[0:00] Yeah, every time I buy them, I think I'm going to like them.

[0:02] Oh.

[0:03] But I just

[0:04] can't like them.

[0:05] You're smart.

[0:07] It is.

[0:08] It is.

[0:09] Take your sweater off. There you go.

[0:12] No.

[0:16] Barbara's

[0:17] like, "This is not what I perceived."

[0:19] Gross.

[0:20] "I will be doing

[0:21] that from

[0:21] home."

[0:26] In

[0:28] January.

[0:29] Oh, that's right. He was going to come, but he found out-

[0:32] That was what? Psychological?

[0:32] Oh, John.

[0:32] Council on the

[0:32] region.

[0:42] That's great. Six. All right.

[0:52] Today is Wednesday, August 26th, 2026, 6:00 PM.

[0:56] We're going to call the meeting to order.

[0:59] Announcement, any audience member recording or videotaping must notify

[1:03] the chair.

[1:04] So hearing, meeting, licenses, appointment, vote may follow.

[1:08] Item A, vote to amend cemetery rules and regulations

[1:12] prohibiting solar light.

[1:15] So we're going to

[1:18] call

[1:20] the committee to come in overall to

[1:23] start.

[1:24] I will call to come up to order.

[1:27] Okay. That's it.

[1:28] That's six oh one.

[1:29] Yeah. They can either stay where they are or come to the front row, whatever they

[1:32] prefer.

[1:33] Would you like us to come to the front row?

[1:35] If you want to be seen.

[1:37] Okay.

[1:37] Where are you... I'm probably going to speak first. Where do you want me to stand?

[1:40] You can sit.

[1:42] I'll move a chair over there.

[1:44] Hey, Gordon.

[1:45] Yeah.

[1:45] Do you want

[1:49] this chair over here?

[1:52] Thank you.

[1:55] No problem.

[1:57] So I will just sit there. Okay.

[2:00] Would've brought my tap dancing shoes.

[2:06] So I'm Gordon Chase. I'm a member of the cemetery committee.

[2:10] Our small group of

[2:12] loyal citizens, I think has

[2:15] labored in a number of capacities to sort of

[2:19] make the records of our cemeteries.

[2:23] And we're speaking of the two cemeteries, one of which is in the center,

[2:27] and one of which is,

[2:29] what's the official name?

[2:30] Village Cemetery.

[2:31] The Village Cemetery.

[2:33] Have labored to keep the records straight and bring things up to date.

[2:37] And so the matter, as we brought to you once before, has to do

[2:40] with whether we can and might make some adjustment to

[2:44] the rules and regulations for what people can and can't do when it comes

[2:48] to

[2:51] commemorating their loved ones, for decorating, for

[2:56] kind of visiting, for

[2:58] acting in ways that sort of

[3:02] make it clear that our cemeteries are shared spaces and kind

[3:06] of offer a kind of shared experience.

[3:09] A much more passive one than some music festival or voting in the

[3:13] town or something. But nonetheless, these pieces of land stand.

[3:17] In our case, these particular cemeteries are

[3:20] historic cemeteries. So, part of, of course, the challenge of

[3:24] any administration like our select board is to

[3:28] obviously balance the needs of the town.

[3:30] And clearly, one of the perennial themes is old versus

[3:34] new and what do we keep, what do we change, what's necessary,

[3:39] and what are we trying to preserve, as well as what do we need to do.

[3:42] If a new bridge needs to be built, it needs to be built.

[3:45] And so I don't think this is quite as simple as old Shirley versus new

[3:49] Shirley, but I think what's at issue is that,

[3:53] I think most of us, particularly who have lived in this town for most of their

[3:57] life, think of this town as having a kind of traditional character.

[4:01] We're a rural town. We're still small enough to think of

[4:05] ourselves as a small town, even though there are contemporary businesses

[4:10] and concerns that obviously make up the

[4:13] lifeblood of this

[4:16] village. So in regards to the cemetery, our

[4:20] proposal was to make

[4:22] and propose

[4:23] a change to what we do and don't allow people to do.

[4:27] We brought this matter to your attention once before, and the

[4:31] specific issue has to do with the sort of growing practice of

[4:35] people installing solar-powered lights

[4:40] on grave sites. It's a more recent practice because these

[4:44] things didn't exist until like 5 or 10 years ago, but they're

[4:47] clearly proliferating, and different towns

[4:52] have taken different approaches to what they do and don't allow.

[4:56] Am I right, Barbara, that

[4:59] our board members received a copy of

[5:03] what I wrote?

[5:04] Yes.

[5:05] All three attachments are in there, Barbara.

[5:07] Right.

[5:08] So-

[5:08] We got the

[5:10] support of the Historical Society,

[5:14] the Historical Commission,

[5:17] and Gordon has done research in

[5:20] adjacent towns, and will report on that to you, what the

[5:24] adjacent towns are doing with this issue.

[5:27] And I just received, before I left here,

[5:32] a letter from Robert Adams, a letter of support that

[5:36] Gordon can read into the record, or I can read it to you.

[5:39] Well, I can, but let me just sort of make our main point here and not take forever

[5:43] to do so.

[5:45] We would like to,

[5:47] as a committee and as the town's historic commission has supported,

[5:51] would like to sort of maintain what we think is the kind of historic

[5:54] character of the two cemeteries at issue.

[5:57] We completely understand how people have deep needs, spiritual

[6:01] needs, and to observe the passing of their

[6:05] family members,

[6:07] whatever the circumstances are. And that's a

[6:11] basic human need and longing and desire, and an important

[6:15] one, and that's why these cemeteries exist, and that's why stones are put up, and

[6:19] people have funerals and come to visit their loved ones and bring

[6:23] flowers and so forth. With that said, it's kind of surprising

[6:27] what the range of practices are for many of the

[6:30] towns in this part of the state.

[6:34] Not surprisingly, towns that are even older, perhaps, or maybe

[6:38] more

[6:41] established in some ways, like Concord or Cambridge, for

[6:44] example. The Town of Concord

[6:48] routinely confiscates any and all decorations

[6:52] and memorabilia that people put on grave sites. They just collect it all.

[6:56] They don't tell anybody, they just collect it.

[6:59] The Town of Cambridge, with Mount Auburn, for example, don't allow

[7:03] anything to be put on graves except for cut flowers.

[7:06] And so they routinely, again, collect things.

[7:09] If people put stuff

[7:11] with the best of intentions, with very personal kinds of intentions, nonetheless,

[7:14] they're rather draconian in their approach and collect everything.

[7:18] So this varies. Most of the towns that I contacted,

[7:22] Groton, Harvard, Townsend, Acton, Pepperell,

[7:26] Marblehead,

[7:29] either prohibit solar lights

[7:33] or one or two strongly would like to discourage it.

[7:37] And also, most of these towns routinely collect everything that people put on

[7:41] grave sites as the winter comes,

[7:45] and seasonal cleanups happen.

[7:48] It seems to be the more common practice, usually coordinated by

[7:52] DPWs in working with cemetery committees.

[7:56] So

[7:57] Shirley has been a little bit more informal in this

[8:00] regard, but we're a smaller town, and there's less

[8:06] action in terms of the number of funerals and

[8:09] ceremonies, but there's still, everybody has this desire to put

[8:13] seasonal decorations, hang a wreath on a gravestone or

[8:17] bring some flowers in the spring.

[8:19] And that, I think,

[8:21] falls into a category that's, I think, easier for us as a cemetery committee to

[8:25] say, "What's the harm in that?" What we're

[8:28] proposing is that very specifically that along with the

[8:32] prohibitions already in place, no plastic flowers, for example, no artificial

[8:36] flowers,

[8:38] that we add to that list

[8:40] solar-powered lights as being something that's a little unnatural, that

[8:44] kind of

[8:45] isn't in the spirit of these sacred, beautiful

[8:49] places of reflection. They call attention to themselves too much.

[8:53] It's light pollution by one definition.

[8:56] It's a way of signaling out a certain

[9:00] grave or place.

