when you talked about business, you're talking about parking and you talk about utilities, which are sewer, water and gas. Um, because they're all cesspools. They're not even septic systems along Main Street. And I know one of the things they're talking about is they wanted to delay. One of the suggestions was to delay this project until we could entertain through USDA, because we're a rural community, getting some grant money to put in sewers because there is interest free grant money. Our community is rural and considered under the average medium income is 100, statewide is 109. We're at 8920 less. So that opens up an opportunity for more grant money for our community. We're considered under the average and we're considered rural. So I you know, and but I understand what you're talking about when you talked about the doing a full a full roadbed replacement, and then there's a moratorium, I think, of five years before you can once that's done, before you can open up the roadway.

[27:31] Yes. And it's not recommended to do it even shortly after that.

[27:35] Yeah.

[27:35] So the thought was, and it's here, I've got some kind of raised the, you know, the elephants in the room here and I'll let the rest of the board members. But I'm hitting the highlights. That that was a concern. And it's in these two documents that I have here in front of me. Um.

[27:49] I.

[27:50] I don't know to, um, I don't personally have a lot of experience with sewers. I'm not sure if you would know more about the timeline that, that would potentially push this project. Yeah.

[27:59] I mean, I think the challenge would be the fact that it's programed in federal fiscal year 28 right now. So the timeline to secure the grant, right, get design completed and then secure funding for construction.

[28:14] And even if we put.

[28:15] It's likely would likely jeopardize that year. However, I mean, the regional MPO, typically, once they commit to funding a project, they will still fund it. It would just likely slide out 1 or 2 federal fiscal.

[28:26] Well, that's another question I. The rumor is okay, because it's 80% federal money coming from the state. And we're we're one of many state federal funded projects. Okay, within the state, some in Worcester, There's some you name the community. Lester Sutton, they all have projects that are being funded by state 80/20, with 80 coming from the federal. If we were to want to delay this, or if we were wanted to amend it, or if we didn't want it. And that was another thing. Let's not do it. How does that play from a with the state and the federal level? I mean, does the federal people get mad at the state as a whole so that the state has has to deal with the fallout, so to speak? I mean, that doesn't play well, I think maybe, but I'll let you speak to that.

[29:11] Typically, if a. Well, first of all, the 80% federal funding, it's the regional MPO that administers that and distributes it among projects and communities.

[29:29] Um, if a community were to deprogram or ask that a project be deprogrammed, um, S2:

[29:41] Yeah. Going forward with other issues we have with MassDOT and we have other issues with MassDOT request. I mean, we have a sidewalk bridge over on Lois Creek over here that needs to be addressed by them. There's some stuff over here by Carbuncle Pond that needs to be addressed by them that we have. We've been I've talked to our representatives. So you're wondering whether they're they're pretty coy about not saying much. You just you just go from the top of the pile to the bottom of the pile, so to speak. They.

[30:09] Yeah.

[30:10] I mean, they don't get mad. They get even.

[30:13] Uh, I don't know if they're vengeful, but I guess from this, this projects a little bit unique also in that it has a federal earmark to cover final design and permitting. Um, I'm.

[30:23] Just wondering how much latitude we.

[30:25] Have here is more of a highlight. You know, there's more of a spotlight on this project from the federal side because of that earmark. Yes. To the 80%.

[30:31] Well, we did get we did get the $2 million from Congressman Neal for our part. Uh, And so that didn't affect the taxpayer. So that was good. Uh, so there's a lot of some politics here. Government state and federal. And without getting into an individual politician, just politics between the state relationship with our state of Massachusetts, with the federal.

[30:54] The. The other thing to consider, too, is from the town perspective is if this project stops, MassDOT is no longer paying for the reconstruction of the roadway. The. The pavement is deteriorating. Um, there there are serious issues with it. Um, so that's something that would then have to be paid for by the town, either out of chapter 90 or appropriated funds. That's going to come directly from the town if the state's not funding or the state and federal government aren't funding the construction for this roadway. So that's a consideration as well.

[31:31] To to keep in mind, is that the pavement still, you know, in bad shape and getting worse? S1:

[32:36] So I don't believe.

[32:38] Mark may be able to cover some of that as well.

[32:39] Yeah.

[32:40] Yes. The my understanding is that earmark would be able to cover a good portion of that.

[32:44] Would be okay. Yeah. I noticed most of them are just temporary construction three foot in on where they have to reseed your lawn if they park their heavy equipment on your lawn that for a period of time during the construction process, they may not. Maybe every other lot, maybe every fourth lot.

[33:00] It's also to to grade out behind sidewalks so that there's not slope drainage.

[33:05] Right.

[33:05] Exactly. To.

[33:06] You don't want ice on the sidewalks in the winter, right.

[33:08] Um, and it's also helpful to note too, that the permanent easements, for the most part, are places where there's already sidewalk extending out of the right of way and we're matching what's existing. But because it's through this process, it needs to be formalized.

[33:23] One of them is the curb here, taking a right onto Charlton off Main Street in front of Cumberland Farms. That's going to be a little. They're trying to ease that corner so it's not so sharp. They're trying to soften the corner so that when you go around, you have more of a sight line. I looked at in the board has the packet which you just went through. I mean the public doesn't does not. But we're going to make it available at town hall and get it and it'll be online. So everybody that's in the that's here or, or not here. And hopefully the people that are here will communicate to people that aren't here. So that everybody we want, we want a lot of input for the community. This is the heart of our community. This is this is our historical main street rural community. We, we, we cherish it and we want to protect it. We know it's a safety issue. I know people Park pass on the right. Uh, I've seen it happen. Uh, and we've had some fatalities. Now the crosswalks, center crosswalks are going to go away. AM I right on that? Because we're going to narrow the travel lanes, not the not the boulevard. It doesn't sound like if your sidewalks are still going to be in place where they are, It's the travel lanes that are going to be okay. I'm trying to understand what's going to be narrowed.

[34:34] Yes. So the curb to curb would be narrowed, and there would be bike lanes outside of those that would somewhat mirror the existing width of the roadway. Okay. Um, and then that would reduce the crossing lengths instead of having the center islands, which we've seen hit by trucks and other things. So it would also having the vehicles without having those buffers, um, you know, vehicles being essentially closer together, they're going to naturally go slower with the reduced curb width. Um, visually is going to express that this is a slower speed roadway.

[35:09] Yeah. Well, I talked, I think that we talked about dropping the speed from 35 to 30. That's a rumor right now. I don't know if that's going to happen.

[35:17] Yeah. So, uh, through discussions with MassDOT, we're not able to reduce the speed limit right now or with as part of this project. And so their recommendation is once the project is complete, to do a speed study at that point and utilize that information to justify a lower speed limit. So once the construction is done, then we would so we'd be able to put in a temporary construction speed limit during construction. Sure. And then afterwards utilize the speed data and see what people are actually doing with it and utilize that to potentially lower the speed limit permanently.

[35:51] And the other thing we talked about and you alluded to is the has already been raised in the prior meetings. Is the right turn lane coming off the highway interchange and in front of Dairy Express there? Uh, there would be a white. So you'd have three, you'd have, you'd have a left, a right and a straight down Charlton Street.

[36:09] Yes. So that is part of what we're evaluating going to 75. I would note that we would likely lose some additional parking spaces to incorporate that. So that's sort of where that balance needs to come in between preference from the town.

[36:22] Has there been any study where we can pick up some of these parking spaces to offset some of this.

[36:28] Um, one, one thing that might be worth looking into is the utilization of the lot behind this building, even and other public lots to see what percent utilization those have, where they are in close proximity. Um, some of the other public lots.

[36:42] I know what you're talking about. The right turn. Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm curious why it's being evaluated. I mean, that's a huge need. So the evaluation should be over. That should be a given.

[36:56] Slam dunk.

[36:56] But to to follow up with what you just said, Mr. Chair. Lou could you talk to me how we would lose parking spots if we widened that we're not going to lose any parking on Sutton Ave if we if we make that third lane. Correct.

[37:12] What we would likely need to do in order to retain function of the parking lot on, we'll say the north side or the right side. Looking at Sutton Ave, we would likely have to take away some of the parking spaces on the left side of Sutton Ave and shift the the roadway over a bit more.

[37:27] Don't we have.

[37:28] Do we? S1:

[37:29] We have the right of way in the old Dairy Express lot. Correct. So we wouldn't have to steal anything on the other side. We'd have that side.

[37:36] The only thing would be. And and there's a, there's no parking space on that corner in front on, on Main Street in front of the Dairy Express building. The white building there. Uh, you're you're 20ft before that first parallel parking space.

[37:51] I think he was talking about taking space on the left side. Correct. There's no need to take any space because the space already on the right side.

[37:58] Yeah. We have.

[37:59] Utilized.

[37:59] I think the statement that John had made was just trying to be respectful of maintaining the business operations there. Um, recognizing that there is public right of way extending into their driveway and parking area. So certainly.

[38:12] But the town owns their parking. Yeah. Okay. That right of.

[38:15] Way. It's your prerogative whether you want to.

[38:16] When they did this.

[38:18] Um, and that's.

[38:20] I mean, I'm dating myself. John said, bless his soul. And I sat on that corner, stood on that corner with district two, some young lady at the time, and advocated for that to happen. And that was not that was we was vetoed down that right turn lane when they when they did it originally. And we stood on that corner and. But it did us no good. They were it was our. It was there where the highway literally the highway, pun intended. And that's what happened. So we didn't get that right turn lane, but we owned that. If you look at the historical maps, the the, the layout or the layout of Sutton Avenue and Main Street, that's our right of way.

[38:56] Could I ask another question to what he said? So you're talking about that this in order to lower the speed, we have to do a study. We have to do a speed study.

[39:06] Yes.

[39:07] I would counter and ask if we could argue or bring to the to the forefront that we are losing space by consolidating right. Curb the curb. So there's going to be less travel space per lane. Wouldn't that be an argument right there to lower it immediately without having to do a speed study and God forbid, accidents? And to me, right there, that justifies a speed reduction right off the bat.

[39:31] It absolutely should. And what we're dealing with with setting the speed limit is more in line with how the laws are written to have a formal speed limit. So it's in, in our in the real world. Absolutely. That's justification. But in the legal world, the speed study is necessary to formalize it.

[39:49] Okay. Yeah. The speed speed limits throughout the state are regulated by MassDOT, unfortunately. So communities technically don't have the prerogative just to go.

[39:58] Right. But is there criteria within that that is there is there criteria within that whatever.

[40:03] That formula.

[40:04] Formula. Right.

[40:05] Supported by a speed study? Yes. Yeah.

[40:07] So the narrowing of that road would would enhance the the argument to reduce the speed.

[40:12] So so if we said, all right, we're taking 395 and making it one lane and we're going to still keep it 65.

[40:21] You know what I mean? Like now how are we going.

[40:22] To.

[40:23] Work? You know what I'm saying? Like there's got to be something within the formula that says that supersedes the speed study. But it sounds like there isn't.

[40:30] What the workaround, essentially for that is to have the temporary construction speed limit and then to.

[40:37] And can that stay, can that stay beyond construction?

[40:41] Not really. But what it does.

[40:43] Do the study during that.

[40:44] Well.

[40:47] Not until it's complete.

[40:48] Once once construction is complete, then, you know, the roadway is now set up to guide roadway users to go that speed. They've become used to it during construction. And then the study after the fact should reflect the new behavior.

[41:04] Okay.

[41:05] The philosophy behind setting speed limits is that people are going to drive whatever they feel comfortable driving, regardless of what the sign says. Right? So the goal with any project is to introduce design elements that.

