Select Board: May 10, 2023

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Okay. All right. It’s, uh, seven o’clock. I’d like to bring this, uh, meeting to order. Uh, I’d like to announce that this meeting is being recorded and videotaped via Zoom. And, uh, we have a 21 item agenda tonight, which I hope we can move through relatively efficiently. And first on the agenda is an interview for an appointment for Registrar of Voters, and I believe, uh, Margaret Harrick is here. If you wouldn’t mind coming forward and, and sitting in that seat right there, that would be great. Uh, first of all, thank you very much for your, uh, for your volunteerism. Of course. And I think this is just an opportunity to, uh, perhaps get to know you and, and tell us a little bit about yourself and, uh, you know, why you’re interested in, in, in volunteering for this. And, you know,

0:47 we’ve read your very nice letter. So, you know, with that, just a brief intro would be great. Uh, Just to reiterate, uh, my name is Margaret Harrick. I go by Margie. And, uh, my husband and I’ve lived in Marblehead since 1994. Uh, we relocated here for our jobs, uh, from Cincinnati, Ohio. And we chose Marblehead as a community, uh, for a few reasons. One, it’s a coastal community that we wanted to live in, and more importantly, it’s a real community. It’s a real town, and that really, that attracted us. So we’ve been here since 1994. I currently live at seven a, uh, Skinner’s path in, uh, Glover Landing.

1:34 And, um, just there, we, I have to say that there are days when I was commuting into Cambridge. Brutal. That’s true. For 20 years. I might have questioned the wisdom, but I never really, uh, never really, we, uh, are happy we’re here. We think it’s an incredible community and, uh, a vibrant community that, uh, is, is part of the actual leaving of the country.

2:07 Yes. Well, thank you. Uh, any, any questions from, uh, the other select board members? No. Just if you, if you’re, um, I’ve been involved in politics my entire life, and, uh, I, I think that a nonpartisan approach to vote to voting and access to the polls is critical to our democracy. And that’s why I am really, uh, interested in being part of this nonpartisan or multi partisan board to assure that of all, of everyone, it doesn’t matter where you come from in terms of ideology or whatever. I, I think the access to the polls is really, really important.

2:56 And having sit, having a citizen board overseeing that is something to be congratulated and something to be supported. And I’m very happy to be part of. Please, yes, go ahead. I’m just curious, what’s a certified spiritual director? Uh, I went through, uh, several years of training in the Franciscan, uh, mood to be a spiritual director. And ba basically, uh, what you do is you meet with people who are searching for, um, in some ways the way God is moving in their lives. And it can be episodic. Uh, frequently it’s a job loss or this or that, where they’re like,

3:45 why am I abandoned? Other times it’s much more deeper. It’s where am I to go? What am I to do? Um, what, what is my path? How am I to give back? Uh, and so my training is, as I said, in the, in the Franciscan mood. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Any other question? No, Thank you. Thank you for the letter too. Um, no Girls Inc. Of Lynn Very well, so appreciate The No, that was, uh, working at Girls Inc was an amazing, just an amazing experience. And, uh, to have those young women, um, come and I, I can

4:29 tell you the importance of that organization. We, we had, we had a Yo a mother speak to us, and, uh, she was one of the Cambodian boot people. And until we were talking with her, her daughter didn’t know that she was a Cambodian boot person. She, she had, I always thought my mom just got on an airplane in Florine with me, you know? But, um, and the, the mother said that the, uh, reason that she could go on and take a better job with longer hours was that the girl, her daughter could come to Girls Inc. And it wasn’t just babysitting, it was mentoring. She was doing her homework,

5:17 and she knew that that was something that was carrying her forward. And so the, the mother went on and got her graduate, got, uh, college degree and her master’s degree. And, uh, so asked a young woman where she was going to college, and she, she taught us Harvard. So we felt pretty accomplished, pretty good about that. So yeah, it is, it’s a fabulous organization. It’s doing important work in a very, um, underserved community. Thank you for anything else. Um, yeah, Please go ahead. So you’re taking over for Walter? Yes, I am. Yes. Who’s done it for, Who has, um, done it for quite a while, I guess. So did you have the chance to speak with him about what it Involves, or, uh, I, uh, we had it teed up. We weren’t able,

6:05 able to get together before. Great. But, uh, I have had several conversations with Walter while he was serving and what he was doing and how, and his role in helping merge the elections and things like that, and his, um, vision of the importance. And, uh, so I, I’m, I’m drawing on that, and he and I have, we are getting together, but we haven’t had a chance here. That’s great. Thank You so much for stepping forward. Sure. I’m happy To, Margie, thank you. I really appreciate and agree with your multi-party perspective and your, and your, uh, conviction around that. And I think you’ll be a worthy guardian of our, of our democracy, which is, uh, thank you. What the position entails. So thank

6:51 You. And I just wanna congratulate everyone on what I think was a very successful town meeting to have three nights and level CI citizen participation that we had, just shows a vibrant community and, uh, of an oh, vibrant, multi-national, multi-generational community. So thank you for that. Thank You. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Much appreciated. Thank you. Sure. Okay. So this is, uh, for registrar voters. The term is three years, and it’s a vacancy that, that was created by, uh, Walter Horn’s, uh, term expiring. And I’d like to entertain a motion to appoint Margaret Herrick, Margie known as, as Registrar of Voters with a term to expire in April, 2026.

7:37 So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you very much, Margie. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Have to Swear on, I, that’s a good question. I haven’t, I, I think you have to swear in with the town clerk before you assume your duties, so, you know, whenever the town clerks make that happen, make that happen. That’s right. Exactly. If you would, please. Thank you. Okay. Second item on our agenda, thank you, again, is the Green Marblehead Committee final report. And, uh, I think we’ve got, uh, uh, Brooks winner here as well as, uh, he’s on the screen. Yeah, he’s on the screen as well as, uh, Joe Kok and, uh, Brooks, do we have a connection with You? Yes. Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me okay? We sure can. We can see you and we can see the presentation very, very clearly.

8:23 Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Um, Please go ahead. Well, thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. And, uh, good evening, everyone. Um, I’m sorry I can’t be there in person with you all tonight. Uh, but it’s, it’s an, it’s a pleasure to be with you all again. Uh, some of you will remember that I provided an update, uh, at a meeting back in February on the initial draft of the Net Zero roadmap. Um, and we, we have finalized the plan, uh, the roadmap. So really pleased to, to, um, to just provide another update on, on the, sort of the end of the project and the, the publication of the plan. And, uh, just also wanna say, uh, hi to all of the Green Marblehead committee members in the room. I see Thatcher and Alexa and Joe and Eileen, uh,

9:11 John Livermore on the line on Zoom as well. So, um, hi everyone. Um, Andrew’s here, Andrew. Hi, Andrew.

9:22 So, yeah, looking forward to getting up there soon to celebrate, uh, with you all the, the great work that we’ve done on the, on the roadmap. But, uh, just as a reminder, M A P C is the regional planning agency for Metro Boston, the region, which includes, uh, Marblehead and surrounding communities. Um, and we got a grant from the, uh, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, uh, almost two years ago now, to work with cohort of four communities served by municipal light plants, um, on a pretty sort of innovative project, looking at what, uh, what local climate action planning looks like in communities that have municipal utilities. So that was with Marblehead, Peabody, swi, and Belmont.

10:08 Each of those four communities took a slightly different approach, uh, to developing their own sort of, uh, NetZero or climate action plan locally. Um, but all of those, uh, projects included conducting a greenhouse gas inventory, so getting a sense of the baseline and where each community is starting from, uh, the planning process itself. So engaging with community members to get input about what should be included in the roadmap. And then the creation of, of the roadmap itself. And our role, um, was to, to lead communi engagement for those four communities, including Marblehead and, and to help develop those roadmaps.

10:53 Um, so as, as you’ll maybe remember from the last time I presented, uh, the, the roadmap was really committed, uh, completed with the leadership of the Green Marblehead Committee. Um, and, uh, it was really a collaborative effort among, among all the community committee members and members of the public. We hosted, uh, multiple workshops to gather input, both at the beginning of the project. And, um, and towards the end, after we had a draft, we res we had a long list of potential actions and strategies to include the, in the roadmap, uh, that was like 200 some odd, uh, rows in a spreadsheet that we, uh,

11:39 miraculously managed to narrow down to the 70 or so actions that are in there now. And, um, another feature or highlight of the roadmap is the introduction, which is a, a letter from the future, um, that John Livermore and, and Company, uh, drafted, inspired by, uh, an activity that we actually did at the opening workshop where we asked people to imagine what Marblehead will look like in 2040 after it achieves its goal of reaching carbon neutrality or net zero greenhouse gas emissions. And, uh, no spoilers, but, um, it, it looks, it looks pretty good, uh, if,

12:25 if we get there when, when we get there. Um, and I think the, the vision that’s sort of outlined therein is a really beautiful one, uh, for the community. So that’s, uh, that’s how we kick off the document. Um, then it then goes into some context, both at the sort of local, regional, or at the local regional, uh, and, and global scale. And then summarizes that, that greenhouse gas or g h g inventory that we conducted, um, to, to set the baseline, uh, that we, that Marblehead will be using to measure its progress, um, as well as the community input that we received through the workshops. I mentioned, uh, multiple surveys that we conducted and through public participation in

13:11 Green Marblehead committee, uh, uh, meetings. And, um, yeah. And then as I mentioned, we, we produced, uh, uh, the, sort of the core of the plan, which is the 70 or so actions to help reduce emissions in the following categories. So there’s a section about implementing the roadmap that includes, um, uh, actions like providing regular updates to the select board about how, uh, progress is, is proceeding. Uh, there’s a section on, uh, homes and businesses in marblehead or, or buildings, how, how to decarbonize buildings around town. Um, a mobility section that we call getting around Marblehead,

13:57 a clean energy section, a nature-based solutions section, and then a catchall other actions section.

14:07 Um, so I’ll, I’ll summarize some of the, the actions, but I just wanna point out that between the last time we, I met with you all, and, uh, and today we had a great public, uh, meeting where we pr we received a lot of really helpful feedback from members of the Marblehead community, um, about the draft of the plan. And there were two primary themes that really, uh, that, that arose from both the, the public meeting that we held and from the, uh, feedback form that we posted on the committee’s webpage. One was that the, the roadmap was a little light on information or actions

14:52 about, uh, bike and pedestrian infrastructure and, and promoting biking and walking around town. And then, um, as you can see in the, uh, the word cloud here, which is, uh, summary of the themes of the, the input survey, um, we didn’t have anything in there about trees and increasing tree cover, which is both a climate mitigation strategy because trees, uh, absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Um, but it’s also a really important, uh, adaptation strategies. So, um, more trees help cool in the summertime. They help, um, manage storm water, et cetera. So, um, we heard loud and clear from folks that they wanted more tr more,

15:40 more trees and more bike and pedestrian focus in the final version of the roadmap. So thank you again to everybody who, um, who attended the workshop, who filled out the input, uh, survey, really helped us strengthen the final product.