[9:02] What does that do to all the other graves that are in the area?

[9:06] I come from a family that has over 100 ancestors buried in the

[9:10] cemetery in the center. If I had a light on every one of those, it would look like

[9:13] Las Vegas. Clearly, that's an absurd idea.

[9:16] So we are completely in sympathy with those who choose to put

[9:20] things on these grave sites, and we have no desire to, at this point in

[9:24] time, to suggest that everything should be confiscated.

[9:26] That would be seem extreme, and I think kind of unkind.

[9:30] But we would like to

[9:32] vote and have your support for

[9:35] prohibiting solar-powered lights, and there's all sorts of new ones that are being

[9:38] invented and placed now on various graves,

[9:42] that those be

[9:45] prohibited in order to protect the historic character of these

[9:49] two cemeteries, places where people walk, places where people go to think

[9:52] and meditate and reflect. And if you've ever walked in

[9:56] a cemetery when night is coming or when the moon is out,

[10:01] the whole idea that something's flashing all night long

[10:04] is kind of distracting and I think inappropriate given the character that we

[10:08] hope to maintain, which I would define as not old or new, but traditional.

[10:14] Yes. Would you like me to read

[10:17] the letter that we just received from Robert Adam?

[10:19] Or-

[10:20] We did. That was forwarded to me this afternoon.

[10:22] Oh.

[10:22] And I did add it to the packet.

[10:24] Okay.

[10:26] So it is part of the packet, but

[10:30] if you'd like to read it, I think it's pretty brief.

[10:32] If you've seen it already, I won't. No.

[10:35] Okay. Go on ahead. Just received it today. Yeah.

[10:38] "Dear Selectboard members, I am writing to express my

[10:42] concern for the votive lighting in the Shirley Center

[10:45] Cemetery. The addition of these lights appeared about 10 years

[10:49] ago and have increased in number since then.

[10:53] They have never been approved by the cemetery committee.

[10:56] I have lived in town all my adult life, and I have previously served over 20

[11:00] years on the Shirley Historic District Commission, as well

[11:05] as on other committees. During the last almost 50 years, I've been

[11:09] working to retain Shirley Center's historic character,

[11:13] managing many projects for the town, including removing

[11:16] 17 utility poles that blighted the common.

[11:21] The votive lights in the cemetery are not appropriate for this

[11:24] 18th century historic cemetery and should not be

[11:28] allowed. The cemetery should amend its regulations to

[11:31] prohibit these distracting lights.

[11:34] Thank you for your consideration.

[11:36] Sincerely, Robert Adam."

[11:40] And we received two similar letters, one from the

[11:43] Historic District Commission and one from the Historical

[11:47] Society. I won't read those because I know they were in your

[11:51] packet.

[11:53] Okay. All right.

[11:54] So we're hoping you'll be able to say yes to this, and

[11:58] there may be some thoughts and clearly concerns

[12:02] regarding people who have-

[12:04] put solar-powered lights on the

[12:06] graves of their loved ones. We understand that that's a sensitive matter.

[12:10] I do have concerns. I think

[12:15] you have to

[12:17] be aware of what goes into any of the cemeteries,

[12:21] because people do tend to overdo it.

[12:25] All right?

[12:27] Artificial flowers,

[12:29] I find those definitely not

[12:32] up to par.

[12:34] But Monday night, I took a ride

[12:38] to that cemetery.

[12:39] The one in the center?

[12:40] In the center.

[12:41] Yeah.

[12:43] And

[12:44] there wasn't a lot of lights, okay?

[12:50] I parked. I did not go in

[12:53] because it was too narrow, and I figured,

[12:57] "I'm not going to try that one."

[13:00] So I parked on the road.

[13:03] Now, if you park on the road, strangely enough, the

[13:07] stone wall is so high you really can't get a good view.

[13:11] You were parked next to the first meeting house on Horse Pond, it sounds like.

[13:15] I was parked on-

[13:16] Oh, you're on Brown Road

[13:17] ... Brown Road.

[13:17] On Brown Road. Okay.

[13:18] I'm not sure where you live, but-

[13:21] Yeah, okay

[13:22] ... I think across the street.

[13:24] Okay.

[13:25] I didn't see any flashing lights, not one.

[13:29] Did I see some solar lights? Yes,

[13:33] I did.

[13:35] Did I see a

[13:37] whole bunch of them? No.

[13:39] So

[13:41] I was trying to figure out, knowing that you live on that side of the road,

[13:45] that if they're flashing,

[13:48] that could be annoying if you're sitting at home or

[13:53] whatever house you're in.

[13:55] So

[13:56] I was dissatisfied with that look.

[13:58] So what I did is yesterday, I went and took a walk around the whole

[14:02] cemetery.

[14:03] Mm-hmm.

[14:03] And I left it in the car because I was running late, but I can

[14:07] tell you what's there.

[14:09] There was a tall bird.

[14:11] There was a tall elephant.

[14:13] I found them to be

[14:17] annoying. They were very tall.

[14:20] They weren't lit, obviously. It was during the day.

[14:24] There was a

[14:26] blue car,

[14:28] because I could spot that one Monday night, and I couldn't wait to see

[14:32] what that blue was. I didn't know if it meant police area or what it meant.

[14:37] And as I went by the one with the blue car, I'm thinking to myself,

[14:42] I don't know the family.

[14:45] Perhaps

[14:47] their whole life they dealt with cars. That would be my guess.

[14:51] So then I continued, and there were

[14:55] some of the shorter lights

[14:57] like you can get at the dollar store.

[15:00] I

[15:01] have them in front of my house, and I think they look fine,

[15:05] personally. All right? And I don't find them

[15:09] offensive to anything.

[15:12] I went

[15:13] towards one,

[15:16] and

[15:17] they had quite a

[15:20] lot of stuff,

[15:22] which

[15:23] I think in that case, when it's overdone like that,

[15:27] you don't confiscate it,

[15:29] but I think they could probably be spoken to

[15:33] that you don't need quite that many things.

[15:36] But I did notice

[15:39] there was, in the right-hand side in the back,

[15:44] there was a barber.

[15:48] They put on their barber shop.

[15:49] Hmm.

[15:50] Okay.

[15:51] Oh.

[15:51] Whatever it is, it's a light.

[15:53] Yeah.

[15:54] And I said, "Oh, that's interesting."

[15:58] But when I saw the name,

[16:01] I said

[16:03] that was really

[16:05] pretty amazing

[16:07] because that person had died, he's a young guy,

[16:12] and he was the barber downtown.

[16:14] And I thought that's their remembering of them, whether

[16:18] it's the brother that put it there, whoever put

[16:22] it. Then I started to think,

[16:25] is it solar?

[16:27] Then I'm thinking that it's probably going to twirl at night.

[16:30] I don't know if it did. It didn't twirl the night I was there.

[16:33] I don't think it twirls. No.

[16:34] Does it?

[16:35] I don't think so.

[16:35] Okay. So that's a plus, because I figured that could be very

[16:39] annoying.

[16:42] What else did I see?

[16:44] I didn't see anything

[16:47] offensive. I really didn't.

[16:50] I personally did not find the solar lights

[16:54] bad.

[16:55] Okay? I did not.

[16:57] And I'll tell you one thing I did notice Monday night when I

[17:01] was parked out there,

[17:03] that with the amount, there's not a lot of solar lights.

[17:07] I think there's maybe

[17:10] 10. I have a list of them in my car.

[17:12] I counted 10 there and 14 downtown.

[17:14] Oh, okay. Good, I can count, then. That math degree worked.

[17:18] All right. So,

[17:21] that wasn't a lot. But one thing I thought to myself as

[17:25] I looked in there,

[17:27] the little bit of light that was shining,

[17:31] I could see if I were a police officer

[17:35] or a resident going by,

[17:38] and you had kids in there partying

[17:42] or somebody in that cemetery.

[17:45] I could see that where you wouldn't if it was pitch black.