[41:16] Quiet the road.

[41:16] Make people feel uncomfortable driving faster, narrow the roadway, introduce.

[41:20] Widening the.

[41:21] Road or bump outs as we have here at crosswalks, etc..

[41:24] I'm just, you know, throw it on the table. The parking is going to be an issue. We're there's got to be some we need to look at where we can mitigate the parking. And if anything, minimum replace the numbers we're losing and at best increase the parking somewhere. I know we're looking at we have a we have a we had an old fire on Barton Street. Uh, piece of property that is just off Main Street. Uh, and, uh, and now we're going to have we just acquired this zero on Charlton Street here that's wooded behind the senior center that we're going to. It's going to be a quasi parking and little, uh, I don't know, Park, park and park and parking, if you will, in the same thing, but on Barton Street.

[42:09] So could I ask another?

[42:10] Sure.

[42:10] Curiosity question that you brought up. So you're talking. Is it sewer and water? That's a concern in the Main Street area. Yes.

[42:18] Big time.

[42:19] So where does. I guess from from my own, you know, to wrap my mind around it, maybe the public like how big of an issue is that before we get into it? Lock into a project that you said would take five years after it's completed in order to do any of that work. Yeah. And then I understood what you were talking about, the timeline and the money and all that.

[42:47] Like how how big of an issue is that? And is that something that should be talked about before any of this gets talked? S1:

[42:59] Uh, back in 2017, S1:

[46:46] Yeah. But what we back to what I.

[46:48] Yeah, but.

[46:49] I know you've kind of gone, but like, what about like, what about like for me, I need to wrap my head around do we go forward with this project before we do a sewer project? Well, that's the can we do that? Like, should we do that? Is that the Is that the.

[47:04] No. We shouldn't.

[47:06] It's what it's sounding like.

[47:07] Well, and that's why. That's why I asked the political question, what's the political fallout of saying no to this or delaying it? Maybe that's better. Maybe that would be the more prudent.

[47:17] To me is you may lose the funding. I know they say they're going to kick it down the road. Yeah, I've seen it get kicked down the road and you don't get it.

[47:23] Well, what's the what's the federal because they're 80%. What's the federal and how are they going to treat the state? I mean, how does the federal government view the state if the state says, well, they don't want it. So take that one off your list. I mean, is that you go to the what's the acrimony there between the state and the federal level? I mean, you know, right now it's a Republican not going to be a Democrat. I don't know. It doesn't matter. It matters. Dollars is what matters here.

[47:46] Yeah. I mean, I think I think the play would be to request that it be deferred to.

[47:50] Yeah. I think politically speaking, would be to defer it and get some of these other ducks in a row as opposed to do this now.

[47:59] It's Mr. Dixon. The chair I call your name. John. I didn't catch your name.

[48:05] John.

[48:06] Is it.

[48:07] Okay?

[48:08] Two. John's. Um, so getting off of what Dave was just going off of, I think it's definitely in the term was just used cart before the horse. John, you stole some of the thunder of some of the stuff I've been talking with people about and, um, you know, be careful what you wish for. I understand the infrastructure. I understand things have to change, you know, um, the way the town is, the way the town is set up. Um, I think if we did this project and if we do, I think the infrastructure, your gas, your sewer, your water, you know, we're talking about redoing $21 million worth of Main Street and we're still going to have poles. You know, um, I don't, I don't think the thought process is, is 100% there. Um.

[48:56] Oxford Center is a nightmare. Yeah, it's a nightmare. I got off of 395 today. I was still on the highway. It's all locked up. So once again to to Dave's point, you know, Sutton Ave you know, we take those parking spots on the left. Those are just little small businesses that have been in town for Oxford. Look at the building for, you know, 100 plus years. Um they don't have any other parking. That parking goes away. Where are they supposed to go? Um, I don't want to say luckily, but, you know, the Dairy Express. Johnny just moved out of there. Um, you know, there is a new building owner. You know, we definitely need to somehow get that that third lane. Um, and John, just a couple questions for you because I'm just curious on this. So the design. Yes. Because it's done through the state. Is it mandatory that we have to have those bike lanes? Like I do like the picture. When you showed the picture, you know, it, it does look nice, but I'm just curious, you know, with the design through your company. And if the state has given us money, do we have to put in those bike lanes? And I also noticed on this, some of these bike lanes go right through monuments that have been in town for forever. Um, one off a church street, uh, goes, goes right through it. So I'm not sure if that's something that we've looked at that has to be moved. But I was just curious if what you guys are doing for the design, the master plan.

[50:26] Do you have to follow certain things? S8:

[51:14] Six abreast bike? I mean, does it need to be six? Is it I mean the bike lanes width wise could be diminished some to some degree. Or is there or is there a formula? I know, I know, I heard you can correct me that we need if we don't have the bike lanes, we don't get the money basically. AM I that's pretty blunt. We you're stuck with bike lanes or you're getting no money.

[51:35] Yeah. Um, the minimum for bike lane is five feet. These ones are at six feet.

[51:40] Okay. So you're talking a foot.

[51:41] Yeah. Um.

[51:43] All right. One of the things just not to lose sight of. The town's already made a pretty substantial investment in the project. They've been fortunate. In addition to to making that investment, they've been fortunate to secure the 2 million federal earmark to complete design, and also fortunate to be programed for the 21 million.

[52:16] Um, so obviously that has to be weighed with the decision of, well, would you do we do we risk that to delay to get sewer within the current or prior to the current project before that five year moratorium? S1:

[52:25] And make it safer.

[52:26] And make it safer and keep the width. So we're only talking about narrowing the travel lanes, not the the broad vista that it is now just the travel lanes, the quiet, the travel so that it's it's people want to shop there, not pass through there. We don't want the pass through traffic. We want people that live in the community to feel they can go to the library, they can go here, they can go there and hopefully foster with utilities, A center that that's walkable and shoppable as opposed to a pass through. And so utilities is an issue. I think cut throat is an issue. There's 5000 cars a day if they could. Those are the people that want to pass through. They want to get the Dudley. They want to get to Webster. And but they go through us to get there. That would, I think there again, we got the cart before the horse. Now, that was identified in 2017. None of us were here on at that time. I mean, because the reason I know that is because we're looking to see what was. I'm on that master plan committee. So I'm looking to see what was decided back then. It was a good idea. In 2017, nothing happened. Is it still a good idea in 2027? The answer is yes.

[53:34] So.

[53:35] Mr. Chair. Sure. Um, quick question. Um, another thing in maybe, uh, Mr. Ledoux, if you could maybe help on this, you know, at one time, I do know that I was at a town meeting before that, you know, when we were originally talking about this project, I thought this was actually something the design that the town had actually said no, that they they didn't want to do. I thought it was voted down at a town meeting, uh, back.

[54:03] And I should have did my research on this, but I thought when I was at that meeting that, you know, a lot of town people, you know, didn't want to do it. I even how we're at this point right now. Um, and I know you just said, you know, how we secured some money and so on and so forth. Um, but I, I do recall being at the meeting when we were talking about this, um, and I'm just kind of curious on, on how we got here. And then a second part is, is you had talked about the accidents on Main Street. Well, since we put in these islands, um, you know, we have our police chief here too. He could probably speak on it a little bit. These islands have been hit numerous times. Um and you were saying that pedestrians have been also struck too. Is that just within that one mile that we're looking to redo. There's been 5 or 6 pedestrians hit within that one mile.

[54:55] Are you talking Oxford in general? S8:

[55:23] Those just on the island, the islands count on that.

[55:26] Uh, this, this is for the whole stretch of roadway. Okay. So it's, it's, you know, for this mile of roadway, um, this type of roadway, the arterial roadway that's, you know, going through a town center is by far the highest type of the highest rate of crashes of any type of roadway because you have people coming in at higher speeds that then are intended to slow down. So the average being at 2.98, that is by far above any other type of roadway. And then we are, you know, a substantial amount above that already for this roadway. So it is it is a difficult road as far as crashes go. Yeah.

[56:07] A lot of traffic comes through Oxford, a lot of traffic.

[56:10] Um that's why I say the cut road thing. And then there was another one on Dana Road that tie up to parallel to 12 and and 395. Uh, to dump out in Sutton Ave. That's also in the master plan, but Culbreth Road was a huge. I there's so many things that I think that that could precede this. And I think politically speaking, and the money's there, it's going to earn interest. We got the $2 million not going anywhere. Let it let it fester and earn interest. The worst they can do grow a couple, couple thousand or couple thousand every year. But and delay it for 3 to 5 years, whatever it is. Pic. If we could get away with doing that without upsetting the political apple cart, so to speak, because we have a couple other things we want to do with MassDOT. Like I said, we got Lowes Pond and we have another issue on on Carbuncle Pond where the road water is draining into Carbuncle Pond. And, and they've been asked to do something on those two sites.

[57:07] And I just yeah, I think my thought process is we're going to do it. We might as well do it right. Right. You know, why do this and rip it up in five years? Yeah. And then rip it up in another five.

[57:18] Yeah. And now let's get the utilities buried. I mean, if we're I mean, if we're talking about a beautiful vista, let's get rid of the wooden poles. If we're going to do this, bury the utility. So now it's a beauty. So now we're seeing maybe American elms not, not not wooden telephone poles or utility poles.

[57:33] Yeah. I would just note on on anything with utilities as far as that goes outside of drainage, the the tip project, the tip fund won't cover that, so.

[57:42] It will cover it or.

[57:43] They will not know. So sewer undergrounding, utilities, things like that would have to be funded separately. So the town would have to find.

[57:51] But it's short money because once the. If you're going to do the whole roadway stormwater management, they're digging a trench. Okay. So the trenches. The trench is done. So you know what I mean. We can we can piggyback into that trench, right.

[58:07] Would the money be coming through grants or is that.

[58:09] We could get money through grants.

[58:10] Through grants.

[58:11] But my point is, Bill, they're going to they're going to have to dig for stormwater management. They're going to have to dig a trench. So it's nothing to put some pipe in there, whether it's you, whether it's electric or whatever, telephone and everything. But the trenches dug to lay it's shorter money. Let's put it's shorter money. I mean, it's it's money.

[58:27] Substantial cost to underground utilities over a mile. Um, not that probably ten plus million really.

[58:34] If the trenches dug still 10 million to lay the.

[58:38] Yeah. It's very expensive, but it would need to be, as John mentioned, a nonparticipating cost.

[58:44] Could there be grant money for that?

[58:46] I haven't heard grant money that would cover undergrounding utilities. No, just sewer as you mentioned.

[58:51] I heard sewer and water was covered. I understand the state of Massachusetts takes a dim view on on natural gas. So that's there's no money for an answer. You can use the trench that's dug. There's grant money for sewer and water from the state to put sewer and water in. Okay. In the trench.

[59:11] Outside of tip.

[59:12] I understand. Yeah, but they have to dig that trench. Yeah. Right. But there's there's they have to dig the trench for storm water management.

[59:21] Everything goes in its own trench. Yeah.

[59:23] Really? S1:

[59:25] Through the chair.

[59:26] Go ahead.

[59:27] I've got some questions and some comments. Um, first of all, I was really disappointed to hear that the rumor was incorrect about utilities going underground. The fact that Main Street was going to look even nicer was, I thought, always part of the plan. And obviously it is not. Um, as far as the sewer, I think we need to know how realistic is it that we could get sewer. I mean, if if this is going to happen in the next five years and it's going to take us ten years to get sewer, then we might as well proceed. But if delaying it a year or two, we can get sewer out of it also, then that's something I think we should realistically look at. Um you were talking about the speed. Changing the speed. You're only talking going from 35 down to 30. Right. It's not like we're going 55 down to 35 or isn't it 35 now. And you're just going down to 30.