15:58 Um, so I, I provided a summary of, uh, some of what’s in there. I didn’t wanna go through all 70 of the actions with you all tonight and would encourage you to take a look at the, the final roadmap. Um, but I did just wanna highlight some, um, one at the top there. Uh, hire a sustainability coordinator. You all are well on your way to doing that, having approved that in the budget at town meeting. So congratulations there. Uh, and it’s, um, it’s a great relief to me to know that once I wrap up my role in the project, um, that there will be someone locally to help play the sort of quarterback role to make sure that the, uh, the roadmap that we’ve created is, is implemented,

16:43 and there’s somebody to, to oversee that. Um, I mentioned there’s also an action in there about, uh, providing annual progress updates to, to you all the select board. Um, and then a few that I, I wanna mention as well, we, we tried to make this plan, uh, one that intersects with or, um, alludes to other important planning documents that the town has, including the housing production plan. So the first action in the building section is create and preserve efficient, affordable housing and implement the strategies outlined in outlined in the Marblehead Housing production plan. Um, there’s another one that we added, um, based on the feedback that we received from folks, um,

17:32 continue implementation of the Marblehead Complete Streets Prioritization plan. Um, Becky Keran provided some really helpful context. Uh, sounds like you got, you all are, are making a lot of progress there. So just kind of keeping that momentum going is important. Um, and then a few other just to name, uh, expanding public, uh, electric vehicle charging stations, advocating for and adopting the specialized stretch energy code, which was, uh, developed and, uh, finalized, uh, during the course of, of, uh, writing the roadmap. So it’s helpful to have the, the final version of that, um, ready for, for review locally. Um, and then also actions in there about, um,

18:19 community and regional transit needs, uh, coordinating with utilities to address major, major gas leaks. And I’ll just, um, mention that I was with your state representative Jenny Armini in the State House earlier today, talking about a bill that would help communities, uh, do just that. Um, so also some good, good momentum, uh, going there, uh, that, that, uh, folks from your community have been involved with as well. Uh, these last two down here at the bottom, also actions that we added based on that feedback that we got from folks at the public meeting. So, um, the final version of the roadmap is available

19:06 on the town website, on the green Marblehead, uh, committee page and, or at, uh, mapc.ma/marblehead-roadmap. Um, so you, you can find it there. And, and I believe Thatcher, uh, will circulate a copy to the select board members if he hasn’t done so already. Um, and I’ll just point out as well, there are two appendices to the roadmap. One is this, um, action summary table. This might be a little small to read, but, um, that distills down the 70 or so actions into a three page. Um, it’s not an executive summary, but it’s a summary summary table. Uh, that’s a great place to start. And, uh,

19:52 something that, uh, you could, you could print out and share with folks or, um, you know, maybe your sustainability, uh, staff person will, uh, use this as, as kind of a, an orientation document. Uh, the other is the, um, greenhouse gas inventory methodology. And that is, um, that’s a longer document that goes into the, uh, the fine details of how the, the Greenhouse Gas inventory tool that, that M A P C used to, uh, produce that, that emissions baseline works and the assumptions that we made, um, and all of those, uh, those details. So, um,

20:39 if you want to dive into the weeds on the inventory, that’s where to do that.

20:47 Um, so that’s, uh, that is the roadmap. And I wanted to say thank you again to the Green Marblehead Committee. It’s been a real pleasure to work with, uh, with all of you for the last, uh, two years plus going back to the Climate Visioning project that we, uh, worked on in 2020. And, um, yeah, I, I’m just, I’m, I’m really excited about what we’ve produced. I’m excited for, uh, your community to be staffing up to, to meet the moment. And, um, and just so grateful for all of the committed, uh, staff and community members, uh, and, and members of the committee who, without whom, uh, the, the roadmap wouldn’t have been possible. So, um, thank you to all of you,

21:37 and it’s been a real pleasure to, to work with each and every one of you. So happy to stick around to answer any questions. Um, and maybe I’ll stop sharing my screen so I can see you all, but I’m happy to bring, bring up any of the slides if that’s useful. Brooks, thank you very much for that overview. It’s been a long time in coming and, uh, and we’re very excited about it. As you can tell, we’ve already taken steps to, you know, to implement that all first quarterbacking role, uh, you know, for the Green committee. So we’re, we’re very excited. Thank you very much for your effort and for everybody’s effort. Uh, with that, uh, any questions of, of Brooks or I guess any other members of the Green committee at this point? And I just have a couple questions. Um, thanks. Great presentation. Thanks to everybody who works so hard on, um,

22:22 the long process and putting it all together, uh, for the next step. Um, I, so you’d highlighted a couple things. The Adopt the Stretch Energy Code, is that something that is like, ready to go that we just kind of promote and would put out there for town meeting next year? Um, More than that, yes. Is that just the natural next step in that? Um, yeah, if, I think that is, that would be a great place to start. Um, communities around Massachusetts have already, um, started adopting it. Um, and I think for, um, yeah, I think for, for communities like Marblehead, we’re encouraging them to, um, start those conversations now so that folks understand, um, what, what the changes are, what the difference between the, the stretch code,

23:09 which is where you are currently, that was also updated, and we’ve talked about that a little bit, um, at the committee. And, and I know the, the Lightboard has also had conversations about that. Uh, but yes, that, that is something that’s, that’s ready to go. Um, so for next, next town meeting, um, absolutely. Okay. And then I just noticed that you’d highlighted the bike and pedestrian plan and tree maintenance. Are those, um, like would the next action step, do those have, you know, um, kind of, uh, is the next action step on those, like technical assistance in applying for that and going that route or, um, within the, within the, this plan, was that like something that was already contemplated? Like what would be the next step for the bike and pedestrian plan in terms of an

23:55 action on that? Yeah, That’s a great question. And because you mentioned technical assistance, I’ll just say that, that one of the things that I mentioned to, uh, the, the committee at our meeting last week is that, um, my role in the project is ending, but map c’s, uh, support of Marblehead, um, is, you know, we’re, we’re rooting for you all. And, uh, that’s a big part of what we do is provide technical assistance to communities like Marblehead that are working on, uh, issues like this. So, um, yeah, there could, there can be opportunities for technical assistance. Um, I’ve, I’ve done, I’ve written climate action plans for communities and then worked

24:40 with them on technical assistance projects to, to sort of implement one of the actions, um, for the tree planting and bike and peds plans. Um, I think there are a few, a few routes. If you think that there isn’t local capacity, then certainly looking for technical assistance might be useful. Uh, but I think the other, um, thing is that if, if the tree warden wants to take that on or, um, find, find some help to do that, uh, for, for the sort of tree planting program, I think we, we sort of highlighted a, a lead implementer for each action in the plan. And I’m trying to find it now, but I think, um, yeah, the,

25:27 the tree warden was designated as our suggestion for the lead implementer there, uh, for the, the sort of tree planting and maintenance program. Uh, and yeah. And then I think if there is, um, the, the bike and pedestrian plan could be a good outgrowth of the work that you all are doing on complete streets. Um, so maybe that’s like a, an addendum to that or, um, work that could be sort of aligned with that. Yeah, I think, cuz I, I like, as a resident and just kind of knew on the board, I, the, I heard a lot about, you know, safe school and biking and bike lanes, why can’t we just have bike lanes? And it’s like more complicated. I came to find out than you would think, I’m like, how hard this can this be?

26:15 You know, just, you know, paint a line down West Shore Drive for the kids to write and it’s actually like more technical and it actually requires like a comprehensive plan because you can’t just have it end and, and not have a be contiguous for safety reasons. And there’s a lot more that goes into it, which I didn’t realize, you know, um, cuz it seemed simple, but it’s, it requires like a lot more planning than you think. Yeah, And I’ll just say that, um, M A P C also has a transportation department that does that, or that supports a lot of that kind of planning work locally. So I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna volunteer them for anything, but if you, if anyone has questions about that, uh, or wants to follow up, I believe I, um,

27:01 I put M A P C in there as at least a, um, sort of a partner or a potential partner for that action specifically.

27:11 Okay. Any other questions from the, uh, from the board at this point? Uh, yes. Um, my name’s, um, Excuse me, uh, uh, Richard Smith. Are you, is he on the green committee? Are are you part of the green committee? No, no, I’m not. I’m a citizen of Marette. Okay. And now normally we wait until the end for public comment, which we are very happy to, you know, take your comment toward the end of the end of the meeting if, if, if you don’t, if you don’t mind. No, no problem. Be much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you for standing by, uh, Richard. Appreciate it. Uh, okay. Any other questions from the board? Are we, uh, all set? Thank you. Yeah, just again, Brooks, thank you very much for putting together this very, uh, very helpful framework and, uh, and it’s really good to see that there’s, uh,

27:59 suggested leads within the town that can kind of take on these responsibilities and, uh, and, and, and, uh, and move it forward. So, uh, with that, I think we, you know, we’ll, we’ll go ahead and accept the report. Uh, we don’t have a specific motion for that, but I think, uh, that is, that is a given here.

28:19 I think there’s a written one. No, there’s not a motion to accept. Yeah. Let’s just, so I’ll just entertain a motion to accept this report. Uh, so, and do we have a second? Okay. All in favor. It’s unanimous. Uh, Brooks, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Okay, take care. Just, and Alexa, thank you For Yes. Representing the, uh, board on this Yeah. Committee. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Uh, with that we move on to Glovers. Thanks Burs. Thanks. Thanks. Yes, thanks. Yeah, Have A great trip. We’ll be in touch. Okay. Can I just wrap up? It’s, Please. Yes, go ahead. Sorry. It’s Available on the website. Yep. Um, under the green community, uh, committee, uh, the model head green committee site, um,

29:08 I’m sure we can push out, you know, on the news link so it’ll, it’ll make it more readily available. Um, uh, I’ll send all of you the, the PDF document. I didn’t wanna print it cuz we’re trying to lower our carbon footprint, so I don’t want to put it on paper. So, um, you can either go to the website or I’ll email it out to, to all of you. But I, I, I especially, I jumped in midstream on, on the effort, um, great committee work and, and a whole bunch of the members that are here or, or online. It was, uh, I would say one of the higher functioning committees I’ve been on in, in this business. So I, that’s a great, I really wanna point out the, the, the members who were working at this long, long before I showed up on the scene.

29:54 So they, they deserve a lot of credit for the work they’ve done to, to make this possible. It’s really outstanding. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I think we can, uh, move on to, uh, item number three, Glover’s regiment encampment. And this is the annual, uh, reenactment of, uh, 1775 Revolutionary, uh, war style military encampment. Very exciting. Great for kids, you know, reenactment of our, of our history and the emotions pre self-explanatory. To approve a request from Shamus daily, captain Glover’s Marblehead regiment to use Fort SE July 14th, 2023, uh, through July 16th, 2003 for the regiments 2023 annual summer encampment, subject to the usual rules and regulations. Some,

30:41 some of second and a second. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Uh, the next is a wine charity license. Uh, friends of Marblehead counts on aging for June 2nd,

30:56 and this is fairly self-explanatory as well. Uh, entertain a motion for, uh, to approve the application from Kate Daley, president, the Friends of Marblehead Council in Aging for a wine charity license on June 2nd, 2023 at 10 Humphrey Street. Subject to receipt of the required documents and, and approval from the A B C C shall vote. Second. All is in favor? Oh, with the roll, uh, it’s a poll vote because of an alcohol license. That’s correct, yes. Okay. That’s that true, Not show who I left off with.