[17:49] There was enough light that if somebody were walking on that

[17:53] road,

[17:55] the road that goes around, that I could see them

[17:59] and alert the police.

[18:01] There actually used to be a lot more streetlights on both Brown and Horse Pond

[18:05] that-

[18:05] Well, there are now

[18:06] ... now there are very few.

[18:07] Right.

[18:08] Yeah.

[18:08] So-

[18:10] I spend quite a bit of time walking the cemetery,

[18:14] and

[18:15] personally, I think there should be some guidelines.

[18:18] I'm not sure what guidelines they should be.

[18:24] That one with all kinds of knick-knacks and stuff,

[18:29] maybe that is not necessary, but who am

[18:33] I to say it's unnecessary?

[18:37] My son is buried in St Anthony's, my parents are,

[18:41] and

[18:43] my son and daughter will go on Taylor's

[18:46] grave and put something.

[18:49] It's very special to us, and I don't think I'd want anybody to

[18:53] confiscate it.

[18:55] We don't have a solar light there.

[19:00] We have did the votive candles. They were red

[19:04] and blue,

[19:06] but they were stolen four times.

[19:09] So in my opinion,

[19:12] it's hard for me to ban

[19:14] and forbid

[19:16] solar lights.

[19:18] Have you ever been to a cemetery where

[19:21] this is common practice?

[19:23] What common practice?

[19:25] For example, I lived in the town of Milton, Massachusetts-

[19:29] Mm-hmm

[19:29] ... as part of my teaching career,

[19:31] and there was an old cemetery, and then at the other end was the

[19:35] new cemetery.

[19:36] Mm-hmm.

[19:37] And honestly, the new cemetery,

[19:39] if I said Las Vegas, it's really not an exaggeration.

[19:42] It seemed to be almost a competition between people.

[19:46] Just how many different things could they think of for

[19:49] pinwheels, solar lights-

[19:51] I agree with you

[19:52] ... knick-knacks.

[19:52] That's why I said there-

[19:53] In other words-

[19:53] ... has to be guidelines.

[19:54] So what I'm saying is that there's a range.

[19:58] And so we've kind of sort of identified this

[20:01] as something and argue that it's a trend that's increasing,

[20:05] and one which I think is because you can buy things at the dollar store much

[20:09] more inexpensively, but they're also selling much more complex things that I've

[20:13] seen now in some cemeteries that are really

[20:16] rather out of scale. And I think-

[20:18] I think there should be a height requirement. I could go as far as that.

[20:24] The solar lights,

[20:27] I'm thinking aren't very big.

[20:29] The ones that-

[20:29] The butterfly or whatever it was, bird and the elephant, it's a little

[20:33] high.

[20:34] Some of them have a solar function, and they illuminate something up above, like

[20:37] the angel figure or whatever.

[20:40] So sometimes they're little-

[20:41] I didn't see anything

[20:42] ... sometimes they're little like little statues.

[20:45] The ones that have been particularly, I think,

[20:49] concerning are flash all night long.

[20:52] Like the eternal flame. They flash all night long.

[20:54] There is one there that is a-

[20:56] There's three in the cemetery that do that

[20:57] ... it's a fire.

[20:59] Yeah. It's a fake.

[20:59] That one might be-

[21:00] Fake fire. They flash all night long.

[21:02] It's like-

[21:02] It wasn't flash. It

[21:04] was-

[21:05] It's a flicker.

[21:06] It was-

[21:06] It's a flicker.

[21:06] Is it?

[21:06] It's supposed to imitate-

[21:07] Simulate a fire

[21:09] ... a candle light.

[21:09] Candle.

[21:09] Eternal flame.

[21:10] Or a candle light, yeah.

[21:10] It's eternal flame idea.

[21:11] Yeah.

[21:12] I can even see that if it's

[21:15] maybe not that, but

[21:17] in my opinion, and it's only my opinion,

[21:21] a solar light,

[21:23] all you need is one. You don't need 10.

[21:26] You don't need four. I've seen four up there.

[21:30] But as far as banning it,

[21:35] I have a hard time with the word ban.

[21:38] So somewhere along the line, somebody decided no plastic flowers.

[21:42] I'm kind of in favor of that, too, but that seems like an

[21:45] arbitrary choice perhaps as well.

[21:48] I think the cemetery's better when everything is as natural as

[21:52] possible, given the-

[21:53] Mm-hmm

[21:53] ... historic nature. I think that if this was a brand new, only a

[21:57] contemporary cemetery, then I think I might imagine a

[22:01] different set of regulations.

[22:03] But given the historic nature of these particular cemeteries,

[22:07] both of them with some incredibly beautiful...

[22:10] They're like parks.

[22:13] And it seems like a

[22:16] violation of what is a shared space for a

[22:20] particular person, heartfelt as that gesture may

[22:23] be to want to light up his or her or their family's grave

[22:27] because it does something almost in competition with the others.

[22:30] It makes the others less by making yours more. I don't think it's fair.

[22:35] See, I didn't take it as that. I didn't think it was a competition.

[22:40] But it comes across as why is this grave more important than another, and

[22:44] how come they have a light and we don't?

[22:45] And-

[22:46] But they have the right to do it if they-

[22:47] Well, if we allow it, yeah

[22:49] ... so choose. Right.

[22:50] Right.

[22:50] But and I understand you have to have limits because people can-

[22:56] And-

[22:56] ... get carried away.

[22:57] And actually,

[22:59] walking around the cemeteries a couple times as I have done as well,

[23:03] people do some very creative things.

[23:06] Some of the plantings are out of control, too. There are dead trees.

[23:08] There are live trees.

[23:10] But that's a different subject altogether.

[23:12] Sometimes the ones that are a little too tall look beautiful, but even though

[23:16] they've grown without being tended or taken care of, again, in some

[23:20] cemeteries, they would just remove all that.

[23:23] Shirley's been really kind of informal in that, in monitoring what

[23:27] people do or don't put on their graves.

[23:29] So nobody wants to get rid of the knick-knacks or the seashell or the special

[23:32] memento that stands for

[23:34] that relationship that someone had with

[23:37] the deceased family member. I think we're talking about what is a sort

[23:41] of shared space,

[23:43] the character of it, and at what point does that character

[23:47] change, and is it changed by the sum of these individual acts?

[23:51] I think in our view, this trend is becoming one that has

[23:55] reached a point where the character of the historic cemeteries is being

[23:59] affected by these lights that call attention, a little too much attention to

[24:03] themselves.

[24:04] Well, I-

[24:05] I'd love to hear what other members have to say.

[24:07] I can't make a motion, so

[24:11] Before we do that, Gordon, may I read?

[24:13] These are very short letters

[24:16] of support, one from the Historical Commission, the other from the Historical

[24:20] Society.

[24:21] Do you need me to get those?

[24:23] I handed them to Laura.

[24:24] There's three,

[24:25] yeah.

[24:25] Mm-hmm. Yeah, we have them.

[24:27] You didn't get them?

[24:28] Please do.

[24:28] Okay, so this one is from the

[24:32] Historical Commission, dated June 10th.

[24:35] "At our public meeting of June 9th, the Historical Commission reviewed your

[24:38] proposed regulation to prohibit solar lights.

[24:42] It was unanimously agreed that solar-powered lights are not

[24:45] appropriate at burial locations.

[24:48] The primary reason to support the regulation was to maintain proper

[24:51] respect for the dead and their surviving families

[24:55] and friends. These cemeteries are places for solitude

[24:59] and reflection, and artificial lights upset that

[25:03] balance. In addition, the historic features of the cemeteries

[25:07] are degraded by artificial lights.

[25:11] The Historical Commission supports your initiative to restore calm to our

[25:14] resting places."

[25:18] Okay, that's the Historical Commission.

[25:20] The Historical Society

[25:23] wrote a letter June 1st.

[25:27] "The Historical Society's board of directors voted unanimously on May

[25:30] 31st, 2026, to support the Cemetery

[25:34] Committee's initiative to ban solar-powered

[25:38] lights in Shirley's center and village cemeteries.