[1:00:26] Uh, it's actually, it actually varies throughout the mile stretch, but it's not posted. So there's, there's what it legally is and what it's posted at. But yes, essentially 35 and then reducing it to potentially 30 or 25, depending on what the study would come back with.

[1:00:42] I mean, 25 is pretty slow.

[1:00:44] I think if you go from.

[1:00:45] A small section of 25 in the center and then 30 or 35 out from there is actually, the way it's set up right now is there's a separate speed just within the center. Um, that's not currently posted, but it is on the books as far as Massdot's.

[1:01:00] I think there's a scale if you go from 35 to 30, I think I read because they had the I looked at so many documents, 13.5, 13.7% reduction in accidents. If you go from 35 to 30, that five miles reduction is about a 13.5, 13.7% fewer accidents. I'm not the civil engineer, but I think I read that in some of the documents I've been doing some research on.

[1:01:27] I don't know that percent specifically, but really what we're looking at Yet more so than reducing the speed limit is reducing. The actual speeds are going at, people are going at. Because with the speed data we have, they're going above the speed limit as it is. And so bringing it down even to.

[1:01:46] They'll be doing 35.

[1:01:47] Would be. Yeah. So it's more about reducing the actual speeds.

[1:01:53] Okay. Um, you were talking about turning into CVS. Mhm. All right. So it's the slide before that one. That's not the slide. Um.

[1:02:04] I'm trying to see where.

[1:02:05] That I want to hurt CVS business. But it's a there's a safety issue there.

[1:02:12] Second one from the.

[1:02:13] Right straight across.

[1:02:15] Yeah.

[1:02:16] Okay. So that's where legally we're not supposed to be turning right chief.

[1:02:24] Right in front of.

[1:02:30] CVS.

[1:02:31] I believe it's that one.

[1:02:32] Yeah, yeah.

[1:02:36] Are we supposed to turn? S11:

[1:02:38] That broken, but not there on Barton Street. It's broken, but not there. It's broken on Barton Street. That's why I go around Oxford Insurance. Okay. Yeah.

[1:02:47] Um.

[1:02:49] And it's close.

[1:02:50] So that whole section there, we're going to have less space for travel. Um, so I don't understand why we can't have more parking. And that's a great example there. Um, along the street there's where we have diagonal parking there. Um, the diner does pretty well. Uh, the sandwich shop does pretty well. The.

[1:03:18] Uh, in.

[1:03:19] Days end does pretty well right across the street from there, there's, there's an island and a place that you turn around to make it legal. Um, which is just a mess if you put diagonal parking in front there. Right now there's no businesses there at all. And you know, somebody goes in there, they last maybe six months and they're gone. And one of the reasons is there's no parking.

[1:03:40] Um, if you took that bump out.

[1:03:41] If you took the.

[1:03:42] Bump out insurance and made it a complementary to where the diagonal parking is across almost across from it now you need for the diagonal parking. What is it? Lengthwise. It's uh, what is it, 18, 20ft length.

[1:03:56] Uh, coming out. But you would also need some buffer space behind that. Yeah. Because it's two way travel on that roadway. Um, so look up those numbers.

[1:04:03] But I think the actual length of the, of the parking spot is 18 or 20ft width wise, you're still at you're 8 or 9 foot.

[1:04:13] Nine feet.

[1:04:14] Yeah.

[1:04:14] Nine foot. Well, I would certainly like to look at that to see if we can pick up some parking there.

[1:04:18] That's what I'm saying. We need to look at some where we can increase, let alone offset.

[1:04:24] And the same idea farther down in front of the park. Um, traveling is going to be narrower. I don't know why we can't put diagonal parking there. The parking for that right now is behind the community center. There's not many people that want to make that hike. Um, when we're doing something and so preferably on the side of the park and the bandstand, but I'm not opposed to having it on the other side. One of those sides should have diagonal parking. So there could be a good amount of people that can park there to, to use it. And again, if it's on the park side of the street, then you don't have to worry about people crossing the street and, and getting hit. Um, our fire trucks going to be able to safely pass when we narrow this down to the two lanes.

[1:05:13] This, this is a common roadway width that is used and has been tested in a variety of situations. So we don't have if there were sections that had center medians, we'd be a little more concerned. But where it has the open space between them, the 11 foot travel lanes and the eight foot parking lanes should be more than sufficient.

[1:05:34] Okay. Thank you. Um, you mentioned that the bike lanes are going to be asphalt. The sidewalks are going to be cement. Yes. Um, is that going to not last as long. Is that common.

[1:05:49] Uh, that, that is generally what's used. Part of that is, you know, the, the asphalt is not going to deteriorate in the same way it would on a roadway. It's not under as much load. Um, but as far as doing, you know, it is possible to do concrete, uh, generally. The feedback we've heard is that riders are less comfortable going over because you do have the brakes. Um, so the, the.

[1:06:15] Okay. So, so it's more of a continuous.

[1:06:18] Yeah.

[1:06:19] So in general, uh, pavement is used for that because it's a smoother, more preferable ride. And it's less expensive.

[1:06:26] Okay. And pavement doesn't usually last as long as cement, but you're not putting cars on it as you said it. It's a much lighter load.

[1:06:42] Um, underground utilities has have we coordinated with the water company at all? S8:

[1:06:49] Okay. And you mentioned construction is two years. Um, that seems awfully long for one mile section. Yes. No, that's a lot of disruption. I remember the last time they they dug this up down to the Charlton Street.

[1:07:04] Yeah.

[1:07:04] Well not only Charlton but when they, uh, I think it was 25 years ago when I was on the board, they were businesses asking for us to have power washers come in and, and, uh, get the dust off of all the buildings. Um, it was quite a disruption. Uh, the last time that they.

[1:07:22] Yeah. I mean, a MassDOT construction project is typically very methodical. Um, they take their time, uh, to some degree, but they have full time construction oversight paid by the state to observe it as it happens, just to ensure that the quality remains there. And it's justifying the expenditure of federal and state funding. Uh.

[1:07:45] Again, I'm concerned for not only the residents, but the businesses because that's a two year disruption is, is quite a bit.

[1:07:52] With, with respect to the utilities. So every, every project of this type has utility coordination that happens throughout the design process, but also particularly early on at the 25% design phase. Uh, we have field utility meeting with all the utilities that, uh, have facilities within the project limits. And they're all given the opportunity to indicate whether they want to upgrade or replace their facilities or extend their infrastructure, um, prior to or as part of the project. So those meetings have happened. Um, Aquarian, I think indicated that they're going to do some work here. Right? Yeah.

[1:08:26] They're going to replace a large section of their, their water main.

[1:08:29] Um, and then I don't know about gas. If there was any indication that they wanted to do any upgrades.

[1:08:33] No, there were more recent upgrades to the gas. So they're not planning any major changes along with that.

[1:08:38] Right.

[1:08:39] Yeah. That's a much younger. Yeah. Utility system.

[1:08:42] A good opportunity to get some of the old water pipe out.

[1:08:45] Can you go to the bus stop near the housing Authority, which is 1 or 2 slides before that? Um, so Grace church, good Shepherd church and Grace preschool, uh, right next door to where the bus stop is going to be. Um, the church has been there for 150 years. They don't have any place to put parking. All they can use is a street and that's going to take up.

[1:09:10] A considerable amount of parking spaces right there. And the bus only stops there a couple of times a day. and yet no one can ever park there.

[1:09:21] And you got Ada issues.

[1:09:24] Close to the.

[1:09:25] Church. So if there's anything you can do to increase parking in that section. Uh, with the preschool. Of course, they're dropping off and picking up children. Uh. Mhm. Uh, Monday through Friday. So there's a fair amount of traffic that's affected.

[1:09:44] Yeah. We can take, uh, take a look at that.

[1:09:46] If you could look at that. Sincerely appreciate it. And if you can go down to Palermo Drive, which is where the community center is.

[1:09:58] Right there. Um, I do not understand that design at all. If there's a car coming down Church Street that wants to go to the community center, and there's somebody leaving the community center that wants to go to Church Street. They're going to crash into each other. There's.

[1:10:16] So what are we doing there? S8:

[1:10:30] Say that again.

[1:10:31] One way.

[1:10:33] Yes, one way from right.

[1:10:34] Where it says Old Main Street would be one way.

[1:10:38] Correct? Is that what you're saying? S8:

[1:10:50] And again, could you put diagonal parking there?

[1:10:56] That could be considered.

[1:10:57] Yeah, we can look at that. We do have some space to work with there. We want to, you know, keep some of that green space there is the monument there.

[1:11:05] But you can you get the community center and you also are pretty close to the park.

[1:11:10] Johnson Park is really busy right there.

[1:11:12] Yeah.

[1:11:13] And even even the funeral home.

[1:11:15] Right there.

[1:11:16] When things get busy. Um, maybe instead of having the one way street, it can be redesigned so you can put diagonal parking in there.

[1:11:25] Potentially keeping it one way and having angled parking going into it. Yeah, we can look at that as well.

[1:11:31] I appreciate that very much. Um.

[1:11:38] That's all I have for now. Thank you, John and John for coming tonight.

[1:11:43] Any other board member have any.

[1:11:44] You guys got it all? Uh.

[1:11:48] Just, you know, it's it's. Now before I'm going to ask if there's any members of the Planning Board, and then thank you for being patient to the public out there. We'll we'll bring you.

[1:11:55] Can I just ask one clarifying question? When did we get involved in.

[1:11:59] Five years ago.

[1:12:00] We got involved with you guys five years ago.

[1:12:02] No, no, the project was five years ago. They were on board.

[1:12:05] Who, I guess. Who was it? The former town manager and DPW director that hired this firm to do this work.

[1:12:12] We just signed a contract.

[1:12:13] Yes, I believe so. Yeah, that's what it would have been.

[1:12:15] Yeah. But like, how long ago did we. I guess I'm just looking for clarification when we got involved with tech.

[1:12:23] Do you know when you started?

[1:12:24] You're correct that it was approximately 4 to 5 years ago when we helped you guys initiate.

[1:12:28] One.

[1:12:28] Initiative project.

[1:12:29] Five.

[1:12:29] Years ago. Project review committee.

[1:12:31] They represent us, so they're taking notes. We're we're spewing as as we as we talk. And this is this is a good example of why two heads are better than one. We're we're pointing out a lot of things here. And we haven't even talked to the public or the Planning Board yet. And, and this is going to have to be something that's combed and combed and combed and crawl, walk, run, like I say, take your time, get it right. And this is the first of many and we're going to have to work with you. We're paying you to help us as we go in. I just don't think it's feasible just from that standpoint of the conversations we need to take that need to take place, that we're going to make the timeline. We're going to it's going to be have to be delayed.

[1:13:14] Say that this is this is the perfect time to be having these conversations to refine the scope. I think a major change in the scope would would be troublesome. But I think the things we're talking about here, the scale of the adjustments are modest relative to the entire scope of the project. And between 25% and 75% is when those type of decisions and refinements, you know, it's the perfect time to make those.

[1:13:37] So we need to work with you. We're paying you and continue to work with you. Keep that this dialog that we started this evening going and refine this and have touch points throughout the process, both for the board, for the public, the Planning board. And so that, you know, and we're like anything building a house or anything, we're going to make mistakes. We're going to say, well, gee whiz, the problem, the what the target is to make the minimal number of mistakes, the ones we can still live with and be happy about, you know, going from 20 mistakes to maybe three. You know, life is not perfect.