31:30 I’ll start with the Ms. Belt Becker in Favor. All right, Ms. Singer? In favor, Ms. No in favor, Mr. Aye. In favor, Mr. Greater In favor. Okay, now that would be unanimous. Um, okay. We have a private, uh, drain connection for seven McKinley. Um, and, uh, you can see the licensing agreement in your package here. It’s basically connecting a sump pump, I believe, to, uh, Yeah. So it’s, it’s standard agreement. It’s feted to public works to allow a private sum pump connection into the public drainage system. So, standard agreement with the homeowner. It’s been vetted and everything, of course. Yeah. Okay. Entertain a motion to, uh,

32:15 to approve the license agreement for private connection to town drainage system as presented between, uh, the town and Rebecca and Bradley Suns. 17 McKinley Road seven Second. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Seven or 17? Seven. Seven. McKinley. Seven. What do I say? Yeah, seven McKinley, Just 17. Oh God, I’m not even, yeah, that’s almost inexplicable.

32:45 So I moved. Um, and the second one is another private Duran connection at 31 Elton Street. Uh, again, um, self-explanatory. The motion is to approve the license agreement for private connection to town drainage systems as presented between the town and Chase and Kristen Bibe, 31 Elm Street. So moved. Second. All those in favor? May unanimous. Uh, one day liquor license for the Marblehead Museum. And this is, uh, the annual fundraising event in the Lee Manion to raise money for the nonprofit museum’s educational and preservation mission. Very important. Uh, and the motion self-explanatory. To approve the request from Lauren McCormick,

33:32 executive Director Marvel Head Museum for a one day liquor license on Saturday, September 9th, 2023. Uh, three from 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM at Lee Manchin, 1 61 Washington Street, subject to the following conditions, delivery and receipt of the licensing authority of the required fee. $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol be purchased from an authorized source. Proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcohol beverages, purchase, all in accordance with the requirements of general law section. Uh, 1 38 alcohol will be purchased from Capis importing. This is a poll vote as well. So, Second, um, Ms. Singer? In favor, Ms. Newan In favor, Mr. Nae? In favor, Ms. Bill Becker In favor, Mr. Greater in favor. Okay.

34:20 Next is approval of the minutes. Uh, and I entertained a motion to approve the minutes of April 3rd, 2023. April 6th, 2023. April 12th, 2023. And April 26th, 2023. So moved. Second. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you.

34:42 Okay. Uh, next on our, uh, item is, uh, ARPA requests. Uh, and tonight we are voting to approve, um, an amount that comprises principally a school related, uh, items. And Thatcher, if you could, uh, uh, lead us on that discussion. Sure. So what’s, uh, presented tonight for the board are two items that, um, uh, came through the, the, uh, upper, uh, uh, working, uh, group. Um, the, they’re both school related. First one has to do with, uh, school classroom equipment. Um, that includes, uh, replacement microscopes, balances, hot plates, centrifuges,

35:30 um, uh, supports for the unified arts. Uh, there’s unified arts equipment, um, that’ll provide more accessible curriculum for students. Um, the, the equipment, uh, that’s being replaced, uh, in part is, uh, requested to help, um, um, help students to catch up in regard to the, the lost learning from from Covid. Um, so that amount for, for, for that school equipment is 27 300 $13. Then there’s, um, uh, another equipment category, school technology, basically smart panel technology that’ll go in various classrooms, uh, to enhance learning, um, using not just visual and auditory, but allows kinesthetic,

36:18 tactile learning with interactive classroom lessons. Um, so again, um, this is, uh, additional equipment, uh, that will help address, uh, learning loss due to covid. Um, what I’ve also provided, so that’s the request for tonight. The total is, um, 94,513. And as I’ve summarized at the bottom of the memo, out of the total of $6,144,030 that we’ve been allocated in ARPA funds, um, we’ve previously approved $2,690,929. Um, af uh, with this approval, it would leave, uh, 3,358,588, uh,

37:03 dollars remaining for additional aper funded projects. What I have also provided as, as context, um, are 2, 2, 2 documents from the, um, the priority list spreadsheet that, that I maintain. Um, the single page sheet shows all the projects that have been funded to date, um, that lists, uh, what they are. Uh, and that totals 2.6, almost 2.7 million that’s, that’s been approved. What’s been included on this worksheet, um, on the far right columns, is the scoring criteria. So we’ve had much discussion about, you know, how how does the process work? And in part, um,

37:49 all of these projects are vetted through, uh, it, it, they have to qualify under the APA rules that were issued out to minus states and municipalities when, when the program was in first implemented, as well as the select board voted to, um, a, apply the criteria that’s listed here, and to run all, all the projects through the criteria and to score them as, as a ranking process. So you’ll see, uh, public health and safety, uh, replenishing reserves, economic recovery, infrastructure investment, uh, recovered temporary deficits, um, and, and the unsustainable other fund o other funding on a p r categories. And, and the far right column is the total score received for the existing

38:39 of the projects that have been approved. Um, each of these categories, they don’t, um, they carry different weights. So, for example, public health and safety. Um, you, you would have a, a, a max score of one at one point. And other categories like economic activity would have a high, the highest score is 0.6 if it qualifies or, and so forth. So, so they’re sort of weighted. The categories are also weighted, and this is consistent with the guidelines as to what the purpose of our funds are for. And where the federal government, state government have indicated where, where the emphasis should be, uh, for these programs. The second sheet, um, it’s not just an eye exam. Uh, it’s a lot of information squeezed into limited real estate. Um,

39:31 but what it is, these, this is the remaining items that are not yet, uh, funded, uh, where they are on the scoring rank. Um, the, the two items highlighted green are the two that are, that are presented for tonight that are on the sheet. Um, the projects that you see, I have the, the rose banded between blue and white, just for being able to trace along the information. Um, where it, where the, the first column starts turning gray. Um, the spreadsheet keeps track of the total dollars, the cu cumulative dollars of all the requests. And that’s the point where it hits, where it’s exceeded the available funds.

40:16 And so this is a living document. So this gets updated, um, sort of as we, we have new requests or new information on existing request, we run it through the evaluation, it, it’ll sort depending on, on, uh, the information in here and the spreadsheet will automatically update as to what, what is over the line, what is under the line. I’ll also stress, um, we’ve taken deliberatively taking, uh, um, I guess a slow systematic process. Um, some of these projects that are on here that are, that are requested by not yet funded are projects. For example, there’s, when we talked on the, on the, the, the net zero report about, you know, the bike trails and such,

41:02 there are a number of projects that are directly related to the bike trails. They haven’t been approved yet because we’re going through the process of, of, um, doing the evaluation and, and, and bidding to get good price information on each component of the projects. So that with that, uh, more accurate information on the pricing, we, we put it in, we plug it into the spreadsheet, which updates, and it helps tell us if the prices are higher than we expected, that means we got less capacity on the list. If the prices come in lower than we expected for these other projects, that means we have more capacity for other projects. So, so we’re not just trying to shoot through and just make one decision to, um,

41:48 to, to blow through all the money in one shot. We want to give all the projects time to, to get vetted, to get evaluated, uh, and as new information comes in to be able to, to respond and, and, and make changes accordingly. So the the point being, it’s a living document. Uh, it will continue projects continue to be, be analyzed and updated and, uh, we, we have to the end of 2024 to, to go through this process. So that’s where we’re at. Um, so that’s the context. And so before you is is, uh, the, the, the request from the two school projects. Thank you Thacher. Um, any questions from the site board members at this time? Erin? Yes, go

42:33 Ahead. Um, thank you. So, um, obviously, um, you know, the school classroom equipment and school technology addresses learning loss as noted. Um, I’m kind of like curious cuz I know there was other requests made by the school department and um, I think you had mentioned that it was like over $300,000, maybe three, three and a quarter something. I don’t remember what it was, but I guess I’m just wondering if someone could speak to why these were deemed eligible versus for, in terms of learning loss versus those other requests. And are those other requests re like, you know, kind of, um, like on a, on a wait to be c basis? Or are they deemed not eligible?

43:21 Yeah, um, I would say a little bit of both. So it, um, those other projects are on the, on the scoring list. Uh, so yeah, so the schools requested $330,915 worth of projects, uh, on a list. Um, we, we went through and we, we categorized them to, to, to group them accordingly. Um, we, uh, first off there, there was request for 19,000 for clear gov. We took that right off the list because one of the, one of the overall criteria for, for eligible projects that we also look at, um, and, and again, opera is one time money. So, so we stay away from funding anything that’s an ongoing commitment, uh, that, that should be part of the normal operating budget or,

44:09 or normally would be So Clear Go is an example. You know, we we’re splitting the cost of clear go with a school. So both of us, the townside and school side’s in the same boat, that that’s an, that’s an annual ongoing subscription cost. So that’s a, that’s an ongoing obligation that we, so, you know, decidedly not fund that with opera for the others was to, uh, get a better, better understanding of what they are. We, we, we, they break down to, for example, professional development. Um, there were a number of items, but they, you know, $63,000 of professional development. There were software, uh, supplies, uh, looks like about 39,000 supplies, uh, 81,000 in textbooks. Uh, and then there was the classroom equipment, which is what, um,

44:57 we’re funding and other technology. Um, and so part of the conversation on, on these were some of the, some of the categories are assumed to be ongoing obligations, operational costs, uh, for, for the schools. So, so those, um, a a as a general rule as we, we’ve done for for many others, is, uh, not, not looking to fund those through opera because tho those are ongoing commitments. Um, some of the projects are still on the list. There, there’s a number that were in this request that are, eh, have to put the glasses on. They scored like 0.4. They, they, they score under, um, they’re on the second page. Yeah, they’re on the second page. Well, second first they’re on the list,

45:45 but they’re below, they’re in the gray area. Um, there is one, uh, school professional development, uh, they ask for increase in development. Um, that one we, we need to get more information we can take another look at. Again, what we don’t wanna do is fund ongoing commitments, but if, if it’s, if, if we can define it as specific to addressing the impacts of covid, that it’s, it’s somewhat of a one-time, uh, can be defined as a one-time commitment, then we obviously, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll take another look at those. Well, cuz it just, there seems to be some like text textbooks, literacy phonics kits, um, steam materials, apple MacBook and some things on here that to me stand out as one time class.

46:33 Um, I don’t know how we would differentiate them in terms of learning loss versus science equipment. So I’m just kind of, kind of would like some insight into, you know, again, like how those certain things rose to the top but others didn’t. So, and it’s okay if that’s, if it’s like an ongoing conversation, but I’m just trying to get some clarity around a, how they’re prioritized cuz it c I see like the technology and digital initiatives in that are green here are, it says they have a one under public health and safety.