[25:42] This will preserve the aesthetic and historic character of

[25:46] our cemeteries and is in conformance with the policies of

[25:50] nearby towns.

[25:52] Thank you for your consideration." Signed by the president of the

[25:56] Historical Society.

[26:00] So we have three letters of support.

[26:01] Gordon has

[26:03] done his research looking at other towns that don't allow it.

[26:07] I think we would be in conformance with

[26:10] what others are doing.

[26:13] Although, I do appreciate all the work you did

[26:17] to

[26:18] go and look and do your homework.

[26:21] I didn't know about the big elephant.

[26:22] I'll have to go-

[26:23] It's this

[26:23] ... see the big elephant.

[26:25] It's not real big. It's tall.

[26:26] It's a big bird.

[26:27] A bird.

[26:28] It's tall.

[26:30] Okay.

[26:31] You also wanted to say something?

[26:33] Yeah, sure. So I can say once this topic came up a while

[26:37] ago, it's something I thought about every time I drove by the cemeteries at night,

[26:41] and I did see the lights. It's impossible not to see them when you're

[26:45] looking for them.

[26:48] All through high school and junior high, I used to work in a cemetery

[26:51] over the summertime, and I was always impressed with

[26:55] the sheer quantity of stuff that we were assigned to go pick up.

[26:59] Filled up dumpsters all the time.

[27:03] And

[27:05] I can say that, yeah, solar lights weren't a thing back then because now I'm

[27:09] getting pretty old.

[27:11] They weren't even contemplated back then, but I actually called up the old cemetery

[27:15] I used to work with, and they prohibit it.

[27:18] Not that it means anything, but it kind of meant something to me.

[27:23] Generally speaking,

[27:25] it's obviously a sensitive issue for a lot of people.

[27:29] But I can say I'm not somebody who likes to be in stuff.

[27:32] I just don't. But I can say from the

[27:36] historical aspect of it, that's the part that kind of pushes

[27:40] me to kind of agreeing with that because from an

[27:44] historic aspect of it,

[27:46] I get it. If it was a modern, like Barry Manilow

[27:50] type cemetery, it would be appropriate to have solar lights.

[27:54] In fact, they probably have celebrations and contests.

[27:57] But at the end of the day,

[27:59] I do see the historical aspect of it. So...

[28:04] Thank you.

[28:05] Yeah.

[28:06] What cemetery did you work in?

[28:07] Mellor Cemetery in Brockton.

[28:10] Oh.

[28:10] Yeah.

[28:11] So-

[28:11] A long time ago.

[28:14] For myself, I don't like to prohibit anything, but

[28:19] for the solar light, I think I passed one or twice

[28:23] around the cemetery.

[28:26] I really didn't see

[28:28] those bright light.

[28:31] I was looking for light who can

[28:34] go through the houses where you're sleeping at

[28:38] night and the reflections of the light coming to you.

[28:42] There wasn't

[28:44] those kind of light in the cemetery.

[28:47] And

[28:50] I don't think it will be fair to ban that

[28:53] because

[28:55] that can mean something for someone and doesn't mean something for

[28:58] someone.

[29:00] My mom is buried

[29:02] at St. Anthony's. Yes, I don't put solar light, but

[29:06] sometimes when I go, I put flowers.

[29:09] Real flowers, not

[29:11] artificial one.

[29:13] But when I bring those flowers, they mean something to me.

[29:17] It's on each time I know that it

[29:21] reflects something for her, it reflects something for my family, that's when I went

[29:25] there. And maybe the light means something for those people.

[29:29] And it's nighttime. It doesn't stay long.

[29:34] It doesn't stay forever.

[29:37] And it's not like if it was that tall, tall, tall things, we will

[29:41] understand that, but those small kind of things and,

[29:46] I don't know.

[29:47] I think that-

[29:47] I don't see

[29:48] ... I'm thinking

[29:50] if you grew up in the city or if you grew up in the country, that sets up a

[29:54] difference in a way, I think. I grew up in the

[29:57] country. I grew up in quiet outdoor places

[30:01] where there weren't a lot of artificial lights.

[30:03] Even streetlights were kind of rare.

[30:06] And so I suppose that's my bias in looking at the

[30:10] center cemetery, and the village cemetery, too,

[30:13] is that it's always been like this quiet, wonderful

[30:17] park

[30:18] And not like a city park where kids are playing basketball or walking the

[30:21] dogs or whatever.

[30:24] It's almost like a meditation garden.

[30:28] And to me, there's no question about the sincerity of

[30:33] people placing things on their loved ones' graves.

[30:36] I completely understand that, and I'm very much against the idea

[30:40] of telling people to remove all their little mementos.

[30:43] There are a great number. You could fill up a dump truck easily right now with

[30:47] what's in the Shirley Center Cemetery.

[30:49] I'm not proposing, nor are we, anything that

[30:53] draconian or extreme, because those things don't really

[30:57] affect anyone else.

[30:59] They're there, and they mean what they mean for the people who place them there

[31:03] honoring their loved ones, and some have died young.

[31:05] Some have died, of course, after a natural, long, old age.

[31:09] But those things don't affect anybody else.

[31:11] The lights affect others, and they affect the experience

[31:14] of anyone walking in the cemetery

[31:18] at another time. And I think this is my country perspective, not my

[31:22] city perspective. There's not a chance in heck that those lights are going to

[31:26] affect the houses. No, it doesn't go that way.

[31:29] It's what people see from the houses or the roads,

[31:33] walking or driving

[31:35] proximate to these cemeteries, and what the experience of the whole place is.

[31:39] It's a jarring element, and I think that,

[31:43] to me, the balance has to do with

[31:45] the effect on everyone versus the value for the individual.

[31:49] And I think that there are lots of choices right now for individual family

[31:52] members when it comes to placing things on graves, and we're not

[31:56] suggesting any further

[31:59] kind of prohibitions. And Shirley would

[32:02] remain on the very liberal side of these kinds of

[32:06] practices compared to all these other towns with whom I communicate,

[32:10] who routinely confiscate things and hardly allow

[32:15] much of anything of this kind. And certainly,

[32:17] I'd say 90% do prohibit solar lights.

[32:21] So to me, it's sort of like

[32:23] what's good for everybody versus what's good for the individuals.

[32:26] I think we're not saying

[32:28] don't place things to commemorate your loved ones, but we're saying

[32:32] this particular thing we think affects the experience of others, and

[32:36] we think it's one that is not historical and

[32:40] is a little less than fully aesthetic given what we're trying to maintain, which

[32:44] is a beautiful garden cemetery,

[32:48] a place of meditation.

[32:51] And I'd like to add that Robert's, the first letter that I

[32:56] read,

[32:58] he said the lights appeared about 10 years ago, and

[33:02] I think we're going to be seeing more and more of them because they're getting less

[33:05] and less expensive.

[33:06] You can buy them anywhere.

[33:07] And yeah, as you said, you can buy them in a dollar store.

[33:10] So it's a proliferation thing.

[33:13] There's only 10 now and 14 approximately

[33:17] in the center and village cemeteries, but

[33:21] I suspect we'll be seeing more as time goes on.

[33:28] We'd like the board's support for this,

[33:31] what we think is a small adjustment in what is and isn't allowed,

[33:35] and we stand behind people continuing to

[33:39] commemorate their loved ones by placing things on their graves.

[33:43] And there's a great many choices, from natural flowers to

[33:46] mementos to other kinds of objects that people, photographs,

[33:50] for example, that people are now routinely

[33:54] putting on graves. We have no objection to any of those choices.

[33:59] I just find that

[34:00] odd because I find those more offensive,

[34:05] little knick-knacks and whatever.

[34:08] But they don't-

[34:08] I'm sorry, I just don't

[34:11] find...

[34:13] We're at a time,

[34:16] I know this is historic, like Brian said.

[34:21] I've lived in this town my whole life,

[34:24] and

[34:26] I guess I don't think, a cemetery is a cemetery.

[34:30] Yours is very historic up there, and I realize that.