[1:14:14] And that's one of the reasons that the MassDOT project development time timeline is intentionally long. It has so many milestones 25% design 7500, and then a final p.s.a. It's to give the opportunity for those design refinements.

[1:14:28] Also just to pull it up for a second in our schedule. Um, you know, we can adjust these as well, but in our more detailed schedule, we do have laid out, you know, when we would anticipate, uh, meeting with you as an elected official briefing. Uh, we have several of those when we anticipate those would be also pop up engagement events around town where we could get direct feedback from the public. So we have some of those scheduled out when we'd like to do those. And we can, you know, increase those frequencies. And, you know, however we want to do that to, to keep this communication open and going.

[1:15:00] Right. Well, this meeting is being televised and it's going to be recorded. And I encourage the people out there that have been very patient to encourage those that aren't here to plug in and really play tonight's meeting and then come to the subsequent meetings that we're going to have. Uh, because somebody's going to see something that we're not going to see. And God bless them. It may make the thing that much better as we move forward. Now, whether we delay it or how much we delay it by, that's still on the table. Uh, we're not making any decisions here tonight, but this is the first of many, like I said.

[1:15:32] Through the chair. Um, can I just say, I think you have a pretty good idea of what our concerns are and what some of our ideas are, especially as concerning parking and, and helping out businesses. Um, and you said that we can do meetings with the, the general public.

[1:16:01] How long would you need to kind of work on some of the ideas that we came up with tonight? Um, how soon could we have a presentation for that was open to the public? S8:

[1:16:50] We can do some concepts between now and where we're waiting for the funding. There's some stuff we can do to present and, and formalize or gel our ideas so that on paper. Right.

[1:17:01] Uh, I think, I mean, we really do need to wait until we have notice to proceed with with the federal earmark funding. So advance the design further at this point.

[1:17:11] Also through the chair. Um, John and John, um, sitting here looking at the design, and I've also noticed, you know, some of the bus stops, um, the new bus stops that you have in play. Um, they generally they affect parking in front of businesses that, that we have here in town. If we're going to put a bus stop in, is there a way that we could also look at moving the bus stop? So there possibly in front of residential housing instead of front in front of businesses that we have that these businesses, this is the only parking that they have. I think I think Russ touched on it. I think the parking is, is huge, you know, um, but, uh, I think that's something that you definitely have to look at is watch out taking away from business parking, especially if we do have some residential area that we could move those areas.

[1:18:06] We can do some additional coordination with RTA and with other, uh, people within the town. Part of what came out of the meetings that we've had with them is putting them in proximity to crosswalks and things like that, to make sure people can get across the road in a safe manner. Um, you know, there's requirements from MassDOT about how far a bus stop can be from a crosswalk. Uh, things along those lines. And so we've, we've incorporated some of that, but we can continue those conversations. And, you know, we've brought in the senior center, but if we, you know, if there are other organizations, bike PED committees or anything where we want to, you know, potentially bring other people in, um, you know, we're happy to bring those people into that conversation as well.

[1:18:45] Because we can move, we can move crosswalks 25, 30, 40ft. So where they are now doesn't really fall into play on where they could end up.

[1:18:54] Yeah, we do generally want to keep them at intersections are substantially safer when they're not a mid-block crossing. But yes, there's some flexibility there as well.

[1:19:04] And so it's important to hear from the public because as you said, there's people that live along Main Street that can identify a particular challenge that we're not even thinking about. And, you know, if you don't know about it, then you can't do anything about it. So at least you can look at it and see if it can be tweaked. That would be great.

[1:19:25] If I may just through the through the chair. Just to Mr. Davis's question from earlier, um, to my knowledge, this has not been to a formal vote at town meeting. There may have been an appropriation for preliminary or initial design. Uh, probably about 2021 for funding, but that's all I recall. Uh, they may have been public forum or a public hearing where folks expressed their opinion, but there hasn't been a formal vote or anything like that. Um, just one thing that will be before the board for consideration is, uh, easements for easements for these properties that Mr. Ewell spoke to earlier. Um, for the upcoming town meeting in October. Uh, that'll be before you for your consideration at the next meeting. Uh, to put that on the town meeting warrant. Uh, again for the town to seek those easements to to advance the project. The next step after that, if we were to get approval at town meeting, would that carry out the appraisals? Right. We're not going to do the appraisals and pay for that before we get approval. Uh, just hope that answers your question.

[1:20:20] It does. Yeah, we we were we were able to locate it also. Okay. You know, I do stand corrected. I just remember the conversation of.

[1:20:27] Yeah, yeah, for sure before my time. So I'm kind of there with you.

[1:20:32] Any other questions of the board? Is there any member of the Planning board out there that wants to come up and and speak to the board? Christine.

[1:20:41] Hi.

[1:20:44] Christine. Two Grasshopper Lane. I know at the last planning board meeting, there was a concern with the sewer, right. Because we're going to rip it up. I know that Mark Matt Pierson mentioned about putting the sewer in at the same time. It's up. So like you said, don't put the cart before the horse. So I think that really needs to be considered before we go ahead and proceed with this. It's a big project and let's do it right the first time. And then um, with the crosswalks, is it going to be blinking lights as they are now or are there going to be different.

[1:21:20] Uh, through the board? Yes, there, there are plans to include rapid flashing beacons similar to what they are now, just that there wouldn't be one in the island because the islands would be removed. So there'd just be one on either side.

[1:21:32] So just one in the middle island?

[1:21:34] No, there'd be no island.

[1:21:35] So no island. So the two so one on each side.

[1:21:38] So you can cross it.

[1:21:39] On each side of the.

[1:21:39] Street. It's going to be narrow enough that you can make one, one cross. You don't have, you.

[1:21:43] Don't have to. That makes sense because if you're going to narrow it, then it'll be less.

[1:21:46] Okay, which is one of the reasons they're narrowing.

[1:21:48] It. That makes sense. Okay. Because I think they work great. So I think I know nobody really likes the island, but I think they work great. So. All right. That's all I have from the Planning Board.

[1:21:58] They'd be great if people would stop hitting them.

[1:22:00] Yeah, exactly. People got to slow down. Right. So it's kind of like a. All right. Thank you.

[1:22:06] But this design does away with that problem, which I'm very happy that you've done that.

[1:22:11] The board has two letters, one from Eric Birth, the planning board member. I mean the head of the department and one from the Planning Board. Uh, and I'll and I'll share those with our town manager, Mister Ledoux, and put them in the record and get you copies of them. They're pretty much echoed their concerns here, and you can take a look at it. Uh, any member of the public that wants to come up and have a concern. Come on up and state your name and your address, and you can tell us what your thoughts are.

[1:22:50] Both

[1:22:56] Terence Cummings, nine Local Street. I am a member of the Historical Commission, but I'm not speaking for them. I can't believe that we can spend $21 million and not put electricity in the ground. Uh, one question I have.

[1:23:17] The insurance company next to CVS has a.

[1:23:21] Like an island.

[1:23:22] Uh, parking spot in there. The original plan, about 4 or 5 years ago, whenever we had the big meeting at the police station, had 4 or 5 of those things along the road. Those were all gone. From what I could see from the plan.

[1:23:40] Uh, yes, the the areas where there's an existing area, I believe older plan may have showed that being retained, but essentially it runs into a safety issue where you have a stop controlled, essentially auxiliary lane separated by a median. And so that was considered a safety concern in discussions. And that was removed from from the plan where it would be essentially in that case, it would be essentially a through auxiliary lane separated by a median from a right turn lane. So in order to go straight, you'd have to stop, look over your shoulder, and then cross over multiple lanes to get back into the flow of traffic. And that was, um, you know, in review with MassDOT that wasn't considered to be a safe option. So that had to be taken out.

[1:24:28] So Mr. Cummings is right though it was in the original plan, bump out, bump out parking spaces, basically were in the original plan and were removed. So he's correct.

[1:24:37] Yeah. Not a I'm not sure. Uh, as far as bump outs. Well, there it was. It was similar to what's existing now.

[1:24:43] I call it bump up, pardon my, my terminology, but.

[1:24:46] Yeah, in the at the 10% level, I believe there was that was still included and then removed later.

[1:24:51] Yeah. Okay. So you're correct, Terry.

[1:24:55] There are copies of the layouts that public can get. So we can look at them before we have to talk again. It's very hard to watch from here, especially.

[1:25:08] Through the chair. We will make those available. We'll put them online and have hard copies available at town hall.

[1:25:12] Okay. Uh, again, I say that, uh.

[1:25:21] One of the things you're not going to make the place beautiful until you get rid of the polls. And I can't see digging this thing all up and not putting in the ground and not putting in the sewers. One problem we do have with the sewers, we have two different, uh, drainage systems from my high school north. You go to Blackstone from IPG South you go to French River and that when that happened, that was a. That was a major problem. At that time I was with the work with the CME, PC, and that was a a pretty good sized hurdle to get get around. And I think that if we can't get the sewers in and the lights in the ground, we should wait until we can. All right. Thank you. I have more, but I'll think of them later.

[1:26:21] Thank you Terry. All right.

[1:26:23] Anybody else?

[1:26:24] There was somebody in the back.

[1:26:25] Please come up. State your name.

[1:26:35] Joseph Beaulieu, 15 Woodland Drive here in Oxford. Has anybody done any studies on route 12, north of Front Street. For any instances or people getting hit by a car or safety situation, because I don't hear anybody saying anything about that, because that part of route 12 is very narrow. A lot of twists and turns and hills and you name it, and it's a two lane. But why is it a major concern about the wide main street we already have in the center of town? And nobody said anything South of Fallon Ave, south of Fallon Ave is a wide road. Okay. We understand that there doesn't seem to be any problem there. It's fine. But north of Front Street is a very narrow road. It's the same street, except it's very narrow. Why is it a major concern just in the center of town, where it affects a lot of people, a lot of parking, a lot of businesses. And, you know, that's one question has been anybody survey comparing the instances for those two sections of of of road.

[1:27:46] Well, the difference with downtown is that it's town property. What they're talking about here is town property. And north and south of this area is all State Road.

[1:27:59] Okay.

[1:28:00] So that's fine. I don't know the answer to your question as far as have any studies been done, but all the studying that they are doing is because of the town property.

[1:28:10] You said that part of this funding is federal and state. That's a state road, right? Although the center of town is in state.

[1:28:20] Yeah.

[1:28:21] The state doesn't seem to be concerned about people getting hit by a car, but they want to help the town. It doesn't make sense to me. But, you know, it makes sense to somebody, but it doesn't make sense to me. Now, another thing you're going to put the bike lanes in. Now, does that include e-bikes to. Not just bicycles.

[1:28:42] Uh, through the chair. Um, the the limits and restrictions on what's used on a bike lane would come from essentially come from state law, which I believe they are looking into and updating. They've come out with new classifications for different e-bikes, but that, that process, what, what that means statewide is still sort of being refined, what's permitted on those. And so it would be anything that's lawfully allowed to utilize a bike lane would be lawfully allowed to use those, um, as those laws sort of get sorted out. Still.

[1:29:14] That's a good question because there weren't always e-bikes. Now there are. Oh yeah.

[1:29:19] Oh.

[1:29:20] I know it's a dangerous thing because they're silent. And I've, I've been with my daughter in Florida. They have beautiful walking bike, regular bike lanes and walking paths. And they come up behind you at 40 miles an hour.

[1:29:31] Absolutely.

[1:29:32] And, uh. Wow.

[1:29:34] You don't know they're coming.

[1:29:35] Yeah. You don't. They're silent.

[1:29:37] Good question.

[1:29:38] Very good question.