47:08 Um, and I guess are we categorizing school classroom learning loss under our priority number one? Or are we prioritizing it under, um, another category? Yeah, so the other ones, they, they only scored a 0.4 for infrastructure, for equipment. Um, this equipment got the additional, uh, public health and safety and I’m trying to remember the, how the conversation went, something to do with the, the, the particular equipment, the lab equipment and such that I think what it was replacing, if somebody from the schools want to answer, I’m happy to Tell you what the equipment, so some of our science equipment still says marblehead high on it. That’s, um, it’s over 30 years old, so it might be that it’s safe.

47:54 Yeah, No Sheriff, if you don’t mind coming up to the microphone. If, if, if, if you’re not, if you’re not Or I’ll rephrase. Yeah, Yeah, perhaps you can just so people can hear you. And, and So, um, some of the equipment, it was, it, I can see how it would be a public health or safety thing because it was, it, it was no longer safe for students to be using and that’s where that versus the Mac lab, um, the MAC lab was a trying to get us up to speed where, where some, some things have been lost, Triggered, triggered my memory. So, so part of the equipment was safer equipment, more updated equipment and the smart boards was to give better capacity for students not coming to the classroom and not falling behind.

48:42 Because using the smart boards, they can better capture the, the learning material and provide it to students who weren’t available for the classroom. So it goes back to the, the health issues of, of making, i I my words make it more flexible for people to stay home if they’re not feeling well. Uh, but, but also not missing out on whatever, uh, activities were in the classroom. So that’s why those received that public health and safety score, even though their equipment and others didn’t. So that’s, that’s kind of the process that we go through to try to analyze each, each Segment. So I think, cuz I think under the treasury rule and other,

49:27 under our prioritization plan, my understanding and the way it’s written on our, um, prioritization criteria is that when we’re talking about public health and safety, we’re referring to like COVID 19 interventions specifically. And if we wanted to qualify things like science and technology and textbooks and stuff that addresses learning loss, which wasn’t actually contemplated when we, when we first developed these rules, but now is, but it is prioritized under investments or economic, what do I have it now? Under the new treasury rule, it expanded the, um, out, what I say is our category three priority economic recovery programs for

50:14 hardhead industries and small businesses under the treasury rule. That is where you, um, address the impact of learning loss for K to 12 students, schools, educational equipment and everything else. But in terms of like the ongoing public health and safety, I guess I just wanted to make, I just wanted to, to clarify when it’s getting a one, the way we voted this and, and again, this kind of actually, I wanted to kind of discuss maybe at another, at an upcoming meeting or our next meeting, we kind of revisit these priorities because when we had originally voted these, I mean, kids were still masking in schools and the, the whole climate has changed. So I was hoping that, you know, not tonight, but um, maybe at our next meeting or you know,

51:02 a meeting, an upcoming meeting in the near future, we could kind of revisit this priority list because I think the whole landscape has changed since we created these priorities. And again, we didn’t really even contemplate some of the now eligible uses for the ARPA funds that are now allowable under as of April, 2022. So, um, and, and as I look at the priorities that we have and that are on the website one through five, you know, number one, like expenses for ongoing covid 19, public health and safety, particularly for vulnerable populations, demonstrate covid, demi, you know, with demonstrable covid 19 interventions mitigation P p E vaccination clinics. Um, well those were for contact tracing, congregate living situations,

51:51 public communications during that time that, I mean, I mean, we’re now in a different environment. We don’t have a public health emergency. The C D C has declared that over, um, we’re not gonna be using ARPA funds for P P E presumably anymore. So, you know, maybe that is something that’s just kind of something that maybe we need to revisit replenishing reserves on here. You talking about on the, our working priorities that that, like, in terms of the, that the board has sent to the advisory working group, right? Yeah. So, um, replenishing reserves, which great, we have done that. Yeah, that’s a, you know, so that’s kind of like we, that’s kind of moot at this point. Temporary operating deficits caused by covid 19 again in 2023, looking forward with 3.3 million, that’s kind of moot. I mean,

52:39 we know what our temporary, I mean, and maybe I’m, we know what those are, those temporary operating deficits. So we’re kind of now have iden or have these two categories of economic recovery programs and investments in infrastructure that are very broad. And so I would just suggest that we kind of, um, look at this at an, at an, at another meeting because I think we’re operating off of something that is a little dated well, which was great when it, you know, but I, I think we do need to kind of a, the think circumstances have changed. Some of these are now not relevant because we’ve already, you know, addressed them and prioritized them and expended the money. So the Yeah, the urgent covid response right in in the health, I mean,

53:26 those are issued out and expended. Yeah, yeah. And dealt with what, what the, what the guidelines on, especially on the infrastructure, what they really point to is water sewer infrastructure, drainage, um, uh, networking, uh, technology, those type of things. As well as the economic, um, you know, helping the business community and such, which is where, where, where some of the focus has been. So, and Then like yeah, for investments in infrastructure, you know, we could, as a board maybe there’s categories that like broadband, like, um, stormwater drain things that, you know, it’s so broad. I, I just think may be more helpful to talk about it. So I mean, one of the things we also look at, uh, is that o on those categories, which, which opera specifically points to,

54:14 but what we also analyze are, are requests or projects that have other funding sources. And, and we, we let the other funding sources cover those. And, and that’s why some of ‘em haven’t moved up because we’re working on identifying either grants or, or, or state programs such, so, so we’re trying to balance that so we maximize the APA dollars for those things that meet the criteria, but don’t necessarily have those funding sources to, to move them forward. So Yeah, that’s great. And that totally should be continued. Yeah. I mean, look, I, I think, I think you, you raised some valid points. Just make a quick comment. You raised some valid points here. Um, but I, I think also the criteria are still are very useful in the

54:59 sense that there’s consistency throughout, we’ve got a rating system and so forth. And I think what’s happened quite frankly in our discussions on the, on the working group is that each of these criteria are kind of slightly expanded, right? So it’s not of course, direct covid intervention, it ha but it ha But we still do prioritize public health and safety, you know, as, as kind of the preeminent, uh, criterion, you know, when we do score something, okay. So it, you know, it’s, it, you know, for example, on what we’re voting on tonight, that actually does have a specific, uh, relationship to, um, you know, to public health and to, uh, the ability of, of kids to be able to, uh, you know, not have to come to class if there’s a, if, if they’re sick, uh,

55:46 which is which, which is super important, but Different than, But you can see how we’re, it’s not directly related to covid necessarily, but it’s in the same spirit of, um, you know, of public health. So I think, so we’re, we’re, yeah, we’re, we’re, I, I think we, we have adopted a, you know, flex, a little bit more flexibility around each of these. Yes. Alexa through The chair. So, uh, I just have a couple points, uh, after I saw this, looked at the, you know, I went through the final rolling of the, the treasury after, when we originally made this priority. I looked at some of the things that have been updated. Some of the things they, uh, highly emphasize is in things that they recommend. And then as I go through this list,

56:31 like just one of the things that jumped out at me in like, some of it was a contrast, like on page 39 of the, oh, the final ruling, they talk specifically about encouraging recipients to prioritize investments in broadband and wire and infrastructures, right? And then I look on, when I look here, it’s highlighted on the second page, you know, um, many, many items down. So to me, that jumped out as a potential need to, uh, look at the final ruling and, and say, okay, perhaps there does need to be a readjustment from, you know, it’s been over a year since we’ve looked at this compared to this, but there is a dis direct discrepancy between those two things that I’m reading

57:19 here and what that prioritization that I’m looking at here. So that’s my first point I wanna make. The second was, um, there, uh, you know, I looked at the presentation that was delivered back in October and for just the, um, concentration of the membership. I just wanna make sure, you know, now that Alicia’s on board that, um, how often are you guys meeting? Uh, you know, right now it’s ad hoc, but you’re trying to do weekly. Yeah, try to do it monthly. Um, now we took a pause when, when we immersed in prepping for town meeting. Yeah, yeah. But what I, what I’ve been trying to do is have our work group meet in order, you know, once a month bring new projects forward. Okay. So, so, we’ll, we’ll get back on that, on that cycle.

58:05 Yeah, no, so I mean, to me, based on what the things that you’re highlighting, the things of one, I mean, I know it’s not specific in either of these documents, but I’ve heard this repeated prior and then this evening, the need to ensure, uh, if there’s other funding sources that we are looking at that having that conversation and then divvying that out. So I, I, you know, I think without her involvement in that process, that to me would be a difficult thing to do holistically as a town that we’re having that conversation. Without who do you mean? Her? No, um, with the financial director without Alicia. Yeah. So obviously we had this gap, but now that she’s here, I think, you know, and obviously that’s something we wanna be doing, but I just wanna make sure that she’s looped into part of this conversation Very much so, and Yeah, Whether she wants to or not. Yeah,

58:51 No, I just wanna make sure moving forward, she’s attending these meetings. And then, um, that was the one thing I, you know, I’m just looking at the discrepancies between the two and what was on the list. And then, and as I look at the current formulation based on the final ruling, based on the priorities that I’m seeing here as I, I, I do see some discrepancy there that perhaps we can look at. Um, and that don’t fall under even things such as, um, like cybersecurity for example, that are in the final ruling. So there are some, some, some somewhat significant changes that wouldn’t flow into this original prioritization. That’s, you know, what, like 16, 14, 15 months old at this point and affordable housing. Um, yeah, I didn’t, yeah, that, that one’s highlighted. Um, so I,

59:38 and I just am pointing some of, some of this, you know, out as far as the, the criteria of how we, how we disperse this and ensuring that, that we are applying the same criteria to all boards. You know, that if there is a need to present an itemized list, that that’s the criteria that’s being held to, you know, to all boards that we’re treating everyone the same, that if someone has separate matter expertise, expertise in their area, that we are allowing them to make that decision. Yeah. And we’ve had this discussion before, but that personally is one of the things that I, um, is very important to me in this process. Thank you. Because without minutes, without an awareness, you know,

1:00:23 we are only getting what you’re bringing us to the table as a working group. And so, uh, that’s what, you know, to me, I need to ask those questions. So, so the task force is an advisory committee to the town administrator. That’s how, that’s how it structures. So, um, uh, uh, I’m ultimately responsible for, for what’s coming forth, but also, um, you know, it’s, it’s sort of my operating principle anyways, but to very diligently follow the process and the fact that maintaining the scores, having the scores, um, you know, and, and being very strict about running through the process. And it’s a, you know, it’s a broad based group of people with all different sort of perspectives on it, and it’s a very, um, open discussion, deliberation on it.