[34:34] All right, because I was

[34:36] up there long enough to walk through,

[34:39] and

[34:42] I

[34:45] had a hard time when we discussed, was it the-

[34:49] Green

[34:50] ... the green.

[34:51] Yeah, the green.

[34:52] That was difficult.

[34:55] And I went with that.

[34:59] I

[35:03] am sorry, I'd

[35:05] rather see all the junk removed

[35:08] and a little solar light, not the big ones.

[35:12] I'd like to see

[35:14] if it gets to the point where it

[35:17] is turning into it looks like Fenway Park,

[35:21] then maybe we can

[35:25] go over it again and then say, "That's it.

[35:27] It's out of control."

[35:28] I fear that if something becomes a widespread practice, like-

[35:32] But we don't know that.

[35:34] It doesn't end.

[35:34] So right now, I didn't see enough to be-

[35:37] And I don't know how anyone would possibly monitor, "This knick-knack's okay, but

[35:41] that one's not." That seems utterly impossible.

[35:43] Because a light's a light, and I notice.

[35:46] Yeah, it's easy to identify that and therefore to say yes or no.

[35:49] I don't know. Okay.

[35:52] This is our

[35:53] plea to sort of simplify-

[35:55] And I know, and I, it's a-

[35:56] ... what we're-

[35:57] I just can't

[35:58] ... allowing.

[35:59] I can't do it.

[36:01] All right.

[36:01] Do we have a motion?

[36:03] Whoever wants to make it.

[36:05] I'll toss it out there. I move to approve the Cemetery

[36:09] Commission's request to prohibit solar lights.

[36:15] Who's going to second?

[36:18] Not me.

[36:21] Sorry

[36:22] You can't even second the motion

[36:24] Need to, so...

[36:28] Can I ask a personal question?

[36:30] Sure.

[36:30] I fear sometimes that given the positions that you occupy,

[36:34] that part of what might guide your own

[36:38] decision-making is what people are going to say about what you've said or what

[36:41] you've ruled. Is that not a fair rhetorical question?

[36:45] That when you make decisions on behalf of the town, clearly what you have to factor

[36:49] in is how are people going to react to what you've decided and put your official

[36:52] stamp on?

[36:53] I think of that all the time.

[36:55] Okay.

[36:55] That's why I spend my life-

[36:57] Yeah

[36:58] ... on Main Street, bent over, cleaning the

[37:02] streets,

[37:04] cleaning the islands,

[37:07] fighting with the railroad on a daily basis, and

[37:11] finally getting things done.

[37:14] I do a lot for the town.

[37:15] No, I don't doubt that.

[37:16] And people see me, and most of the time

[37:20] they don't, because I'm out Sunday at 6:30 in the morning.

[37:24] Do I worry about what people are going to think?

[37:30] If I worried about what people thought, I would never have done 50

[37:33] years in education.

[37:35] Well, fair enough.

[37:36] And, I would hope that people, this is my opinion,

[37:41] it's nothing against... It's a difficult opinion,

[37:45] but I feel strongly about it. And I have been

[37:49] on the committee nine, 10 years, and I

[37:52] accept a lot of things.

[37:55] So-

[37:55] I've never denied it. This is something that-

[37:58] So does it,

[38:00] keeping up with the Joneses is kind of a crude way of saying

[38:03] that the majority of the towns that I contacted, a limited sample,

[38:07] about 10, I'd say 9% prohibit solar lights.

[38:11] Mm-hmm.

[38:12] What makes us so different?

[38:14] Well, that's a very good question because when I fight with the

[38:17] trains and the bigwigs in Boston,

[38:21] as I travel through Concord-

[38:24] Yeah.

[38:25] ... their railroads are all manicured.

[38:28] We're paying,

[38:30] I'm weed whacking.

[38:31] Sure.

[38:31] The DPW is weed whacking, which they shouldn't be.

[38:35] They have enough things to worry about.

[38:37] Right.

[38:37] But if you go through Concord, you go through Acton,

[38:41] I keep saying,

[38:43] "It doesn't look like Shirley."

[38:45] I'm sorry. This is little Shirley, and they really don't...

[38:50] It's not a big deal. It is a big deal to me.

[38:52] I have spent 74 years here.

[38:55] So for me, the solar lights-

[38:56] So what's good in Concord, is good in Concord.

[39:00] Right.

[39:00] It should be good all the way

[39:02] down the train track.

[39:03] So I couldn't agree more with that.

[39:05] I'm happy to support

[39:08] causes in that name.

[39:11] We're trying to keep something, it's obviously too late,

[39:15] natural, and we feel like these solar lights are unnatural.

[39:19] And as much as a

[39:20] given solar light means something to the person that places it on a grave,

[39:24] and I notice which families visit their graves most often, including a

[39:28] couple that do have these solar lights.

[39:30] It's clear that they're just still grieving quite actively, and having

[39:34] that stuff there

[39:36] means a great deal to them. I understand the sensitive nature of that.

[39:40] Most of these things just get planted, and they get abandoned.

[39:42] Half of them don't seem to work. Things fall down.

[39:46] A lot of these graves are just not really tended to by

[39:49] people. They just plant something like a souvenir, like a trophy, and then off

[39:53] they go.

[39:55] So it's not-

[39:56] Well, those should be picked up and put in the pile.

[39:58] Well, but that includes most of the solar lights.

[39:59] And so-

[39:59] Includes a lot of the solar lights

[40:00] ... I don't have a problem with that.

[40:01] So just if I can

[40:05] interject a little bit. So I can tell you, obviously

[40:09] the first time this

[40:12] was approached or presented to the select board, there were

[40:16] a lot of questions, a lot of discussion.

[40:18] I can tell you that each select board member,

[40:22] I know and can speak to them, were giving it a lot of thought, doing their

[40:25] homework, et cetera.

[40:27] I think there are very valid points on both

[40:31] sides.

[40:32] I think people would have different views, et cetera.

[40:37] In this particular scenario, there was some

[40:41] healthy discussion on two separate meetings.

[40:44] In

[40:46] this particular, as we just saw,

[40:50] agenda item,

[40:52] a vote was or a motion was made. It wasn't seconded.

[40:56] I think Select Board Member Flagg did say that

[41:00] it's something that we can monitor.

[41:02] I don't think there was any type of vote that said

[41:07] it's never to be revisited.

[41:10] So I think right now,

[41:13] the board did go through the process of

[41:18] discussing, and I think that's where we're at at

[41:21] the moment.

[41:23] I know it was a difficult decision. It doesn't reflect everyone's views.

[41:28] But that's just where I think we're at at this point for this particular agenda

[41:32] item.

[41:34] Thank you, William. Thank you all for your

[41:37] consideration and

[41:39] Deb for going and walking the cemetery.

[41:42] I do see you downtown. It's like, "Oh, there she is again."

[41:47] I know how hard you work.

[41:49] And we will monitor. We can come back to you again-

[41:50] Yeah, monitor and then revisit it if it gets out of hand.

[41:54] I can understand that

[41:55] ... Yeah, keep counting,

[41:57] Gordon, if you see, as really 10 has become 20,

[42:01] has become 30. Let's keep track of it.

[42:04] Sure.

[42:04] The ones with, the lights that flash all night long are particularly annoying.

[42:07] Yeah. Well, thank you.

[42:10] All right. Okay.

[42:11] And I will now close the cemetery committee meeting at

[42:15] 6:42.

[42:17] Great discussion. Thank you.

[42:19] All right.

[42:20] Thank you.

[42:20] Thanks for your time.

[42:21] All right

[42:25] Next, we have discussion of NexGen Grant Award and keep

[42:29] the light on master service agreement and statement of work,

[42:33] vote may taken.

[42:35] So really this is just going to be a little bit more of an update.

[42:39] I

[42:41] would recommend that no vote be taken at this time.

[42:45] So

[42:47] I think maybe a few months ago, we had a presentation

[42:51] by a group, NexGen Energy, and it was

[42:55] an initiative that was presented, if you recall,

[42:59] first to the town of Harvard,

[43:01] then to the town of Ayer and Shirley.