[1:29:39] Because I've seen them fly through the center of town. They keep up with the traffic right behind the cars. They come down the sidewalk like they keep up with the traffic. You don't know they're coming. You don't know they're gone. And they're very small at times. A lot of times I've seen these bikes flying through the center of town. They don't have, you know, that they're not registered. I mean, I'm always looking for some kind of a license plate. But they're so small, you know, they can't be put on the road. But they just fly all over the place. It's amazing. Nobody had been really been killed.

[1:30:23] But now, if you're going to incorporate the bikes in the in the bike lane, is there going to be a posted speed limit in that bike lane? And if so, who's going to monitor it? S8:

[1:30:48] So they're looking at the issue.

[1:30:50] Yes. They've begun classifying them, I think, into four major categories at this point. Um, I don't know if you've seen it recently. There's, there's still working through it. And, um, there was actually a call for public input a few months ago on, on a few things they were looking at.

[1:31:06] But has been, has there been any surveys about, uh, e-bikes on bike lanes in any other town for speed?

[1:31:18] Not, not that we've participated in and not that I know of specifically, but.

[1:31:22] Now according to this, I saw up there showed bikes going in both directions in the same lane. So if that's the case, no.

[1:31:32] There's one on each side of the. Yeah, there's one on each side.

[1:31:34] On the right hand side. I showed it looked like there was one coming both directions on the same side.

[1:31:40] Oh, is that the intention they showed?

[1:31:42] No, the intent is that yeah. Each bicycle lane on each side of the roadway is the same one direction.

[1:31:47] Coming across each other like that. And you're going to be a much narrower area. And if you get an e-bike coming 30 miles an hour.

[1:31:54] So the intent is it's supposed to be the same as traffic in the lanes. So when you're on the right, you're going one direction. If you're on the left, you're going the other direction. That's the intent.

[1:32:03] Sounds logical.

[1:32:04] Yeah. Which is what they're, they're saying that's the intent.

[1:32:06] But who is going to monitor that and make sure it's correct. So you only have a head on collision. Two guys. I see the chief.

[1:32:13] I see the chief going oh may I.

[1:32:15] We'll be funding some bike some bicycles for the for the police department.

[1:32:20] I know you need safety and you know, you're trying to, to try to slow things down, but I know that the people have a lot more different ideas about how to rearrange the center of town for safety without really losing too much safety. Uh, too much room. But now another thing too I live, I have I lived in the church Street, and when I'm coming out of Church Street, you're talking about a safety situation. When we look to the left in front of the funeral home, there's 2 or 3 parking spots before you get to that wide parking spot in front of the sidewalk, going into the funeral home that you can't park if from that part that you can't park from there to the to the corner of Church Street, there's like two parking spots. When people are parked there, I cannot see and everybody else complaining. We cannot see any cars coming down the road unless you're halfway out in the road, and then you're right on top of somebody and they go swerving around you. If they can just eliminate those parking spots there, it'll be much easier for people coming out of Church Street because across from that was that Water Street to the right of that. You can't park there for you know they have to cross. You can't park there for at least 40ft. So that's fine because people coming out, they can look to the left. That's fine. Coming out of the street, you can't see to the left. They're right on the corner. So if they eliminate those two parking spots plus the wide section in front of the, when people come across the crosswalk to go into the funeral home, that'd be great for people coming out of tertiary. But they've been complaining even to me all over the place. They can't come out of Church Street.

[1:34:00] John, can you go to the Church Street slide?

[1:34:03] So I think that's exactly what's driving some of the loss of parking, as John mentioned earlier, where we're sitting.

[1:34:09] Right.

[1:34:09] Here restricting.

[1:34:10] It is making you.

[1:34:11] Near intersections, restricting it, near crosswalks.

[1:34:14] At least two parking spots there.

[1:34:16] So you're taking them out.

[1:34:17] Show it there.

[1:34:18] Yeah. So, uh, through the chair, we're pushing the parking spaces back and adding that curb extension. So that's going to physically stop cars from parking lot close to church.

[1:34:27] Well, this is not correct.

[1:34:29] No, no, this is the new design.

[1:34:31] Well, I understand that, but this is this is not correct according to what is actually there, because that crosswalk isn't right on that corner.

[1:34:39] Oh, this is.

[1:34:40] No, no, this is the new design.

[1:34:42] The new design.

[1:34:43] This would be what.

[1:34:43] What so they're saying.

[1:34:45] All right. So the new design.

[1:34:47] Takes care of what your concern is.

[1:34:49] Yeah. We take care of those two parking.

[1:34:50] All right, all right. I'm sorry.

[1:34:52] Yeah, yeah. So it's a good idea.

[1:34:53] But so.

[1:34:54] They've already addressed.

[1:34:55] Your concerns being addressed there.

[1:34:57] So that will eliminate that.

[1:34:58] Yeah.

[1:34:58] Okay. I didn't I didn't think.

[1:35:00] And you're absolutely right because one street down Elm Street I have the same problem. But nobody's parked on Main Street. You can see. Great. But when there's cars there, you have to pull out quite a bit, right? That's exactly why they designed it this way.

[1:35:11] The only good thing I like about this whole project.

[1:35:13] Yeah.

[1:35:15] Well thank you.

[1:35:16] All right, that's about it.

[1:35:17] Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. Come on up.

[1:35:22] A little bit of the same with the bikes. Um, I live on Locust next to Terry Marshall. Paul seven Locust. Um, I got kids and I'm clocking them because I'm on my bike and I know I'm doing 20 and I have kids on scooters that are passing me ten and 11 years old. Presumably they're going to be in these lanes too, because they're all over the place. If you have two dedicated bike lanes, there's going to be more bikes on them interacting with the stop signs, busses, rush hour traffic. Because if you put more lanes there and they know they can be there, they're going to be there. So how do we police that? How do we take care of it? Because frankly, you know, you see what's happening in Boston, you get six, what, five kids already this spring dead in the state, you know, running into busses and stuff on, on scooters. And, uh, it just it's crazy. You know.

[1:36:22] I hear So the bike lanes are great because they get the bikes out of the traffic. Oh yeah. But again.

[1:36:30] There's going to be an increased number. And now they're going to be at the stop signs at the crosswalks everywhere else.

[1:36:36] Yeah.

[1:36:36] Yeah. So I think there's a whole lot to chew on here.

[1:36:39] Yeah. It's certainly something that has to be addressed.

[1:36:42] Yeah.

[1:36:43] Thank you.

[1:36:43] Thanks, Marshall.

[1:36:44] Yeah.

[1:36:45] Anybody else? Come on up.

[1:36:54] Alan Stearns to Matthew Circle and owner of 261 Main Street commercial property on Main Street. Um, uh, the bus stop on in front of 261 Main Street. There's a concern when there's a bus stop in front of commercial property in this town. If you go when you have a tenant going, a potential tenant going for a, um, a permit, an occupancy permit, they do need to include parking spaces. As of right now, we have four parking spaces in front of our property. Now, with a bus stop in front of a commercial property, they lose the parking spots.

[1:37:36] AM I correct by saying that? S7:

[1:37:40] Uh, one more right there.

[1:37:42] Right there.

[1:37:44] So right there, that is my property and my tenants. And I'm a tenant also. We rely on those parking spots. Um, it could be a problem for potential future tenants when one leaves. Now we don't have the packing. So if you could just consider that there is plenty of space south of my property where and it's right behind the seniors. I don't think they call it the senior center anymore. Housing, the housing, federal housing that's back there. That's if it's moved south. There's plenty of open land right there. So with no businesses or residents.

[1:38:26] Yeah. Mr.. Mr.. That's one of the things that Selectman Davis had mentioned.

[1:38:29] Yes. Thank you for bringing that up.

[1:38:32] Go near residential property rather than parking from commercial. Thank you. We want to get more business in town.

[1:38:41] Yeah. Yeah. Right. But thank you.

[1:38:44] Thank you for your concern.

[1:38:45] Thank you.

[1:38:47] Anybody else?

[1:38:57] Donna Dionne, seven Sullivan Boulevard. I'm also a business owner on Main Street. 304 Main Street. And we have four businesses in our building. We're right on the corner, and we have parking in the front. And if we lose those, we only have a driveway next to CVS and it's a right of way. It's actually, we're not even supposed to be parking there, but we do. We're against the building. We have maybe two. Or we can squeeze three customers who come to park there. And if we lose in front, I, like I said, there's four businesses in our building alone, which is going to be a problem. The other businesses in town, they have parking behind their buildings. We don't have that because we have another building behind us. Right. And they have businesses who park there too.

[1:40:02] Right on Sutton.

[1:40:03] So it's a major concern losing those parking spaces on Main Street.

[1:40:08] Yes. So she's on the corner of Sutton Ave and Main.

[1:40:10] I'm right on the corner.

[1:40:11] Really? Yeah. Right.

[1:40:13] It's the barber shop, and we have skin skincare and we have massage therapy and we have a computer business too in our building. So there's four of us just in that first floor on that building. Yeah. So it's, it's a concern.

[1:40:30] And it's right there at the queue on the corner there.

[1:40:32] So yeah. Eric, Eric's cutting edge.

[1:40:35] Yeah. Eric's cutting.

[1:40:36] Edge. Yeah. Eric's cutting edge. Yeah. I'm a business owner.

[1:40:40] So I.

[1:40:41] Mean.

[1:40:42] It's another concern there it goes back. We want to attract more business. We don't want to lose what we have. We want to build on what we have. And we want to be a destination. Downtown should be a destination, not a pass through.

[1:40:53] Yeah. David touched on that too, about taking those parking spots on Sutton Ave on the left side. Yeah, that will that will affect her parking too. That everybody kind of.

[1:41:01] Right. Yeah. Right. Because the other businesses behind us, they park there and some of my clients park on Sutton Ave too, so they can.

[1:41:09] Not a lot of parking.

[1:41:10] There's not, there's.

[1:41:11] Not, there's not a lot there either.

[1:41:12] Spots. there.

[1:41:13] Just just to help clarify for for Donna. Are we proposing taking those spots out in front of her?

[1:41:20] Are you taking the ones in front of.

[1:41:22] I can't.

[1:41:23] 3 or.

[1:41:23] 4 picture, but.

[1:41:25] I'm on the corner. Right on the corner. Going on to satnav.

[1:41:29] Uh, it does retain some of the parking spaces, but I do believe it loses either 1 or 2. I can see if I have a note for that. Um, yeah. So along the stretch of Sutton Ave currently there's two less spaces than there were.

[1:41:42] No. But this would be on Main Street.

[1:41:43] This would be on Main Street.

[1:41:45] On the corner.

[1:41:45] Thank you.

[1:41:46] That's where the bike lane is going to be.

[1:41:48] Yes. There are no parking spaces that close to the intersection. Um, it would be. We're not able to have parking within 20ft of a crosswalk, 30ft of a signalized intersection. So to have them between that driveway and the intersection is not something that MassDOT would ever approve.

[1:42:08] So she'd lose.

[1:42:08] Those.

[1:42:09] Would be gone.

[1:42:10] That Main street.

[1:42:10] Parking.

[1:42:11] Yes, that would be the bike route.

[1:42:13] Uh, that would be where the right turn lane is. Uh.

[1:42:17] Well, it could be anything, but it can't be parking because of the 20 foot rule.

[1:42:22] 30ft from a single intersection.

[1:42:24] Okay.

[1:42:25] So she she, should she lose her parking?

[1:42:28] So how was that? How was it able to happen now?

[1:42:31] Um, essentially it's currently illegal parking, even though it's currently striped, it's not actually legal.

[1:42:38] It's not legal.