1:01:11 But ultimately it’s, you know, advisory. I maintain, I maintain the list and, and really vet and, and to bring things forward. So, like I said, we’re trying, I do intentionally a bit slow, but very deliberatively to allow certain things to play out. Yes. And I am, I agree with all of those points. I think the one thing I highlighted was just the difference between where we are 13 months later and it’s not the execution of the process. Okay. To me, I look at it from the perspective as, like I said, some of these things that I know for a fact are highlighted needs, um, and are more appropriate to where we are now in our funding. Yep. Um, and they’re not, it doesn’t, the documentation and the prioritization doesn’t speak to that. And if I look in the final ruling, it does speak to that. So that’s where, uh, you know, I would say as this has been brought to my attention, it would,

1:02:00 you know, just looking at a revisit of what, what’s more applicable to where we are right now. And I think the execution is very fair that, that, you know, that’s just a separate discussion between that too. But I did, you know, like I said, I just highlighted the one thing that I found, but there were several things that, uh, seemed to have Yep. Shifted somewhat. And I mean, of course we’ve been in a, in a shifting time for the last 12 to 24 months. Right. So that I would think would be commonplace for, for anyone. And I do believe that we have been very methodical, um, through. Yeah. And it is At this and it, and also seeing what other funding sources, right. You know, we can find, and a lot of times that is an option. And if there are things that are coming forth that don’t have additional funding sources, and that really wasn’t articulated in the prioritization. Uh,

1:02:48 but it has been, I think, articulated behind the scenes. But perhaps we add that as a criteria as well. Just on a historical though, you know, in the early days, I think infrastructure and, and, and particularly, uh, water sewer, uh, and right and broadband infrastructure was kind of highlighted as well. And what’s interesting, uh, a lot of towns said, okay, we got this big chunk of money, let’s just get it off the table. And some towns just spent it all on infrastructure, right? And so now we took a decidedly different tack, obviously, I think we just cast a very wide net. We, and we ultimately pulled together 18 million of requests. And it was like, okay, thank God we have these criteria that where we can mm-hmm. Evidence the sy the system that, that thatcher’s, you know, putting us all through. So I think, I think that was a good move. And, and, uh,

1:03:36 you know, at the end of the day, I think inf, you know, investment infrastructure’s there, I would only just as a matter of, you know, there is kind of a moral hazard with changing criteria midstream. I think a little bit, you know, not, not to say, you know, but simply because we’ve ranked, uh, a lot of these projects and we’ve been very kind of, I think one of the thing foundations we have to stand on is the, you know, the credibility of Thatcher’s, you know, process and kind of, I think our criteria right now are, uh, reasonably clear. I’m hoping we can kind of take your concerns and kind of like, you know, in terms of criteria, kind of expand them within, you know, cause I think this is where we’re focused and giving guidance to the, you know, to Thatcher on the, on the working group. But, you know, I just raised those issues right now. So it’s not, it’s not. And, and,

1:04:22 and I know, uh, you have a, a question as well, Jack. No, I don’t. A question or you have a point. You have point, point of view. Okay. Thank you. Thatcher’s ARPA group has done a stellar job in following their parameters, the prioritization criteria adopted by the select board with input from a community survey. And the group pulled together as a really good working group. I think everything has been vetted. I strongly support the group and I, and the work that you’ve done so far. And I, I don’t feel comfortable, uh, talking about another meeting like next week or whatever it would be. Um, because they have work to do and they know very tedious work in some ways. Um,

1:05:08 and they need to be able to do what they’re doing. I just, I don’t, I don’t feel that you can come in and, and, uh, try to, um, change what they’re doing in a very comprehensive way. Thank you, Jackie. That’s all. Any Other, just really brief to say Go ahead, Erin. Yep. So, um, I actually think that the way that Marblehead has approached the Aper group is far superior then a lot of the other communities. I think there has been like real fidelity to the process that Moses and Jason created back with the whole ranking PR prioritization. I think we took a really measured, um, judicious, methodical look at this. Um, and cons, you know,

1:05:55 we’re very conservative about the opportunity that the $6 million presents to our town. Um, I, so I don’t think anything needs to change about the fidelity to the process about the way the working group is working. I would only, like, I’m only suggesting just because, you know, in kind of looking at this and, and, and I know that the school committee had presented some things that weren’t presented and they were kind of confused around what, you know, what went into it. And then I, so then I did look at our priorities and, you know, it’s fair to say that the whole landscape of things have changed. We’ve now just been very conservative and, and rightfully so and done a wonderful job, I think, of allocating the first half of that money.

1:06:41 But we still now have looking forward 3.3 million and, you know, if may, I think in this moment there’s an inflection and maybe a time to revisit the priorities since we have removed some of these. And if we’re being faithful to a scoring system, um, you know, maybe we, you know, maybe we’re not now lo no longer in this order, prioritizing things, you know, maybe we don’t prioritize covid 19 interventions as number one anymore. Maybe our number one priority. Again, this isn’t for me, this is a discussion from the board than to be instructive to the working group. You know, cuz it’s the will of consensus of the board around what the priorities are. But maybe the priorities are number one now at this point,

1:07:29 investment in infrastructure and economic recovery. And then there’s sub-buckets or just sort of a little bit more flushed out. So that’s helpful to your working group in terms of like, when we made this like, you know, the fiber optics and the, and the, and the broadband stuff. You had to be an under, you had to, you had to go to underserved, um, or under, um, whatever underserved groups. And now that, you know, you can just put it in of right, either you don’t have, there’s no requirements for it. You know, there’s affordable housing now that was no longer contemplated learning losses in there that really wasn’t, you know, in here in the beginning. So that’s all I was just saying. And I think that it’s a conversation, you know, if we’re gonna be ranking things mm-hmm. Let’s take a look as a board. Do we, is this still the order that we’re

1:08:14 With $3 million? Well, I think that’s really great to give, uh, thought to that, right? Because, but I, I would, you know, put some, he, you know, heavy thinking into the moral hazard of changing the order of the criter and stuff because it would run, you know, roughshod. There are, believe me, there are, there are a lot of advocates out there that are pushing hard and most people seem to be okay with kind of the order of the, of the criteria. And as I said, what we, you know, your point’s well taken to the expense to the extent that we’re not doing specifically covid interventions. It’s over. Yeah, it’s done. But we are emphasizing, you know, kind of the public health aspect of it, as you can see from the way that, that, uh, thatcher’s committee ranked the, the school, the school allocations. You know, so there’s a nuance that’s,

1:08:59 that’s occurring. And maybe I think, you know, hopefully what, you know, what we’re saying is, look, we could probably change the wording, but I think the kind of the public health and safety parameter is still a very solid one for how with, with the spirit of the Covid law and everything else, it doesn’t obviate investment in infrastructure, right? Cuz that, that is definitely there. Just go ahead. On the infrastructure, the what, what you’re gonna start seeing is some of the bigger ticket items that are infrastructure that are economic focused, those focused, they’re taking more time because they’re, they’re having to go through, you know, design and, and and, and, you know, there, there’s work that’s going on to design the project into, uh, determine the cost of the project. But when we have that information and when those come in,

1:09:46 you’re gonna see bigger dollars that come through and come out just by the nature of what they are. So I think what’s part of the effect here is we’re in that, that zone time-wise, in the middle of, we had the initial heavy covid reaction getting stuff. Um, but on the list are some, some of the bigger real infrastructure stuff that’s, you know, Becky and, and, and folks are working through. Cuz we have bidding processes, we have design processes. When those come to fruition, then you’re gonna see, you know, big chunks come in that are, that are very infrastructure re related. So it’ll change the dynamic through the Chair. My concern in that is what I just voiced with, uh,

1:10:33 just making the decision not to pivot and readdress what the final ruling is. Some of the things that you’re highlighting and some of the things that I know are needs, which I said did not rise to the top under the certain criteria. If we may remain in that criteria without a decision to readdress the final ruling, they would not rise to the top. That wouldn’t change. And then based on what you’re highlighting, a lot of those capital projects under the original allocation don’t fall under the final ruling. You know, they’re, they’re more so in line with the water and sewer projects, broadband, um, it, you know, but some of the original projects that would have fallen don’t fall under that. So I, I have concerns from that perspective as well with people doing work to things

1:11:20 that, uh, wouldn’t necessarily fall under that final ruling. And then that’s repeated work. You know, I guess I, I have a hard time understanding, um, as things change and as rulings come out, that we’re not pivoting to meet those new rulings and then reprioritizing what those rulings and emphasis are. So, and it seems like work to be done on things that perhaps aren’t qualifying or the, you know, the emphasis has changed Because I think the last update on the rules was like April 22, I think was when they Yeah. Was the last update. So, yeah. Um, on the guidance, but no, I, But, but, but it’s just not, you know, it’s another laundry list of stuff. Yeah. Really, it’s not, you know, I think those types of projects do come into the pipeline, as you know, and,

1:12:09 and they don’t rank, uh, necessarily, uh, you know, towards the top. And I think we’ve made, yeah, look, I just, I think this is a really great discussion. Um, I, again, I’m just concerned about, uh, you know, the, I don’t think there’s been a tremendous change in emphasis. There’s been a change in co in terms of the rulings. I think there’s been a change of context, which is absolutely true. You know, that you raise Aaron, you know, about the, you know, we’re no longer in a covid emergency situation. So, and we’ll, and, and then to ask the question, you know, what’s the relevance of the criteria? And I think at the end of the day, what we’re saying is, look, uh, or what I perceive Thatcher saying is, look, there is relevance to the criteria still. And you know, there’s fewer projects that rise to the health and safety.

1:12:55 And so what you’re doing is you’re starting to emphasize more of those projects that do, you know, economic recovery and everything. Yeah. Well, and I think that the, just the reorganization of where things are now and removing from the pandemic to what this original point was, and, you know, I mean, I think Moses, you made this point when the money originally was brought out, was that the, you know, this is a burden that will be on our, you know, our children. And, you know, and I think about that from, you know, when, when that statement was made and what the original thought of this money and where it’s coming from. And so as I look at this criteria and where we are now, and addressing things, you know, in line with learning loss and those types of things where it has pivoted, and I don’t see the space in this current

1:13:40 prioritization to, you know, to highlight those types of things as much as, um, as the time has changed. And now that we’re looking back, you know, over the last 24 months and 36 months, and, you know, as they look at where these children are now, what the impact is, and at the end of the day, they will be the ones paying and paying the bill for this. So, you know, how are we, how are we accounting for that One point? Well made thanks. Point well made. Okay. Thank you. All set? Any other? Thank you. Thank you, hunter. Okay. And with that, I, uh, dare to entertain a motion, uh, to approve the use of federal ARPA funds for the following purpose and amounts school, classroom equipment, $27,313, school technology, $67,200 for a total of

1:14:28 $94,513. So moved. Second. All those in favor, unanimous. Thank you very much. Let’s move on to, uh, item number 10, Abbott Hall Charter School graduation, uh, annual event for the charter school to hold their graduation. And I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, uh, for the request from Stephanie, uh, Brant Marblehead community, uh, charter public school to use Abbo Hall on Thursday, June 15th, 2023, for charter school’s annual graduation ceremony and rehearsals, subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipts of the required certificate of insurance. Second. All those in favor? All right, unanimous. Thank you.

1:15:13 Uh, open and closed warrant for the, uh, annual town election 2023. So this is something we do every year. I’m going to, uh, basically make motions for each of the, uh, open warrant, uh, for the annual election. Now, in the past, before we changed the date we went into special town elections. So there’s a little bit of a, a difference here. Um, so I’m just gonna go ahead and read these motions, which you’re all familiar with. And I’d like to entertain a first motion to open the warrant for annual town election to be held on June 20th, 2023 for insertion of questions. So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor?