[43:04] And it was something that was presented to us and really the whole

[43:08] scope is a very

[43:11] large-scale project

[43:14] that would be

[43:18] pretty significant on multiple different scenarios,

[43:22] and it would have multiple phases.

[43:24] When this was presented, obviously I think there was some basic discussion

[43:29] involving, well, it's something that the town would definitely want to

[43:33] consider carefully based on it involves solar, and I know that's been

[43:37] a topic that in the past has had a little bit of

[43:41] controversy. And anyway, what

[43:44] was asked of the three towns was to sign a

[43:48] non-binding MOU to essentially explore

[43:52] the possibility of maybe the first phase

[43:55] and apply for an MVP grant. MVP is municipal

[43:59] vulnerability preparedness.

[44:01] And, so after reviewing town council and talking

[44:05] with both Ayer and Harvard,

[44:08] that is something that we moved forward with, and we applied for a

[44:12] grant.

[44:14] The good news is a grant was awarded to the three

[44:18] towns for a million dollars

[44:20] for the first phase.

[44:22] I think originally when this occurred,

[44:26] I think some of the parties involved were looking to move

[44:29] forward pretty quickly,

[44:32] and discuss the whole project at once, which

[44:36] I think

[44:37] a lot of the select board members,

[44:39] definitely the town administrators or managers

[44:43] felt that was definitely too fast before the due

[44:46] diligence would occur.

[44:50] And so

[44:52] I think we were able to communicate that.

[44:54] I think where we're at right now,

[44:57] I think Logan can attest,

[45:00] I just had my third meeting within this

[45:03] week, each one of which was over an hour of really trying to

[45:07] understand

[45:09] the process of what would occur,

[45:12] what the commitments would be, whether they'd be financial,

[45:15] non-financial,

[45:18] how everything would play out even though we're really

[45:21] haven't even entered into phase one.

[45:24] And so I do have a much better understanding of that, but there's a lot more

[45:27] questions that have to be answered.

[45:29] There's a lot more things that have to be vetted by town council.

[45:33] And so really,

[45:37] I would come before the board before we move forward with anything, but I think the

[45:41] way that this is probably

[45:44] looking to play out is that the three

[45:48] towns were awarded a million dollar grant.

[45:51] And though it's not something that we're committing to now, what I would think

[45:55] might happen is utilizing those funds to do a

[45:59] feasibility study that once again would not bind us

[46:02] into anything.

[46:05] It would

[46:07] look at each three towns and the goal would be to

[46:12] look at

[46:15] could there be scenarios where solar

[46:19] hubs could be placed within the town,

[46:24] and they would essentially be doing three things,

[46:28] if this was something that was ever voted to be moving forward with.

[46:33] And that would be to save money on

[46:36] energy costs.

[46:38] The second would be to create a revenue stream over time

[46:43] as this proposal would be that

[46:46] the town would have ownership over time.

[46:50] I think there would be a phase-in, and that they would

[46:54] support our critical infrastructure.

[46:57] And what I mean by that is instead of your basic generator at the police

[47:01] station, the fire station, council on aging,

[47:04] if you lost power, these

[47:08] would power

[47:11] those buildings or whatever else we would consider

[47:15] critical infrastructure.

[47:17] That's what the direction I think we would probably go

[47:21] towards.

[47:22] But I don't think we're there yet, and

[47:25] before anything moves forward

[47:29] even any further,

[47:31] if God forbid we go through the process and,

[47:35] well, I shouldn't say God forbid, could be that we find a very potential

[47:40] that this works for Shirley,

[47:44] then it would have to go to town meeting.

[47:47] Well, it'd have to go through the process of getting on a town meeting warrant, so

[47:50] it'd have to go before the select board, et cetera, and then would have to be

[47:55] voted on at town meeting. Same thing with funding sources.

[47:58] So,

[47:59] I just wanted to speak to that because this was

[48:03] all great news that we got the grant, but it was moving very fast

[48:07] and I do feel comfort that we've

[48:11] all agreed to let's just take a step back, look at this, make

[48:14] sure everyone's doing their due diligence, and everyone would feel comfortable

[48:18] before moving

[48:20] further. So,

[48:23] no vote to be taken at this point. But I did just want to provide that update

[48:27] Did all the three towns have to

[48:30] choose the same project, or each of them can differ or change?

[48:33] No, I think that would be the whole point of the feasibility study is each

[48:36] town is obviously different. It has different

[48:42] buildings, different-

[48:44] Politics

[48:45] ... properties, different politics.

[48:48] So I think the

[48:50] feasibility study would look at all of that and essentially give different

[48:54] options and specify

[48:58] would there be a financial commitment, and really all the

[49:02] details that you could come up with

[49:06] 100 questions easily

[49:08] on projects that are

[49:10] of this scale.

[49:12] Yeah. It's an interesting topic. I think this will be taking

[49:16] years.

[49:17] Before we can start using the fund.

[49:21] Just to come to an agreement.

[49:24] Yeah.

[49:24] Probably.

[49:25] Say another 20 we'll be there.

[49:27] Do they continue,

[49:28] potentially exploring additional communities, or did they

[49:32] just-

[49:33] I think that's also part of this. So the whole idea of getting a-

[49:38] Yeah

[49:38] ... group or consortium of towns is there's

[49:42] potential for additional funding.

[49:44] So I think it was more attractive

[49:47] for the MVP grant to award to three towns-

[49:50] Yeah

[49:51] ... as opposed to if we were

[49:53] looking to apply for that same grant as an individual

[49:57] town. And so as you

[50:00] continue looking at the additional phases,

[50:04] which the deeper the phases, the more complex it gets.

[50:08] I think the idea would be if you added more towns in the area,

[50:13] that might be how you get the funding where it would actually

[50:17] make sense for the towns where you--

[50:21] The reality is you can't go to any town in the area and say,

[50:26] no matter how much the potential

[50:30] future revenue, you can't ask for a million

[50:34] dollars to fund something. Something like this has to be funded

[50:38] through the grant process, in my opinion, at least for the town of Shirley.

[50:43] So that's where we're at, and

[50:47] we'll provide updates as we continue.

[50:49] Stay tuned.

[50:52] All right, thank you. We have

[50:56] two appointments for the Council of Aging.

[51:01] Yeah, I make a motion to appoint Joanne Falcons to the Council

[51:05] on Aging kitchen assistant.

[51:07] I vote aye.

[51:10] Second the motion.

[51:11] No,

[51:12] I vote aye.

[51:13] I vote aye.

[51:14] And aye for Diane.

[51:15] I also make a motion to appoint Joyce

[51:19] Hemingway to the COA kitchen assistant.

[51:23] But I se-

[51:24] You second the motion?

[51:25] I was about to say, I second it.

[51:27] I vote aye.

[51:29] I vote aye.

[51:30] And I vote aye.

[51:32] And I make a motion to appoint Jim Iolegio as

[51:35] an election worker.

[51:39] I vote aye.

[51:41] No, I'm sorry. I second it. Sorry. It's been a long day.

[51:44] I vote aye.

[51:45] Yeah.

[51:46] I vote aye.

[51:47] And I vote aye.

[51:49] Yeah.

[51:49] All right. So now we have town administrator report.

[51:54] Yep. The first item is Chapter 90 funds and road

[51:58] paving.

[51:59] So

[52:01] we will be doing some paving, probably in the next

[52:05] month.

[52:07] I did talk to the DPW director. He's been working with

[52:11] PJ Halpert, who we've got our contract with, and

[52:15] we will be doing so. I

[52:18] would wait and defer to the DPW director,

[52:21] as the final stage is confirming

[52:25] the pricing as even as months pass, it changes, et

[52:28] cetera. And so based on the funding that we have,

[52:32] exactly where they are. But right now, the roads that we are

[52:36] planning on addressing with paving

[52:41] would be

[52:42] Townsend Road or parts of Townsend Road, parts of Hazen Road, and parts of

[52:46] Rotten Road.