[1:42:40] Not I mean, you know, not that it, I'm not saying it should be enforced as a legal parking, but, you know, technically it's not allowed to be there currently.

[1:42:49] We'll call it grandfathered in for the moment.

[1:42:52] For the moment. Yeah.

[1:42:53] Okay.

[1:42:54] I think the slide before actually shows it a little.

[1:42:56] A little better. Yeah. It's right on the line there.

[1:42:58] Right there.

[1:42:59] Wow.

[1:43:01] So and then you're going to lose 1 or 2.

[1:43:03] On through and takes takes all of our parking.

[1:43:06] Wow.

[1:43:08] Um, so we can look at including some further back, but right up against the intersection to that side of the driveway wouldn't be able to be there to the south of that driveway. We can look at trying to incorporate some more there.

[1:43:22] Yeah. Near the insurance company. We're trying to put some more parking there. I know it's a little bit of a walk to to your shop.

[1:43:30] Yeah, I was just reading that we have four businesses in our building.

[1:43:33] Right. Like I said, that's why we're trying to pick up some. Yeah. You know, we're the.

[1:43:38] Plus all the, you know, employees.

[1:43:41] Yeah.

[1:43:42] Have to park too.

[1:43:43] Yeah. Well, just one person in each business. That's four. Right. There you go. That's four right there. Not counting customers. Yeah.

[1:43:50] Oh, wow.

[1:43:52] So it's.

[1:43:53] Concerning. I've always thought it was kind of wasted space near the insurance company there with the the island and the, the two parking spaces. So hopefully we can build some, some more parking there to try to make up for some of the ones that legal.

[1:44:07] Yeah, because the building beyond Oxford insurance, they have parking in the back. That building that was redone over there, parking in the back. Most of them do. Yeah. You have parking in the back and your barber shop too. So yeah.

[1:44:22] No, it's it's like I was saying with the church. Yeah.

[1:44:26] That's that's.

[1:44:27] Concerning.

[1:44:27] They don't have children and.

[1:44:28] They don't have any.

[1:44:29] Place to.

[1:44:29] Put parking, you know, even if they wanted to, there's no land. So. Mhm. Um, that's why it's good to have these discussions.

[1:44:37] Right.

[1:44:38] So thank you for bringing that to our attention. Thank you.

[1:44:40] Thank you. Thanks.

[1:44:41] Anybody else?

[1:44:56] Uh, Mark.

[1:44:57] 8571 Main Street. But I also own a property at 242 Main Street where my mother lives. Um, I'm all for, you know, this. I believe bikes are referred to as like micromobility. I think that's how they refer to transportation. Um, as I've watched things evolve, the town has planted a lot of trees. Now I would ask the town, where does the right of way, we'll call it on the east side of Main Street. What is the right of way? Actually begin right now for what the town owns. Does it start at the sidewalk and go to the center line, or does it start at the curb and just cover the asphalt? And the reason I ask this is when my parents moved into 242 Main Street 59 years ago. At one point, the town maintained the grass from the sidewalk to the street. They mowed it. They picked up the leaves in the fall and over time it stopped. I can't tell you when it stopped. So my concern is that when we do this and we create this little green strip between the mobility lane for bicycles, who's taking care of that property? Who's taking care of that strip of grass. And I've left that property right now to the south of my mother's property is Hometown Liquors. That parking lot is extremely busy. Probably busier than CVS. Okay. Cars going in and out of that right now. When you pull out to the end of that driveway and you go to route 12, you look one way and you look the other way. Sidewalks are pretty clear. You can see no one's going to sneak up on you when they're walking and you're pulling out of your driveway. But we're talking about e-bikes and we're talking about bicycles moving, and we're talking about pulling that in. Now you have a mobility lane that's not lit. So I'm pulling out of a driveway. Elderly people, somebody's pulling out of the driveway, and I got a bicycle that's traveling at 20 miles an hour. I could hit them. The new LED lights that we have, they're very focal. They point down the street. Right now, I have a problem. I have a problem with a commercial property across from my house at 571 Main Street. That replaced their lights on their sign, and it's pointing up.

[1:47:00] First light. first one. The first one.

[1:47:03] Uh!

[1:47:06] Oh!

[1:47:06] Go back!

[1:47:07] Back.

[1:47:08] There you go.

[1:47:09] No!

[1:47:10] Keep going back!

[1:47:10] Come on. Again.

[1:47:13] Back again.

[1:47:16] Fair lawn. There you go.

[1:47:17] So this.

[1:47:19] This is the dentist office. This is hometown Liquors. This is the driveway to my property at 242 Main Street. So now you're pulling out and and I get it. I understand, you know, we're all about mobility. So right now I don't think that bike lanes are going to bring more bikes to town. We're just moving the bikes that we have to another lane and making it safer for them. But are we putting them at more risk by putting them in a lane? So like right now in my mother's property, this driveway right here, there's a tree right here that the town planted behind the tree. There's a concrete pylon that has one of the, the speed limits to say, oh my God, you're going too fast. Which during the summer, when the trees are in bloom, you can't see the speed sign. It's hidden by the tree. So whoever placed it there, whenever it was sighted, it was sited poorly. They just said, put one here and they came in. The contractor put one in there. And then when it's during the summertime, you can't read that street sign for five months, six months of the year until the leaves fall off. And then you can see the sign. So so that sign's going to move. But there's lots of trees that the town has planted, the Boy Scouts have planted on behalf of the town, and those are part of the beautification that, you know, some of those trees are ten years old. Some of those trees are 20 years old. And we're hoping that someday those trees would be 50 or 100 years old. We dig them up. Do we need to move them? Do we cut them down? You know, I don't know if that's part of the plan. I would tend to say that these circles are trees and stuff like that. I'm all for sewer. But if we bury sewer in the ground and we don't take full advantage of it, then we have to go back and dig it up. When we're doing tees and ties off for easements, entitlements like that, that's a very complex project. I was kind of, you know, upset we weren't losing the utilities as well. You know, I do work in Holden and that whole stretch of Main Street, everything is buried in the ground a little bit different for them. They control their light division. They really control the utility company. So it's a little different rules of engagement for them there. The utility company. But I understand it. You know, there are as John has said, the state has their fingers into things and you get the money, but it comes with strings. I understand that, but we just need to think through this as to, you know, are we creating we create safe paths for people, but are we creating other hazards that put them at risk? And I just want to kind of think about that as we kind of jump into this from this moving forward and stuff.

[1:49:38] Mark, I think the lighting situation that you brought up is something to be considered. Thank you. Yeah.

[1:49:44] So I think the whole thing, you know, taking down the trees. I know the Boy Scouts have planted a lot of trees up and down. You know, start hacking them out. You know, trying to replant takes years and years and years to get that back.

[1:49:57] Yeah, I just, you know, I was involved with scouts. My boys are 26 now, and I look around ones we planted over on the back side of the parking lot behind the community center, and just to see how, how tall they are now. And I remember popping them in the ground when they were only eight feet tall. So now we're looking at trees that are 20, 25ft tall. And, um, you know, it's all part of the beautification and the master plan of keeping the, the character that we have of downtown. So I don't want to see it go backwards. That's all. Thank you very much.

[1:50:22] Thank you. Thank you.

[1:50:23] Anybody else?

[1:50:24] It's been someone very patient in the back.

[1:50:30] Hello.

[1:50:31] Um.

[1:50:32] My name is Eric Marlowe.

[1:50:34] Um, my family recently purchased a home at 270 Main Street from Grace Episcopal Church. Um, we don't live there yet, but we rent it, and we're looking to move into the second unit, which we're currently working on. So we're excited about the town and was very excited to hear about this project happening. Um, I've been trying to follow along and I printed out what was online. I think this may be different from what you presented. Is that correct? I'm not sure if anybody's aware of that, but so it seems like there might have been some differences, but I'm again, excited about the project and I think has a ton of potential to improve the whole downtown district. Um, I had a few thoughts about it. The, I think the first point on this list, project goals that said, introduce safe transportation alternatives. Um, I think safety should be a given. I think we probably all agree with that. Try to get as safe as possible. That often competes with speed. In my opinion, I think we should take the speed way down and focus on safety. Maybe even above that is the last point here was to create an attractive town center. I think that the whole project should focus on the beauty first. Safety should follow from that. You've mentioned many times about the attractive attractiveness of the town and trying to bring in businesses. Um, I would say that if the project can focus on the beauty of the street and the streetscape. People will want to be here. Businesses want to be here. One reason we decided to buy in Oxford, compared to the many other towns around, is because it does have an attractive downtown that's also somewhat active. We saw a ton of potential here. I'm a little bit worried that some of the moves will detract from that. Um, one example I would say is the desire to try, try to bring more cars through the intersections faster. So for example, at the main intersection of Main Street and Sutton Ave and Charlton, um, if we add lanes there, that's not going to beautify the town. It's going to make it less attractive, less safe, more difficult for pedestrians and bikes. Um, I don't know how many people walk through that intersection. There's a lot of people who live on Main Street or work on Main Street. It's a terrible intersection. Just bluntly, it's it's not attractive. It's not pleasant. You do it in the middle of the summer, 95 degrees and there's very little shade. Try crossing five lanes of traffic. It's terrible. Um, I've done it a few times. It's a very pleasant walk along Main Street. That's the worst part of it. Adding lanes. I don't know if we can pull up that that slide, but adding lanes there is going to make it worse. So I would do what we can to not add lanes. Um, people cutting through town shouldn't be the priority. People living here, working here having businesses should be um, I was wondering if there were precedents that you've looked at for the project in towns that you can show as examples of like, this is what we'd like. We're in Newport yesterday and then last week also for just a little day vacation. It's a beautiful town. It's amazing. And you can walk like that should be a precedent for what Oxford should want, I think is like walkable streets, biking, plenty of activity. They have restaurants that pull right out onto the into a parking lane. They take a parking spot and put a put patio there. Um, it's common in New York City and other bigger cities as well. Um, for the main intersection. Thought that I had that it's a little bit out there, but have you considered a roundabout at the main intersection? I know they're contentious. Visit Hudson. It's beautiful. The downtown and Hudson, they put a roundabout in. I'm not sure when. Maybe you're familiar with it. Five, ten years ago. The town is booming. Business is everywhere around. You can just step out and walk right around the the the main intersection. I looked up traffic counts today. I think they get 12,000. Um, what is the average daily traffic counts 12,000 on those main streets through that intersection? I don't think Oxford Center is much more than that. Much different. If we can get 5000 cars off it, bring it into that. And that was 2021 or 2022 numbers, I think. So anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. I'm happy to participate moving forward. I love all these meetings. So I'll be here again.

[1:54:55] Thank you, thank you.

[1:54:56] Thank you for your comments.

[1:54:57] Anybody else?

[1:54:58] Do we know what the what the traffic count is through town on average?

[1:55:03] Uh, around 14,000, 14,000.

[1:55:05] That's what I.

[1:55:05] Thought. Um.

[1:55:07] And I think originally, because this goes back five years, along with the bump out that Terry brought up, as far as that's gone, I call it bump up, but pardon me, uh, was a roundabout initially, and I think everybody lost their hair over that, so to speak.

[1:55:25] Yes. A roundabout was um, we actually have some concepts from years ago, uh, of a roundabout that was put through the intersection control evaluation process with MassDOT. Um, there were various constraints with that. Um, it was a bit before I was here, but my understanding is that it ended up coming down to physical constraints with the, the amount of, um, lanes that would be needed in it. But that is something that MassDOT looked at, town has looked at and evaluated, and they do heavily lean towards roundabouts when they're feasible.