1:15:59 Okay. Approved. Uh, the second motion is that the select board shall seek at the annual town election to be held on June 20th, 2023, the following named town elected officers to be listed on the warrant select board five for a one year term moderator, one for a one year term assessor, one for a three year term cemetery, one for a three year term board of health, one for a three year term housing authority, one for a two year unexpired term library trustee. Two for a three year term municipal light commissioner, one for a three year term municipal light commissioner, one for, uh, a one year unexpired term that’s an additional municipal,

1:16:48 an additional municipal light Commissioner, uh, planning board, two for a three year term recreation and part commission. Five for a one year term school committee. Two for a three year term water and sewer commission, two for a three year term. So moved. Second. All those in favor? All right. Third, motion. A motion of the select board by simple majority vote to seek voter approval at the annual town election to override from the provisions of general law Chapter 59, section 12 c, g, and assess the real and personal property taxes, the funds required for the payment of general government operating budget purposes. Second. All those in favor? All right.

1:17:34 Uh, the next motion is that the select board seek voter approval at an annual town election to be held on June 20th, 2023, to override the provisions of general law chapter 59, section 21 c g, and assess an additional $2,472,056 to the real estate and personal property taxes. All is set forth in the following question one, so named ballot. Question one, shall the town of Marblehead be allowed to assess an additional $2,472,056 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purposes of the town’s general government operating

1:18:20 budget for the fiscal year, beginning July 1st, 2023? And then there’s an option for a yes and an option, uh, for a no. And, uh, and the second is to vote is a simple majority roll call. Okay. So moved. And a second, please. So this is just to put it on the ballot. This is just to put it on the ballot. All of this, yeah, all those in favor. Okay. The final, uh, the next motion is that notice of these questions be transmitted forth with to the town clerk. So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor and motion that the warrant for the annual town election to be held on June 20th, 2023 is closed again. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you.

1:19:08 Next on our, I, uh, on our, uh, agenda here is the M S B A Declaration of a removal of an S O I and, uh, Thatcher, if you could, uh, give us a little background on that. I think it’s, uh, Sure. And I’ll ask, uh, how to start off. So the schools had submitted a request, um, to the Mass School Building Authority for an accelerated repair program for the Veterans Middle School, um, that project. So it, it, it gets submitted in, it’s in a, it’s in a cycle to process through, uh, for, for approval through the whole program. Uh, the school has, um, uh, requested to withdraw that request, um,

1:19:58 due to the timing of, uh, of the project. And I’ll ask a school representative to give it any, any details as the reasons why. But as far as the process, so, so they, they submit the request, it starts through the Mass School Building Assistance Program. They’ve now requested for it to be withdrawn, uh, in order for it to the project to be withdrawn, it requires the signature of the school committee chair, the superintendent, and the chair of the select board. So that’s why the select board is also voting on the Pro. So you had earlier voted to also allow the chair to sign on to, to originally submit the project. So Madam Chairwoman, if you, If you would please go ahead and Thank you. So the reason behind the withdrawal, so when we originally did the application, we did an application for bolt roof projects, uh,

1:20:45 the Veterans School Roof Project, which was the substantially lesser financial cost of the two projects, as well as the high school. We were only approved for the Veterans School, as you know, um, the stipulations in the timeline to go through this process is a quite a long timeline. Um, and yes, while there is a reimbursement rate, the escalation costs that would, we would incur through that 18 month pipeline timeline that would defer the, the project for that long would outweigh what we would recoup from the M S B A project, as well as by going through their pipeline. The M S B A has certain stipulations, they require us to do that, doing it on our own, we would not have to do, so. The law,

1:21:33 the total cost of the project will be higher if we do it through the S B A, and therefore, although we get some, we recoup some money, the net difference will not actually be a cost benefit to the town. And especially when you look at the fact that we’ll, uh, continue to accrue damage to the building for the next 18 months that we’ll have to fix. So in light of all that, we’ve decided to start the project and try to, uh, complete it much sooner than that. Sure. If I can follow up with a quick question while you’re standing there. Uh, what is the recruitment level that N SBA would provide in this, in this Instance? Um, it’s, it’s much less than the total project was when we did the, the high school, or I’m sorry, the Brown School. I don’t have that exact number, but I do know Michelle Kresta ran the numbers and that with escalation costs and

1:22:20 so on, it wasn’t a, a benefit to the town.

1:22:25 Any other questions? Yes, please. Alexa. Um, Is it true or not, we’re looking at this briefly that the reimbursement with roofs versus building, like it’s a, it’s a completely different process. The whole process is criteria, right? Yeah. The whole funding structure, yep. The whole process is much different. And in fact, what we found out is the reason why the high school roof was not approved, uh, right off, off the bat, even though it’s in very poor shape, is there’s a minimum number of years for the age that, although we know we have, we have data that shows these type of roofs have been since found to fail much sooner. The Ms FDA’s, um, scoring process just hasn’t caught up with that. Yes. So it’s, it’s totally, it’s a total same comp, same agency,

1:23:11 totally different mechanism, um, and reimbursement rates than the school project was. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thanks for the update. Appreciate it. Uh, any other, uh, questions? Okay. I’d like to entertain a motion to notify the Massachusetts Building, uh, school Building Authority that Marblehead no longer wishes to participate in the MSBA a’s Accelerated Repair Program, and would like the statement of interest for the Marblehead Veterans Middle School to be removed from the MSBA a’s Accelerated Repair program and authorized the chair to sign on behalf of the board. Second. All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have those documents for you to sign. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um, okay. Boston Yacht Club. Um, next on our agenda,

1:23:59 temporary trailers for the Halifax Race, uh, exciting event. The, uh, motions pre self-explanatory as a request from Harper Sibley, general Manager, Boston Yacht Club. One front street to park a trailer in front of the fence at the Boston Yacht Club. One front street from July 6th to July 9th, 2023, in conjunction with the marble head to Halifax race, subject to approval from police and fire and receipted, the required certificate of insurance. Um, moved a second. Uh, all in favor? Thank you. Um, you’re about to say something? No, it’s fine.

1:24:42 Um, shellfish, uh, notification with beds closes. This is, uh, an annual occurrence. Um, basically the shellfish, uh, uh, licensing is conditionally open, but it’s going to be closed, uh, from May one to September 30. And all the dates are inclusive here. And I guess it’s cont conditionally approved every year. So it’s just during that summer. Jack wanna talk isn’t, Hey, Jack, isn’t he a constable? Jack is a constable, and he’s all knowing to boot. So Jack, I dunno if you have any,

1:25:21 Not much to say. We had another successful year on the, on the clam beds, and I think we had 63 licenses issued. Um, we have a healthy fishery, and I think I have nine, uh, constables that, that volunteer their services and, and patrol and keep everybody in line on an unruly beach on a cold winter day. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Outstanding, Jack. Thank you. And this is, thank you. We’re not required to take a vote on this. We’re just notifying. And, uh, appreciate the, appreciate the, your augmentation of that notification.

1:26:02 Uh, let’s see. We’re moving on now. Thank you, Jack, um, to disabled, uh, disabilities Commission resignation, unfortunately, of Katie Ferrell. And she has a letter of resignation here where she’s gonna step away from the Fair Housing and, uh, disabilities Commission. And, uh, I think we might want to, you know, at this point, accept applications for any, uh, future interest. I think. Can we send Katie a note, a motion to send Katie a note of thanks. She’s been on those many years. Many, many years. So second. Yeah. Okay. So, we’ll, to that, a motion to send a letter has, has been seconded. All in favor. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And you can, you can also,

1:26:50 Yes, well, yes. To announce, uh, you know, openings. Uh, yeah, I think we should, we are here, here, here forth with announcing that there’s openings for the Disabilities Commission, and I think we should make sure it’s published on the, uh, on the website. Okay. And, uh, Heather, any, is there anything else we need Tom, accept applications for while I’m on it? No. Okay.

1:27:19 Uh, one day liquor license, coastal Marine June 3rd, uh, motion’s, pretty self-explanatory. Motion to approve the request from Jessica Black Coastline Marine Services for one Day liquor license on Saturday, June 3rd, 2023 from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM at eight. So street subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority, the required fee, $50 delivery and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an, from an authorized source, proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, proper, uh, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcoholic beverages purchased. All in accordance with the requirements of general law. Section 1 38, alcohol will be purchased from Kathy’s importing in Arpo Brewery. Uh, motion and a second, please. Mo, uh,

1:28:04 And a second. Second. Okay. In favor,

1:28:11 present. Sorry. Ms. Beth Pec. In favor, Ms. Singer? Mr. Gra? In favor. Thank you, Roger. Um,

1:28:25 festival of Arts, it’s the revision of, uh, of the 5K race and the request. I’d like to entertain a motion, a request from Joan Clem Festival of Arts to amend the previous approved date to hold the Festival of Arts 5k to July 1st, 2023, subject to the approval of the Marblehead Police, recreation and Parks. Receipt of the re required certificate of insurance naming the town of Marblehead is additionally insured. And police details, no permanent marking shall be made on the streets, and any temporary marking shall be removed to the conclusion of the event.

1:28:58 And a second. Second. Yeah. Oh, second. Do I have a second? Yes. Okay. And further, further point of discussion? No, no. Okay. All right. Uh, all in favor. Thank you, unanimous. Okay. We have the Abbott Hall Festival of Arts, and that’s a, uh, uh, request the use of Abbott Hall for a festival of cod and whale, v i p launch party outstanding on June two. So that motion’s also great event, self-explanatory, mh t v bu it will be in attendance and well as newspapers, et cetera. The request for the motion, uh, comes from Cindy Roamer Festival of Arts,

1:29:45 used Abbott Hall on Friday, June 2nd, 2023, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM for the festival of Cod and whale, v i p launch party, subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipted of the required certificates of insurance. Second. Second. All those in favor? All right, thank you. And now we move to public comment, and I’m wondering if Richard is still on the line. We’re, we’re In the Yes, I’m, I am still here. Well, thank God, thank you for, thank you very much for hanging in there. We really, we really appreciate it. Right. Uh, please, please go ahead. I have what I hope is a simple question regarding the, uh, climate action plan that the Green Marblehead Committee is proposing

1:30:30 that part of that they are proposing an energy efficiency license for apartments. And in reading up on some of the, uh, supporting documentation from, uh, the M A P C, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, uh, they’re recommending that, that step, and they say in their document that consider starting this as a voluntary program and ramping up to required licensing. And my, my question is, what is the process for implementing this or approving this, uh, step is, uh, if it’s voluntary or if it’s required. And what if, uh, their fees, uh, involved in this licensing,