[52:48] So that's

[52:50] what we had planned. As we solidify

[52:54] those plans, we'll most likely put it on the website, put it on

[52:58] Facebook, and let people know the timing, et cetera.

[53:02] We were actually hoping to get some of this paving done earlier in the summer,

[53:06] in July. One of the challenges that we have is the

[53:10] majority of the funding that we do for road paving is through what's

[53:14] called

[53:15] Chapter 90 funds, which come directly from the state.

[53:18] We have received

[53:21] the amount that will be awarded. The

[53:25] challenge is the state over the last couple of years has been a little bit later

[53:29] and later in releasing those funds.

[53:32] And so we were originally hoping to have this done in

[53:34] July. I think the funds

[53:38] have had a little bit of a lag,

[53:40] but that's something that we're gonna be moving forward

[53:44] with pretty much in the next month.

[53:46] So when I get those final details, I will post that

[53:49] publicly.

[53:51] The next item, we've talked about it a couple different times, but I

[53:55] still will

[53:57] refer to Logan,

[53:59] who is, in my opinion,

[54:02] I

[54:05] call him the energy czar, and especially his great work on

[54:09] getting this grant.

[54:11] Do you wanna give an update?

[54:12] Yeah. So they're making really good progress with the projects.

[54:16] They basically have completed the LED lighting for town hall.

[54:20] I don't know if you notice how bright it is out in the hallways now you can see.

[54:23] We might have to paint the walls because you can see them now.

[54:27] The only thing they have to do is a few sconces they have to replace still, or not

[54:31] replace, but convert, and also replace the

[54:35] plastic diffusers that are inside of them.

[54:39] And then on Monday, they're doing some electrical work that will

[54:43] affect the second floor's power just a little bit in the morning for the new heat

[54:47] pump they're putting in for the conference room.

[54:50] And they should be doing the conference room sometime next week or the week after.

[54:53] There will be a crane in the parking lot probably early in the morning, one of the

[54:56] days.

[54:58] But everyone will be made aware once we know the exact date for that.

[55:02] They've also been doing LED lights at Council on Aging, and they've

[55:06] basically finished all of them at the fire station.

[55:08] They just have one or two outside lights they got to convert still.

[55:14] And then the only other building they still have to work on is the War Memorial

[55:17] building. They'll be putting a few heat pumps in there, and then we'll be

[55:21] finishing off the heat pump project in that building in the next round that we'll

[55:25] apply for, and we'll try to do the HVAC systems for the rest of the town buildings,

[55:28] or as many as we can under the 250 grand.

[55:32] So, it's going very well.

[55:34] Sounds good.

[55:34] Great job.

[55:36] All right. The next item we have is the Shirley Village roadway improvements

[55:39] update. As we know, this was a $306,000

[55:44] grant that we received after the passage of the

[55:47] Catalyst grant. And this is, as it sounds,

[55:52] looking to identify,

[55:55] make recommendations, and then ultimately have engineered plans

[55:59] for roadway improvements in the Shirley Village.

[56:03] And so in the summer, and I know I discussed this at a meeting,

[56:07] if it looked like you saw

[56:10] people that were counting

[56:14] your turns on kind of that Front Street

[56:17] and up to Lancaster Road, and at all different intersections,

[56:22] and you were driving over car counters and all

[56:25] those things that

[56:27] can even measure your speed and how many axles your vehicle has, well, that was all

[56:31] part of the study. And in the last month, if you saw a group of

[56:35] about 15 people walking up and down,

[56:39] that was

[56:41] a whole group that we had put together to walk the area and

[56:45] go over some of the findings a little bit more in more detail, answer

[56:48] questions. And so there were some members

[56:52] from the working group that

[56:56] had been assigned to monitor this grant.

[56:59] There was members of the fire department, the police department, some members of

[57:02] STAC,

[57:04] the engineering firm that we had hired.

[57:07] And so, making a lot of progress and I'm excited about

[57:13] really once we start getting results and making

[57:16] decisions,

[57:18] I think it's going to be great for the

[57:20] downtown village area.

[57:23] Speaking of the downtown village area and

[57:26] walking the whole length of the downtown,

[57:30] obviously most people are very well aware,

[57:35] one of the main initiatives of Deb Flagg has always

[57:38] been the MBTA and continued maintenance,

[57:42] not just--

[57:44] When I say maintenance, I don't just mean mowing in the summer and plowing in the

[57:47] winter, but really trying to get things cleaned up.

[57:52] We've made a lot of progress. We continue to make that progress.

[57:55] But one of the things that we found very helpful

[57:58] was

[58:00] that

[58:01] you would assume that it's very simple,

[58:04] that

[58:05] you have a track, it must be maybe, what, 10 feet on each side or

[58:09] 15 feet on each side, and that must be the MBTA's right

[58:13] away, and everything else must be the town or the abutting property.

[58:18] Well, it is absolutely not that simple in any way, shape, or form,

[58:22] and the boundary lines

[58:24] expand and contract significantly on multiple sections.

[58:28] And so one thing that we had asked was,

[58:32] a member that, or a resident that just contributes

[58:36] so much to this town, a retired engineer, but he

[58:39] dabbles almost professionally in so many

[58:42] different scenarios such as

[58:46] surveying the amount of, I guess,

[58:50] he calls himself not a professional because I guess he's not licensed, but he's got

[58:54] to be the closest thing to a professional surveyor.

[58:57] And he took the time on a very hot day to

[59:00] walk from the town offices all the

[59:04] way to the Davis Street crossing. Well, actually a little bit

[59:08] past that,

[59:09] where we surveyed the entire-- We were able to

[59:13] actually find the pins or the granite posts.

[59:17] The property lines, we were able to measure them.

[59:19] We were able to-

[59:21] Spray

[59:21] ... spray them,

[59:23] mark them with a little-- It was actually, it almost felt like a field trip.

[59:27] A very long one, a very hot one.

[59:30] And we were able to identify what those property lines are.

[59:34] And so if there's a dispute where there has been in the past of,

[59:38] "Well, that's not ours to maintain," we can say definitively,

[59:42] "Those are," and we went deed by deed.

[59:47] That's the amount of research Ward Baxter has done.

[59:51] Ward Baxter is just, I can't tell you how

[59:55] much he contributes to the town and how thankful we are for

[59:59] all of his work.

[1:00:02] So just wanted to provide that update.

[1:00:04] Deb, I don't know if you have anything to add.

[1:00:06] Well, I think

[1:00:09] what people don't realize, other than the fact I bug you on a daily

[1:00:12] basis to call your part of the railroad,

[1:00:17] I have a little friend that I've become quite friendly with.

[1:00:21] I chase down the Kiolis people. They see my black car coming, and they

[1:00:25] all want to take off.

[1:00:27] And if nobody has realized that the Walker

[1:00:31] Road has finally been cleared, cleaned.

[1:00:34] It was a disaster, okay?

[1:00:37] Finally, from

[1:00:41] Benjamin Road crossing

[1:00:43] all the way to

[1:00:46] where the Phoenix is-

[1:00:47] Davis Street

[1:00:49] ... Davis Street crossing,

[1:00:51] they have taken care of,

[1:00:53] for the first time in my lifetime, they send a crew

[1:00:57] out, and they have weed whacked all the way down.

[1:01:01] That takes

[1:01:03] the burden off of myself,

[1:01:07] or it takes the burden off IDPW.

[1:01:10] They can do things that need to get done, like the roads.

[1:01:14] And if you notice, it's done,

[1:01:18] but they have to realize, and I have to teach them, that it grows back.

[1:01:22] You have to come back. It's not gone for life. Okay?

[1:01:26] But everything,

[1:01:28] the other day, for instance, on the island across from

[1:01:31] the flagpole,

[1:01:34] they did it again. They came out, and they cut the

[1:01:37] trees and they left all the branches there.

[1:01:42] Who do you think picked it up? The DPW.

[1:01:45] So I'm fighting with them on a daily basis.