[1:55:59] They couldn't fit it in without taking businesses off the corners. Basically. Essentially the four corners would, would you know, the tag building, the.

[1:56:08] Well, they can make it happen in Kelley Square in Worcester. Yeah. You're losing happen anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. And that works pretty good. Kelley Square.

[1:56:17] Yeah.

[1:56:17] But I don't see a lot of businesses that got moved. They get added.

[1:56:21] But no but to put the lanes in we would be taking some of the the four corners. That's the problem. We'd lose the the drugstore on the one corner opposite the. Well that's a tattoo parlor. I'm dating myself and then the Cumberland Farms and then the tag building. Yeah. And then I.

[1:56:39] Was going to say, I think the challenge here was when we laid it out that operationally it needed more than a single lane on some of the movements.

[1:56:45] It needed a bigger, bigger, bigger circle. And that knocked all the knocked the four corners out.

[1:56:52] Gotcha. Okay.

[1:56:54] But I know it was discussed. They ran it up the pole. All right. Anybody else? If not, um. Thank you. Where is this going.

[1:57:02] To take you guys.

[1:57:03] And thank I thank you all in the audience, the public. And please encourage people that weren't here, your friends and neighbors, to listen to tonight's meeting and come to the next one. We're going to have many more. I mean, this is a journey.

[1:57:15] Especially if they have suggestions.

[1:57:16] Yes, please. And you can submit your suggestions to Town Hall. Our town manager would be more than happy to listen and put it in writing or whatever. Text us whatever you have our reach out to the board members. We want to hear what you have your thoughts as we move forward. Thank you again. Go ahead.

[1:57:33] If I may, to just on a couple of things that were brought up, I would just mention, too, that, um, ornamental lighting being added to the project is part of this as far as increasing lighting and the beautification that comes with that. Um, you know, we have a landscape architect who's working on it. Um, and then also, uh, a strong effort to retain trees was put into it. That was actually part of our argument to MassDOT to allow the sidewalks to stay as far away as they are to reduce impacts of trees. So, um, there is a substantial amount of effort in keeping trees and adding street lighting as well. And so I just want to bring those up as well as some, some highlights for it.

[1:58:10] All right. Thank you. Thank both of you. Thank you for your time.

[1:58:14] Thank you.

[1:58:14] Working with you going forward.

[1:58:15] Thank you gentlemen.

[1:58:16] Thank you. Appreciate it very.

[1:58:17] Much, both of you. Thank you again. All right. Uh, it being 9:00. Uh, I want to continue the public hearing for egg laying chickens and ducks. That was scheduled for 730. Uh, the application for a new license for egg laying chickens and ducks. Quantity of six or under at 160 Sutton Avenue, Oxford. Submitted by Michelle King. Uh.

[1:58:40] I move that the Board of Selectmen open the continuation of the public hearing for egg laying chickens and ducks. Quantity of six and under. Located at 160 Sutton Ave, Oxford, mass. Submitted by Michelle King at 8:59 p.m..

[1:58:56] All right. Uh, we have to take a roll call to open the meeting.

[1:58:58] We need a second.

[1:58:59] Second. Second. Roll call.

[1:59:01] Selectman Rowe. Yes.

[1:59:03] Yes. Yes.

[1:59:04] Selectman. Davis. Yes.

[1:59:05] Selectman. Ewell. Yes. Okay. Uh, at this time, is there any members of the public who want to speak to regarding the application for this, uh, egg? Uh, this chicken, uh, six or under at 160 Main Street. Uh, any member of the public? 1611 60 yeah. Sutton Ave we moved.

[1:59:26] Yeah.

[1:59:27] Is there anybody that. No, I guess not.

[1:59:30] All right.

[1:59:31] All right. Anybody any board members have any questions from the handouts? I think we look pretty. From what I saw, the pictures and everything. The area for the where the chickens are going to be kept was pretty done. Well, I was pretty professional. I thought. Well thought out. Thank you. Oh. All right. Nice job.

[1:59:55] All right. If if there's no questions then I will entertain a motion.

[2:00:00] I move that the Board of Selectmen closed the public hearing for egg laying chickens and ducks. Quantity of six and under. Located at 160 Sutton Ave, Oxford, mass. Submitted by Michelle King at 9 p.m.. Second Selectman Rowe. Yes.

[2:00:16] Yes. Is there anything you guys want to say before we vote? You've been here an hour and a half. You guys are good. You just want the. Yes. All right, all right. I'm just going to. I just wanted to thank you for your patience. Yes.

[2:00:28] Selectman. Davis. Yes.

[2:00:30] Selectman. Newell. Yes. All right. That closes a public meeting. I move that the board approve.

[2:00:40] You want to do the motion? S7:

[2:00:52] Second.

[2:00:54] All those in favor? S7:

[2:00:55] Passes unanimously. Thank you for your patience and a nice job on your layout for the pictures.

[2:01:00] Yeah. Nice job.

[2:01:02] Thank you.

[2:01:03] Good luck.

[2:01:04] Yes. Good luck.

[2:01:05] Yeah.

[2:01:08] All right.

[2:01:09] Yeah. You're good.

[2:01:09] No ducks. Just chickens.

[2:01:11] Yeah.

[2:01:12] Maybe. Yeah.

[2:01:13] All right. Good.

[2:01:15] Thank you guys.

[2:01:15] Thank you.

[2:01:16] Thank you.

[2:01:17] Where are we at? Next, we have application for a new class two motor vehicle. Yep.

[2:01:26] She was supposed to pay for it. The animal control officer. But I had to pay for it.

[2:01:32] You can stop by town hall.

[2:01:33] Town hall in the morning. Yeah.

[2:01:35] Yeah. It doesn't have to be tonight.

[2:01:36] Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow. Yeah.

[2:01:40] Application for class two. Motor vehicle license. Uh, dealer license. Submitted by Michael Chen. Elite motor. Oxford Motors at 381 Main Street, Oxford, Ma 01540. Um, and it's for ten vehicles and there's no repair, uh, just sale of the ten vehicles bodywork. No.

[2:02:05] All right, mister Chair. Yeah. Um, the last, the last time that that business came before the board. Yeah. Uh, I was told by the state that because I live one street away that I cannot participate even though I cannot see them. And I certainly support what they're doing. I can't participate.

[2:02:26] So you're going to accuse yourself? Yeah. All right.

[2:02:29] I'll be here till till you're done.

[2:02:30] All right. Thank you. All right. So I move that the Board of Selectmen approved the application for Michelle Michael Chan, DBA elite, Oxford Motors, for a new class two motor vehicle dealer license at 381 Main Street.

[2:02:53] Do I hear a second? All those in favor? S9:

[2:02:55] All right. Mr. Monroe, you can come back.

[2:03:00] Thank you. Michael. Congratulations. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[2:03:04] All right.

[2:03:04] Good luck. Thank you.

[2:03:07] All right. The next is a discussion for the possible vote to appoint Joanne Summers to the Oxford Historical Commission.

[2:03:18] I move that the Board of Selectmen approved the appointment of Joanne Summers to the Oxford Historical Commission.

[2:03:26] For a three year term expiring in 2029.

[2:03:29] Second.

[2:03:30] All those in favor? Aye passes unanimously. Thank you, Michelle, for your service. All right.

[2:03:37] Joanne.

[2:03:37] Joanne. Joanne. Pardon me.

[2:03:38] And and she'll be a great addition to that.

[2:03:41] Yes. She's what 40 years. Don't volunteering. Yeah. Uh, request for outdoor license permits for the events of October 24th. Submitted by Shelly Lambert, community center director. Uh, so they're looking for a common event license for the community center.

[2:04:01] I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the permit application from Shelly Lambert, Community center Director, on October 24th, 2026.

[2:04:11] Second.

[2:04:12] All right. This is for scarecrows on the common. Call for the vote.

[2:04:16] Yes. Yes. Yes.

[2:04:17] Yes. Yes. Yes. Passes unanimously. Halloween is around the corner.

[2:04:21] Thank you. Shelly.

[2:04:22] Thank you. Shelley. Yes.

[2:04:25] Another request for outdoor business permit, outdoor entertainment license and bandstand use approval submitted by Francis King of the Lions Club for outdoor event scheduled on September the 26th.

[2:04:38] I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the application for an outdoor entertainment license and bandstand use for an outdoor event scheduled on September 26th, 2026. Submitted by Francis King of the Lions Club.

[2:04:51] Second. All those in favor? I.

[2:04:59] Had a request for.

[2:05:00] Motion carried unanimously.

[2:05:01] Yes. Carried unanimously. Yes, please. Sorry. Thank you. Getting late. Request for Clara Barton. Parent teacher. Organization for hawkers. Peddler. License for two events, one on 17th of September and one on October 23rd. Um.

[2:05:19] I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the application for a hawker peddler license from Clara Barton, Parent Teacher Organization, for two events on September 17th, 2026 and October 23rd, 2026.

[2:05:33] Second. Second.

[2:05:34] All those in favor?

[2:05:35] Aye aye aye.

[2:05:36] Passes unanimously. Next is the discussion of possible Board of Selectmen contributions for the time capsule to be opened on America's 300th anniversary. This is. We're 250, so that'd be 50 years from now. Um, so they suggest the motion is that the board, uh, entertain contributions to the 300th anniversary time capsule.

[2:06:08] Do you want to make a motion on that one? S7:

[2:06:10] Well, that's that's the that's the follow. I mean, we we have stuff we're putting in, and we're going to be.

[2:06:16] All right. Let me move it and we'll go from there. I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the contribution to the 300th anniversary time capsule.

[2:06:23] Second.

[2:06:24] Okay. Discussion. The. We have a proclamation that I'll be reading in the next. In the next item agenda. And we're asking the community and the board to submit items that they feel are of a significant nature of our community currently to be reflected on 50 years from now. We've already put the annual report in. There may be other things like stuff we talked about tonight. Master plan, I don't know. There's different things, but it's up to you now. We're looking for the Historical commission and others to come up with some things that they want to put in. We are going to be voting on a proclamation that will be put in from us that we'll all sign this evening if the motion passes. So. Any other conversations or discussions as far we're moving ahead. I don't know if any of us are going to be here 50 years from now, but that's That's what we're looking to do. Put stuff in to be opened up on our 300th anniversary.

[2:07:25] Justin's got the best shot at that.

[2:07:28] Mr. chair, I'm not sure. Do you want to read the, uh, the proclamation? So these folks know what they're.

[2:07:33] Yes.

[2:07:34] The proposal is here.

[2:07:35] Okay, I'll do that. All right. All right. It says, please read. So this is celebrating the 300th anniversary of the United States of America. Whereas the United States of America, founded in 1776, will commence commemorate its 300th anniversary in 2076. And whereas the American 300th anniversary provide an opportunity to honor Oxford's rich history, recognize the people and events that have shaped our community, and to celebrate the traditions and accomplishments that continue to define our town. And whereas the town of Oxford recognizes the importance of preserving history, documenting the people, events, experiences, and achievements that have contributed to the story of our nation and our local community. And whereas a time capsule provides a lasting connection between generations, allowing future Americans and residents of Oxford to look back and gain insight into the people, places, events, accomplishments, and everyday experiences that were meaningful at the time of the of its creation. And Whereas, the Oxford Board of Selectmen recognizes the significance of the America's 300th anniversary and wishes to contribute meaningful photographs, messages, memorabilia, documents and other items that represent the town of Oxford and its community as part of the historic historic milestone. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Board of Selectmen, Oxford Board of Selectmen encouraged the members of the community to participate in commemorating Oxford's 300th anniversary by contributing meaningful items and messages that will provide future generations with a glimpse into the people history, values and community of Oxford and the United States. Be it further proclaimed that the town of Oxford proudly recognizes and celebrates the 300th anniversary of the United States of America and its and its honor to preserve a lasting peace of our community's history for future generations. Given on the eighth day of September 2026. So that's the proclamation that we. I'm going to have a motion to accept that proclamation. So you want to make the motion.