1:31:19 Pat Patrick or Alexa? I, I certainly don’t know the answer to that, Richard. Uh, I don’t know if there’s anybody, anybody who might be able to take a stab. I miss this First sentence. I I miss her. What? Oh, for The energy efficient apartments? Yeah. So, you know, we can start it as a volunteer process and then moving it to required, he wants to know what are the fees associated, if any, and the process moving that forward, volunteer versus requirement. And he saw that highlighted, so we just wanted us to speak to that. I mean, I, I don’t know what the final answer is, but one of the, you know, the good news, like the first item hire a sustainability coordinator, that the idea is hiring an individual. And, and part of their responsibilities, among other things,

1:32:05 is to vet through those recommendations and to help us craft them to move ‘em forward. Because again, those are recommendations to do something to achieve something. Um, and I think, uh, Aaron May may mention just another subject earlier, it’s never as simple as you think when you first step into it. So, part of the work of a sustainability coordinator and, and also buried in, in one, in that report is in the request is a request of the select board to maintain the, the Green Marblehead committee. So we’ll talk about that later to, to help provide guidance. So as we implement programs, uh, especially programs that will have some type of obligation costs and

1:32:50 those things, we would want to go through a process to, to vet it out, understand it, and, and, you know, share it publicly and, and kind of collectively make those decisions as to how best to go forward. So it’s not a spec straight answer to the specific question. It’s more about there’ll be a process to help us figure those answers out as we move forward on, on all the programs and recommendations. So is that just a, uh, you know, a continuing process of committee meetings and them, uh, presenting to the select board and then depending upon what you decide that either it’s a vote by the select board, or does it come up for a vote for, uh, by the people or what, what, uh, Most, I, I would say some of the items would be,

1:33:38 obviously under the purview of the select board to implement. There will probably be other programs and initiatives they’ll need to be approved by the select board, but will also be a matter at town meeting. Okay. Right. And, and, and so certain programs that impact the public obviously, uh, uh, will have some element of town meeting as well as any funding of any programs ultimately have to be budgeted for. And again, subject to town meeting for, for ultimate approval. And through the chair, please go ahead. And one of the other considerations, Richard, that throughout, um, all of these discussions is what is the implication on, um, the taxpayers or on the citizens, and what does that process look, look, you know, and how do we balance that, uh, whatever that decision is, the implications that are there in the process of also

1:34:28 looking at what initiatives to start with, how do we implement them and what are all the variables involved? So that is definitely a part of the conversation, if That helps. Okay. That sounds great. Um, as long as I pay attention to the, uh, town website and understand when meetings are going on, uh, I should be able to keep track of what’s happening. Yes, sir. Okay. That’s great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate, appreciate your comments. Anybody else, uh, in the room? Uh, yes. Or online, please? Sure. Um, Eileen OU from 44 Longkey Drive, and also a member of the Green Marblehead Committee. So I just wanted to ask one things we didn’t put in the final document,

1:35:15 because we wanted to ask you all, and I think Thatcher will do a more polished job of this, but I just want, we talked about the future of Green Marble Hood Committee, because we have been meeting for four years, thank goodness, Jackie and all of you put us together a while ago. And, um, we were, and Becky Kern Cutting had suggested that the select board might want to ca change our mission. That, that the precedent had been set, I guess with the, the different housing groups that to change Green Marblehead into an implementation committee so it could continue to meet and work with, obviously the sustainability manager. And Thatcher would be, um, the people really doing the work. But to have a community based group continuing, and actually, of course it’s unique cause it has, all the d you know,

1:36:01 has Andrew and Joe Kulik and Becky, and, um, a lot of different department heads, building commissioners and so forth and schools on it. So it brings people together kind of out of our silos to talk as we try to figure out how to implement things. So I, I think, as I say, statue will probably make that more formal, but that was one of the things that we were hoping not to just, uh, die on the vine or sit on the shelf, whatever the metaphor might be. And so I hope you’ll consider what best way to do that. But Thank you on his face. It sounds like an excellent idea. I mean, it’s, uh, you know, something that, uh, I know, uh, you know, Thatcher will consider and I think will take his recommendation one way on, on how a re you know, what a restructuring might look like or, or a change of purpose. But it seems to have continuity with, with the folks that are, that are on the committee is important through the implementation.

1:36:49 And it sounds like the M A P C does is done a really good job of kind of identifying those initiative areas that need to be run by whom, under, under that’s, uh, you know, uh, guidance and supervision. But, but, uh, And many of those initiatives have so much overlap where we have found in the meetings we really do need, you know, um, you know, electric light and the schools that you know, hundred say hundred percent, how do we pull this together and, and just really to make those decisions for prioritization. Or someone might say, yes, you know what, we were doing this, but we could seek this other funding that I know about. And I really think it helps to take those projects as, especially looking at all of the opportunities for funding that we’ll be staring down in the next 24 months, having everyone on board and weighing in will put us in a better place to access

1:37:38 that. I agree a hundred percent with you on this. You know, and I think that’s something we’ve tried to do over the past several years, is to bring together these cross-functional committees that where you can put real brain power together now. They have to be, I think, integrated well with the operations of the town. So, so not only does it do good cross-functional thinking, but there’s also, uh, you know, a great opportunity for additional transparency so people can kinda see what’s going on. There’s another dis discussion point around important issues. So, yeah, I mean, generally speaking, I think sustaining these kind of, this kind of knowledge base is pretty, is a good idea in my personal view. So I, I think that’s something we, hopefully the board we can, we can discuss further. Yeah. And I think too, just to add, you know, one of the things, one of the big reasons was for bringing on the sustainability

1:38:26 was to help put some of these plans into place, but also, uh, important to highlight the ability to then hunt down the funding and the grants and the money to help us pay for a lot of these initiatives. And that is just really important to have that person doing that work. And anything that we can do as the collective to support that person, um, and their ability to go and move that process along. So we are shovel ready. So we are in a place that if the money is available from the federal government, we can say, yes, we have these plans ready, we have this person who can write that federal grant and get that money for us and, and hunt it down. So I, I think that’s part of the, the idea of bringing this up. Yeah, you can Together, you can, I think that’s right. And you can see from Richard’s question that there is going to be a lot of

1:39:12 interest. So I think it the more opportunity we have to kind of open up and, and debate different things in, in some way, you know, or at least there’s a, a discussion, a place to discussion to discuss and Hear concerns. Absolutely. It is very useful. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So agree. Yeah. Okay. Uh, great. Uh, do we have anybody else? I, I see, uh, uh, Madame Chair Fox, please go ahead. Sarah Fox 46 Speed Street. Um, I have a couple questions. Where can I find that ranking list you guys were talking about for the arpa? Is that on the website? Um, it is. Um, I, well, Glad I keep digging. I, I spent a little bit of time, I couldn’t find it, but I’ll keep, I’ll keep going if it’s okay. All right. Definitely. I’ll definitely look there. Um, and then my,

1:40:00 my statement would be, um, to Moses’s point where this is a burden on our children that I would really hope that when you further these conversations, not necessarily, you know, changing your, your headings, because as you noted, you know, those headings stand. But that we, that you’ll look at the new information and the new, new guidance that came out since the original, particularly to the learning loss. Because I think what, what I’ve, from what I’ve read, and certainly from what I’ve experienced and seen, one of the biggest impacts coming out of the pandemic, that we were really weren’t sure how it was gonna shake out. And unfortunately it did shake out that learning loss was a hu a huge effect. Um, and you know, it’s one of those pay now or pay later. So these kids aren’t going to magically get back to where they,

1:40:49 they need to be on their own, and we’re going to have to do that. So I think early intervention is always best. So if we can, if we can bring that prioritization of learning loss into one of those subheadings, um, that would be I think really great for our town and, and for our students. And then when we talk about loss of revenue, um, I had asked, Anne just gotten the answer today for the kindergarten tuition, I believe we gave all those numbers way back of, of where we lost. Cause I, I think we lost 475,000 for kindergarten tuition, our food services, which we sell fund through those accounts, and we continued to pay those employees. We lost revenue. There was that number,

1:41:34 I know those were given to the town. Was that factored into that, that number you already used to supplement for lost revenue or was that not carried anywhere? Was it just for information purposes? So it was a formula from the state. It was a spreadsheet that we filled in. It came to 560 or 580 some 1000. I think that’s what she wants. Frankly, don’t know what the criteria behind what the state said. I, I think what, what their attempt was, was to standardize the methodology for all the cities and towns as to how to come up with a number to equate to revenue loss. And I think it’s specific to tax revenue loss and not geared towards particular programs or Okay.

1:42:23 Or operational costs. I think it’s, it was mostly, uh, sort of, uh, a again, a, a standard methodology for tax revenue loss. And okay, we did it and we applied it, and that’s, that’s the number. And what was, did that money go back into free cash or where did that money go? Yeah, It goes, it just gets, it just went back To your free cash. The general funding. Yeah. Cause those revenue, cuz they were in the hundreds of thousands, those revenue losses on the school side, they were to pay. Uh, we use that money in our revolving funds, for instance, the kindergarten revolving fund. We use that to pay those teachers and those paraprofessionals that, that work with our kindergartners. We continue to pay those people even though we didn’t make that $475,000. So that would be a revenue loss in the school side.

1:43:10 So that’s something I would hope that you guys would look at as well, because that, that was a big number. Um, schools continued to carry, I think The, you had SR one, two and three, which is about 1.2 million. Yep. And that’s, I I think, and I know that all that funding was earlier on. Yeah, we used that to Focus on those, those type issues on, Oh no, we used that all to pay for technology that we hadn’t been keeping up with for years. So yeah, so the loss revenue, we just Eser funding was focused on school impact of covid. Okay. And then opera has that much broader, um, a lot more community economic development infrastructure. Yeah. Uh, yeah, No, no, no. I’ve read the document. Um, but where the treasury department did give us guidance, that’s that learning loss. I just really hope that we, yeah,

1:43:59 we use the guidance given to us in best practices from the Treasury Department to combat learning loss. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you for lowering. Go ahead. Yeah, sure. People Jen Schaffner 20 casino wrote, uh, I have a couple questions and then just a couple comments. I understand it’s probably not a dialogue and I may not get answers, but, um, would appreciate a follow up afterwards. Uh, I think, um, I appreciate Erin’s comments on the, um, issues around criteria. Cuz that was something that I had had noticed, um, that it seemed to me that the criteria for the ARPA spending needed to be adjusted. Um, I, I’m a simple person, so I look at things simply, maybe that’s, that’s wrong. But the school department has requested less than 5% of the ARPA budget, um,

1:44:47 and has been granted even less than that, um, when they are arguably, you know, a large portion of the town budget. Um, the issue around moral hazard, I guess I didn’t really understand that, Moses, how changing the criteria would be taking on, um, you know, in inordinate risk from one department to, or one part of the town to another. That was unclear to me. I appreciate the clarification. Um, one question that I also had around arpa, um, that we, I had received information earlier this year from Thatcher that the ARPA funds are held in the general fund. That is what I had been indicated before. So my question is, um, were the ARPA funds included as part of certified free cash? And is it being used to balance the town budget?