[1:01:48] I will get

[1:01:49] from Walker Road all the way

[1:01:52] that way done

[1:01:56] this

[1:01:57] in my last three years, which is right now.

[1:02:02] It'll be done. And

[1:02:05] I was shocked to find out that

[1:02:08] where the people park for the trains-

[1:02:10] Yeah

[1:02:11] ... we don't own much of that. That's all

[1:02:15] the train's property. And we're

[1:02:19] plowing it, and we're weed whacking it, and we're...

[1:02:24] And that goes all the way down.

[1:02:27] I knew that because we did that walk a few

[1:02:31] years ago, but it's amazing.

[1:02:35] I'm

[1:02:37] trying to keep IDPW

[1:02:39] doing the work that has to be done. The four of them,

[1:02:44] I'm so sick of hearing about the roads.

[1:02:46] Yeah.

[1:02:48] So we are making progress.

[1:02:52] All right.

[1:02:54] Next item is the school needs assessment study, RFP.

[1:02:59] So there's been a lot of

[1:03:03] discussion, a lot of news about Devens over the last few

[1:03:07] years, and

[1:03:09] there's a lot of different

[1:03:11] parts to that. And so myself, I've

[1:03:15] been part of multiple different groups.

[1:03:19] Some have been the Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee, which I've been

[1:03:23] on for quite some time, about what will be the final

[1:03:26] disposition and jurisdiction of Devens.

[1:03:29] But then there's been some other either working groups or committees

[1:03:33] based on,

[1:03:36] especially Devens and the current governor's

[1:03:40] administration

[1:03:41] having an initiative of really trying to create some housing

[1:03:46] and looking at Devens as something with great

[1:03:49] potential. And so,

[1:03:53] the housing cap, where there was a housing cap

[1:03:56] previously on Devens, has been lifted, and there's been

[1:04:00] some significant, or

[1:04:03] there's going to be very shortly,

[1:04:06] some significant development on areas that were already

[1:04:11] zoned as

[1:04:12] residential.

[1:04:13] I think there's going to be a lot more talk about perhaps

[1:04:17] rezoning certain areas of Devens,

[1:04:21] and rezoning them for residential.

[1:04:24] And so because of all this, we, the

[1:04:28] three towns, the Devens Enterprise Commission, Mass Development,

[1:04:32] and residents and representatives from Devens,

[1:04:37] were able to get a grant. And really what it is, is

[1:04:40] it's to do a

[1:04:43] school needs assessment for all the

[1:04:46] schools that are essentially

[1:04:50] here as far as

[1:04:53] the Ayer Shirley region

[1:04:55] and

[1:04:56] the Bromfield schools, and even

[1:05:00] considering to a lesser extent, but even

[1:05:03] Parker Charter as it is on

[1:05:07] Devens.

[1:05:08] Now, the whole intent of this study is to just give us

[1:05:12] information and basic facts. It's not to give

[1:05:15] recommendations where the recommendations are Devens

[1:05:19] students go to a certain either region or

[1:05:23] school. It's not to say schools should

[1:05:28] merge, or it's not to say

[1:05:31] that

[1:05:33] a certain school should be

[1:05:37] rebuilt or renovated. It's to give just basic facts

[1:05:41] of these are how many students we

[1:05:44] expect in the area within this amount of time.

[1:05:48] This is what we expect the

[1:05:52] school's capacity would be at. This is what I would

[1:05:56] deem as perhaps 10 years such and

[1:05:59] such building may need to be addressed in this manner.

[1:06:03] So it's really just giving basic facts, and with those,

[1:06:07] all the people that are stakeholders in that group can then make their own

[1:06:11] decisions. And so,

[1:06:13] we had put out an RFP, request for proposal.

[1:06:16] We received responses. We're reviewing those responses, and we'll

[1:06:20] be moving forward, I'm sure, the next few weeks.

[1:06:24] But that's kind of where we're at, and I think that there's going to be a lot more

[1:06:29] agenda items in the future regarding Devens.

[1:06:31] I think it's

[1:06:34] going to be something that,

[1:06:36] especially being one of the three towns made up of historic boundaries,

[1:06:40] I think we're going to be involved quite a bit

[1:06:44] And the final item, which we've had on the agenda

[1:06:48] quite some time, is there is a vacancy with the Nashoba Valley Technical High

[1:06:52] School, school committee membership.

[1:06:55] If anyone is interested, please let us know.

[1:06:59] All right. Thank you.

[1:07:03] Next item is

[1:07:05] select board member comments.

[1:07:07] Awesome.

[1:07:09] None.

[1:07:09] All right.

[1:07:11] Next is public comments.

[1:07:16] Next is approval

[1:07:18] of treasure warrants.

[1:07:22] Okay.

[1:07:24] I make a motion to accept warrants

[1:07:26] W27-2 in the amount of

[1:07:29] $8,585.

[1:07:33] I second.

[1:07:36] I vote aye.

[1:07:37] I vote aye.

[1:07:39] And I vote aye.

[1:07:41] Next.

[1:07:43] I make a motion to accept warrant

[1:07:45] W27-3 in the amount of

[1:07:48] $7,839.59.

[1:07:53] Ryan, you have to second it.

[1:07:55] I second it.

[1:07:56] I vote aye.

[1:07:57] I vote aye.

[1:07:58] And I vote aye.

[1:08:00] She was going to second it till the last time, and then she seconded it.

[1:08:03] No, but you're the second.

[1:08:05] I thought so.

[1:08:06] Confused me there again, so there we go.

[1:08:09] Make a motion to accept warrant

[1:08:11] PRW27-3

[1:08:15] in the amount of

[1:08:16] $180,878.07.

[1:08:21] I second it.

[1:08:22] I vote aye.

[1:08:24] I vote aye.

[1:08:25] And I vote aye.

[1:08:26] I make a motion to approve warrant WR...

[1:08:31] Why did I say W? PRW27-4 in the amount

[1:08:35] of

[1:08:35] $189,637.49.

[1:08:42] I second.

[1:08:43] I vote aye.

[1:08:44] And I vote aye.

[1:08:45] I make a motion to approve warrant

[1:08:49] W27-2 in the amount of

[1:08:51] $494,813.95.

[1:08:56] I second that.

[1:08:57] I vote aye.

[1:08:58] I vote aye.

[1:08:59] And I vote aye.

[1:08:59] I make a motion to approve W27-2 in

[1:09:03] the amount of

[1:09:04] $1,115,417.11.

[1:09:10] I second it.

[1:09:11] I vote aye.

[1:09:12] And I vote aye.

[1:09:13] I make a motion to approve

[1:09:15] W27-2,

[1:09:19] Ashley Regional School District, August

[1:09:21] $931,364.92.

[1:09:25] I second it.

[1:09:26] I vote aye.

[1:09:27] I vote aye.

[1:09:28] And I vote aye.

[1:09:29] I make a motion to approve

[1:09:31] PRW27-2 in the amount of

[1:09:34] $173,975.74.

[1:09:39] I second the motion.

[1:09:40] I vote aye.

[1:09:42] I vote aye.

[1:09:42] And I vote aye.

[1:09:43] And I make a motion to approve

[1:09:45] PRW27-1 in the amount of

[1:09:48] $144,380.55.

[1:09:52] I second the motion.

[1:09:53] I vote aye.

[1:09:54] I vote aye.

[1:09:55] And I vote aye.

[1:09:58] And next we have approval meeting minutes of

[1:10:02] June 8, 2026.

[1:10:04] I make a motion to accept the

[1:10:07] meeting minutes of June 8, 2026.

[1:10:10] I second the motion.

[1:10:11] I vote aye.

[1:10:12] I vote aye.

[1:10:13] And I vote aye.

[1:10:15] Do we have a motion to adjourn?

[1:10:18] Sure do.

[1:10:19] I make a motion to adjourn at seven o'clock.

[1:10:22] I second the motion.

[1:10:25] I vote aye.

[1:10:26] And I vote aye. Thank you.

Select Board-8/26/2026

Transcript