[2:09:49] We have a motion on the floor. Yeah. Uh P.

[2:09:55] Yeah, we kind of.

[2:09:56] It's kind of broken into two parts, if I may. Um, yeah. The first is to, to vote to accept the contribution. The second is to actually approve the, the document that you'll be submitting.

[2:10:06] All right. So, uh, why don't we do the one that's on the floor? Yeah. Uh, which is to accept to approve the contribution. So I vote yes.

[2:10:16] Yes, yes.

[2:10:17] Yes.

[2:10:18] Yes. Okay. Seconded. Was who? Seconded? Second. Second. Yes. Okay. Now we're on the second one. The proclamation itself.

[2:10:26] You got it. I move to accept the proclamation contributing to the America's 300th anniversary time capsule.

[2:10:34] Second.

[2:10:35] Second.

[2:10:36] All right.

[2:10:37] All those in favor? S9:

[2:10:39] Passes unanimously. So that'll be something we'll all sign. And in 50 years, they'll open it up and see who we were.

[2:10:46] Thank you.

[2:10:47] John, if anybody wants to put anything in, uh, just.

[2:10:53] Uh, please contact the Oxford Community Center. Um, as part of the event we had just a couple weeks back. Um, we did have a few departments that didn't get an opportunity to submit part of that. So the time capsule hasn't been sealed yet. So, uh, naturally want the board to, to be able to submit something, you know, a little bit more official. I believe we're still waiting on the library. There's a couple of other departments, like I said. So if anybody wants to, um, please contact the Oxford Community Center if you want to contribute some.

[2:11:19] Thank you.

[2:11:19] And hopefully they're coordinating it.

[2:11:21] Yeah. Yes. Historical commission will contribute some things to anything. That's reminiscence of who we are today. Right? Okay. Now the next item is the discussion of possible vote to sponsor the Board of Selectmen Town meeting. Article related to renaming the Board of Selectmen to select board. Uh, the suggested motion.

[2:11:43] You want to read that? S7:

[2:11:48] Sponsor the.

[2:11:49] Sponsor. The Board of Selectmen town meeting. Article related to renaming. Board of Selectmen to select board.

[2:11:55] Second. Second.

[2:11:56] Second. Uh. All right. Discussion.

[2:11:59] Um, I'm the one that brought this up. Uh.

[2:12:05] Being the 250th anniversary of our nation. Um, I thought it might be time to update our wording. And I especially want to mention Alice Walker, who was the first female.

[2:12:22] Board of selectmen member. And that was in 1980. So 46 years ago.

[2:12:28] Her and Paul.

[2:12:29] And we've had many women on the board since then. And I think it's just time to to update.

[2:12:37] Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for bringing it forward.

[2:12:39] Yeah. You're welcome.

[2:12:41] I just just Justin and I have talked about this because if you read the article, the warrant which which the town meeting has to approve. So the articles on the warrant.

[2:12:54] This is just to get it on the warrant.

[2:12:55] This is getting out formally by the board. So. And it will read, I think in your handout you'll see section one, section two. Whereas the General Special law to the contrary, the Board of Selectmen of the town of Oxford shall be referred to as the Select Board of the town of Oxford, an individual member of said board shall be referred to as a member of the Select Board. Section two. All references in the charter of the town of Oxford, or any special act to the board of the Board of Selectmen, shall be deemed to refer to the Select Board, or of the town of Oxford. And references to selectmen or selectmen shall be deemed to refer to the Select Board Member or Select Board Members, if applicable. All these. All these. This act shall take effect upon passage at Town Meeting. So I don't know as far as the charter goes, and I think I mentioned I asked you at the beginning of the meeting if there's any cost associated with this. Is this just something that automatically will just transcend to all our, our, our, our Constitution, our charter, and any other policies or whatever, what, what documents will be, will have to reflect this change. So what's the impact cost wise, if there's any? Maybe not.

[2:14:10] Mr. chair, through, um, I have reached out to legal counsel to get a cost estimate. Unfortunately, I couldn't pull that together for for this meeting tonight. Um, however, you know, the vote before you was to place it on the warrant. Now, we've already put a placeholder in because the due date was, you know, August 28th. But we wanted the board to, you know, formally deliberate on whether or not they wanted to change its name, um, with a vote tonight that would go forward. So you get another approval for next week to approve the next week, two weeks from now to approve the actual town meeting warrant.

[2:14:43] We could speak to it.

[2:14:44] You could speak to it then. Um, I hope by that time we have a cost estimate so I can inform the board so we can I.

[2:14:49] I'm assuming it's nominal, but I somebody out there is going to want to raise the question. I'd like to head them off at the pass so to speak. So we have an answer ahead of time.

[2:14:56] As long as we have an answer before.

[2:14:59] Somebody's going to raise that question. Certainly. I just want to be able to.

[2:15:02] Because it would require a legal, uh, an update of the town charter and the bylaws. Any reference to the bylaws? So once I get that, I'm happy to share that.

[2:15:09] I'm assuming it would be minimal as far as cost, but I want to someone's going to raise their hand and ask it. So I'd like to be prepared.

[2:15:16] Yeah, it's a good question.

[2:15:19] All right. It's been seconded. Uh, vote.

[2:15:22] I, I, I.

[2:15:24] I.

[2:15:24] I unanimous thank you. Thank you. All right. Next item on the agenda is manager's report.

[2:15:34] All right. Thank you very much. Members of the board. First item I have this evening is the Lowe's Pond Dam. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation will be hosting a ribbon cutting on October 1st, 2026 at 12 p.m., marking the completion of the Lowe's Pond Dam rehabilitation Project. Lowe's Pond Dam was an abandoned dam that had extensive physical deterioration and seepage, affecting the ability of the dam to safely impound water. Oxford was selected by the Office of Dam Safety to participate in the six abandoned dam pilot program where DCR would rehabilitate the dam in the town of Oxford, would take ownership responsibility. If any member of the Board of Selectmen would like to speak on behalf of the town at this event, please let us know in advance and we can make the necessary arrangements. Again, that's October 1st at.

[2:16:24] 12:35.

[2:16:25] P.m..

[2:16:26] I think it's a Thursday.

[2:16:27] It's a Thursday.

[2:16:28] It's a Thursday.

[2:16:29] I'll take your word for it. The. But again, if any member wants to speak, DCR will be there. There's be other representatives there speaking. Uh, next item I have is Veterans Resource Day. The South Central District Veterans Services will be hosting a Veterans Resource Day on October 14th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this event will take place at the Southbridge Community Center, 153 Central Street in Southbridge. Local organizations, agencies, and community partners will be available to share resources and services available to veterans, including VA benefits, employment, career support, housing assistance, health and wellness, and chapter 115 assistance.

[2:17:15] For any information, please contact the Oxford Veterans Agent, David Adams at (508) 987-6034 S12:

[2:17:26] Even though it's in Southbridge.

[2:17:27] It's correct. Even though and the veterans agent didn't did inform me that they do plan on having this annually in different. So maybe Oxford will be chosen next year.

[2:17:34] Might be.

[2:17:35] Yeah.

[2:17:36] Traveling. Yeah.

[2:17:36] Correct. The next item I have is the bulk item. Drop off bulk item drop off days are coming up. Uh, bulk drop off receives items at no charge starting on Saturday, October 31st for Oxford residents living in North Oxford and Saturday, November 7th for residents living in South Oxford on both days. The North Oxford Transfer Station will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

[2:18:04] Please contact the Department of Public Works at (508) 987-6006 S12:

[2:19:10] Next item is the RT Advisory Board. Um, they're seeking volunteers from Oxford or a volunteer from Oxford rather to serve as the writer community Population representative. This is a position for someone who is a fixed route writer and is. This position is separate from the current representative of the RT Advisory Board. Responsibilities include attending the monthly RTA board meetings, which occur every third Thursday of the month at 8 a.m. the meetings may be attended by Zoom webinar or in person at the RTA hub, 60 Foster Street, third floor in Worcester, mass. This is a voting position. If interested, please contact the Town Manager's office for consideration. The deadline for responses is October 17th, 2026.

[2:19:56] And community events. I just want to mention the final event of the bandstand Summer concert series will take place this Sunday, September 13th, and will feature Chuck and mud and the Hole in the Dam Band from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. this concert is free and made possible by the Oxford Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council. Please bring your friends and family chairs, blankets and picnics. As part of the 250th anniversary celebration events, there will be a North Cemetery Veterans Walk with Terry Cummings on Sunday, September 20th beginning at 2 p.m.. Mr. Cummings, a member of the Historical Commission and longtime Oxford resident, will lead the tour and share the history of the veterans and other individuals interred at the cemetery. We invite residents to join this informative look into Oxford's history. And finally, I want to announce Oxford's seventh annual scarecrows on the common will be held Saturday, October 24th, 2026 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Joslin Park. This event will feature vendors, live music, the Sutton Dancing Witches games, a children's costume parade, and handcrafted scarecrows. The Scarecrow contest is open to individuals, businesses and families. Please visit www.oxforddnb.com to register. Celebrate the season and help fill the town common with scarecrows for everyone to enjoy. And that concludes the manager's report for this evening.

[2:21:20] All right.

[2:21:21] Ah, it's like when Davis. Selectman. Comments. Announcements. Any.

[2:21:25] Uh, congratulations to Kenny. Officially. Uh, official fire chief. Uh, also, uh, Ashlyn Mercier just went through the Miss America pageant, and, um, from what I was told, she did a great job there. So nice to, uh, nice to see somebody local. Thank you.

[2:21:43] Yeah, just ditto to what Phil said. And it's been a long night, so I'm going to pass quickly. Thank you for all that came out though. It was great to hear. Public voice, resonant voices. So thank you to everyone who came out, actually. Yep. So I'm good.

[2:21:58] I'm good. Thank you.

[2:21:59] Yes, Miss Mercer. She walked away with some money. Uh, some scholarship money. That's great. Heard about $50,000, if I understand. According to my wife. That's true. But it's great. She plans on continuing her education, so that's great. So she represented our community and the state of Massachusetts very nicely.

[2:22:18] Nice to meet you, chief.

[2:22:20] All right. Uh, I'm going to entertain a vote to go into executive session for the following matters.

[2:22:26] Congrats. Thank you very much.

[2:22:27] The purpose of the executive session for the following matters. And I'm going to read it. Mass General Law, chapter 38, section 21, a two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with nonunion personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel. And this would be the our police chief. I, I so declare.

[2:22:51] I move that the board approve the.

[2:22:56] Man on the right spot? Sure.

[2:22:59] I got to read this, by the way. The meeting will not reconvene in open session. A majority vote is in the record. The recorded roll call is necessary to go forward. So we're going to have a roll call on this.

[2:23:12] Motion to enter executive session.

[2:23:14] The motion to enter executive session.

[2:23:16] Uh, I move that we go into executive session for the purpose so stated by the chair. Second.

[2:23:29] All right. We got to take a roll call.

[2:23:31] Selectman Rowe. Yes.

[2:23:32] Yes. Yes.

[2:23:34] Davis. Yes.

[2:23:35] Selectman Ewell. Yes. So we'll take a small recess while we secure the building.

Board of Selectmen Meeting September 8th, 2026

Transcript