1:45:34 You have a finance director that can answer those questions and I’m smiling. Yes, you Are. Good evening, honorable, uh, counsel. Um, I, I just wanna make sure everyone can hear me. I had to take my mask down. So it is not in the general fund, it is in a federal fund. It’s in a federal grant fund, and those funds are distributed out. They don’t go to the general fund. The final rule did make, I I do will, um, what the Alexa and Aaron said, the rules have changed more than once, but as my job as finance director is to follow those rules and implement those rules and being a part of the committee, which stature did say I’m going to be sitting with him as we have been on everything, um, we will make sure that those new effects are looked at.

1:46:24 So I appreciate you bringing that up because that definitely is something that has to be viewed. But I also think by having rules, which I think is amazing, that you guys had a criteria that kept it fair and equitable across the board and how you were giving funds. You weren’t just picking and choosing who got what. So I thought that was fantastic. So those are some of my points. I just wanted to thank the board. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. Alicia, just to clarify, the ARPA funds are in fact not in the general fund. They’re in another fund. Okay. Um, and then the last, um, question I had is there was an l uh, at the bottom of the list, but I don’t think it was in the gray area, was an allocation or a request for housing, um, potential planning. So I just didn’t know whether Marble Housing Authority is part of that or if

1:47:10 there’s any plans around that. I think it was a $50,000, uh, ask or allocation. So again, don’t have to have the answer tonight, but I’d appreciate a follow up. Thank you. Can I just point up to clarification? Thank you, Jen. Yes. Clarification. I, I think Jen noted, uh, so you guys are on the committee, correct me if I’m wrong, but in my head, I think the numbers were 10%. I think that vote we just gave for the school went from five to I’m rounding the 600,000. So of 6 million, that would be 10%. I just, so it is the total of 600, even though they’ve requested 300, I guess. Well, there’s been multiple, um, distributions, so I’m going off the totals. Yeah, I Mean, I’m, I’m even gonna venture to guess at this point. It’s, I have it on the spreadsheet, but it’s, Yeah, I mean, I’m just adding that what I saw in my head and I hit 600,000,

1:47:57 which is 10% of Six. I didn’t wanna do public math, so I, okay, Well that’s, you see, mental math, I’m a pilot, that’s my job. Okay. Just clarification. That’s all. Yep. So it’s roughly 500. Its roughly $600,000 rounded. It’s been approved for the school so far. Yeah. Okay. So they’ll put us at 10, not five. Just Okay. Uh, thank you. Any other, uh, public comment in the room? No. Anybody online? No. Uh, Thatcher, if we could have, uh, your Sure. Your, your update if you have anything for us. There are just a couple items real quick. So I, I wanna sort of give a public update as far as our status in the, the Building Commission department. Um, so everybody’s clear. So, um, as you know, a, a building commissioner when,

1:48:43 when a building commissioner is hired, if they’re not already certified as a commissioner, they have to already be certified as a local inspector. But if they’re hired into a building commissioner position, they have one year to, to accomplish three, three exams. And they’re not easy, um, to be certified as an inspector. They’re also allowed extensions which are given. Um, and so in our particular case, there was a six month extension, which expired April 30th. Uh, our existing commissioner had not yet completed the exams, so could no longer serve as the building commissioner in, in the position. So what we have worked out is, as you voted on April 26th, in anticipation of that, that deadline that Bob igs is the interim or acting building commissioner.

1:49:32 So he’s taken on that legal authority that’s required for, for, for that role. Uh, on that, um, our, our building commission position is actually the department head for two separate departments. Uh, it’s the, I guess I would generically call it the inspections department, I guess it’s called Building Commission department, but it’s, it’s all the inspection services area as well as our buildings maintaining all the facilities and, and the, and, and the folks who, who, who do the work and maintain the facilities. So they run, they run both. So what I have done is, um, that, that the, the, the, our, our building commissioner that didn’t take the exams, so I, he was relieved of his responsibilities for anything to do on the inspection

1:50:19 side. Uh, his focus is solely on the building side and the hours have been cut in half to to, to accommodate basically from 40 hour work week to a 20 hour work week focused on the building side and, and continuing. What’s critical is we have a number of building projects that are ongoing. We, we need to keep those projects going. So, so he is managing that, uh, in that regard. Um, uh, as far as the billing commission, I’m treating it as a vacant position and we’ll be putting it out advertising the position, um, uh, for application, you know, anytime we have an open position like that, we take a fresh look at the job description and make sure everything is current, we will advertise and fill that. Um,

1:51:06 my hope or my expectation is it won’t be filled before July 1st, but as close to July 1st, uh, as possible. Um, while we have, you know, our interim temporary folks who, who would rather spend more time being retired than working. So we want to get through this process as efficiently as as possible. So that’s the status, um, that we’re currently in. And so, we’ll, we will be advertising the position. Um, our, our former commissioner is welcome to a, you know, a conversation welcome to apply, but we’ll have to be certified in order to be a, an eligible applicant. Um, but we will open it up for all, uh, eligible applicants. Thank you for the update. Uh, any,

1:51:53 Um, any comments or on that? That’s pretty clear. Yeah. Okay. And then just the other update. So just continue effort on the financial software side. So now that we’ve, we’ve made it through town meeting, uh, we have an approved budget, the so-called article 30. So that information is, has been transmitted to, um, clear gov, uh, which we’re working with to upload that information in addition to, um, the work that we’re doing to upload, uh, salary, um, salary scales, personnel, all, basically the point is now that we’ve got through time meeting, our focus has swung back to fully implement, uh, get clear glove fully implemented up and running. Uh, it is, it will be used Alicia’s working on putting together the budget books,

1:52:41 uh, as a result of, of Tommy of the budget. So we will be using clear gov for that purpose in the short term as we populate, get the information up, and then department heads will be able to utilize the information in the system as soon as we are able to have it populated. We are also looking at vendors, um, in regard to our general ledger software and a whole suite of softwares. Um, I’ll admit Alicia is running them through the paces to make sure that, uh, whatever software we migrate to that they are fully compliant and capable of doing the reporting that we’re required due to the Department of Revenue. Another example of even I thought, oh, that’s pretty simple.

1:53:28 You just run a report, send it to dor. It’s not that simple. Uh, and so, uh, Alicia’s working closely with, with vendors to, to validate that they have the, the ability to do that. So, uh, the overall point is, uh, uh, we caught our breath over the weekend and we are full bore on, you know, really diving into our systems information systems so that, uh, next year through the budget cycle, it’ll be a lot easier than what we went through this past year. So that’s what I have for updates pending Any questions from the board? Outstanding. Gotcha. Thank you for the report. Thank you. Yep. Alright. Uh, so with that, uh, select board announcements. Anybody say anything?

1:54:17 Yes, Alexa, um, just wanna take a second to thank everyone who started on the climate vision and then moved on to the net zero. Uh, there were some, you know, volunteers that were part of this committee from the beginning and, you know, Judy Jacoby started on this committee and then, you know, Jackie spent some time I transitioned. We had Jason Silva Thatcher transitioned on and there was a lot of turnover. There was a lot of work and there was a lot of people that started from the beginning and really carried it all the way through. And I was really just amazed throughout so many meetings and additional meetings and so many hours spent in the afternoons, uh, working through these documents and trying to do our best to take what the town was looking to do, to move things forward and all the countless hours put in

1:55:07 outside of those meetings to do the research and to really try to create the best plan we possibly could. And just to, we also wanna recognize Brooks who also carried through the process, you know, as well in getting everyone in those meetings and to make that process. And same goes for, you know, all of our working committees. It it takes a lot of, a lot of people to make those things happen. So a long time to get from one document to a working document and just wanna just take a second to recognize everyone who was a part of that process, especially all those who carried through many different people and Many different turnovers and it was great. So That’s great. Alexa, thanks. Yep. Uh, Erin, anything? Um, I’m just gonna give like a housing liaison update real quick. Yeah. Um,

1:55:53 so we’ve been full steam ahead and, um, it’s been really great to have actually, um, Becky and Thatcher on both of them because I think especially with the fair, just like the institutional expertise and, and knowledge is, um, is really helps kind of, uh, drive the, the, the discussion and, and kind of help us organize around, you know, action items. So, um, with the Fair Housing, we had some nice press coverage right after our meeting last week, and I actually, I meant to send it out and I, but I didn’t, but I can, I’ll send it out to everybody, just an article around, um, this how Fair Housing Committee looks to become household name, which I thought was, it was, it was interesting that, um, because it, we are wanting to update the website, make it more, um, of a,

1:56:41 of technical, um, or, or easier to navigate, you know, and, and we kind of were walking through the website, we wanna make it more user friendly and something that applicants for affordable housing or those looking for, um, uh, you know, housing options that we can walk them through that am I eligible, um, you know, uh, how do I apply what, what’s available? Those kind of navigation pieces and some resources that link to outside, um, you know, really well, uh, kind of, uh, um, explained resources for, for people looking for affordable housing. And we could e we even are going to include affordable housing options and

1:57:27 availability that is, you know, not specifically to Marblehead, but just even regionally, um, available for folks that are looking. And, uh, we did review our mission statement and I’ll agree that the mission statement remains really, um, succinctly, uh, you know, uh, appropriate and, and, and, um, but I think that in terms of the rest of the website, we are really wanting to kind of make that something that’s more of a resource. Um, and, and, and that, and then with the Housing Production Plan Implementation Committee, um, we also met this week and, um, Kathy Ho, um, has applied for Mass Housing partnership grant for technical assistance

1:58:13 regarding Broon Road. So that’s like, um, you know, the way of the future for, uh, housing authority is we’re no longer building and, and running as an enterprise our own buildings. We are moving in this, um, you know, we are, we’re doing, we’re we are looking at redevelopment and development projects that incorporate, um, the low income and affordability units. Uh, so, um, sh so she expects to hear back on that grant pretty soon and that would be, um, help us, it’s money for a consultant to help us with the feasibility study, uh, around Broon Road specifically, which would be, it’s a huge parcel of property. There’s, it’s like ripe with opportunity. Um, you know, so, uh,

1:59:01 John Bucky had updated us around the coffin site and the discussion of the school committee recently. Their decision and the takeaway from the conversation at, at the last school committee meeting was that, um, you know, with two seats now up for election, that uh, it would be something that they, you know, would obviously expect a decision on from the next board to sit and, um, something that they are hoping to address at their retreat that they have in the late, in late summer. I think everybody, um, most people acknowledge the liability that it is and I know continue to sit there as a vacant building. And, and so I think there, you know, I think there is definitely acknowledgement around, you know, the liability on the books for the property. And I,

1:59:47 I think we had talked with Becky around a timeline for the, like a app app, like the best way to sequence and transfer the property ahead of town meeting for next year, um, so that we could move forward on some options to consider with that. Um, and then the smart growth overlay districts we’re looking specifically at the village, um, village Plaza and um, pleasant Street. Maybe there was another one. But think mainly that one in the, then the, our next step is Becky’s going to meet, reach out to the owner and um, uh, to kind of gauge interest in that. And then assuming the interest is there with the, with the property owner, we would, um, do like another public forum. And that again would be something you would go to town meeting next year to

2:00:34 vote. Um, that designate redesignate that area as smart growth overlay. So you could do a lot of different, Becky has a lot of different cool things you could, you could reconfigure that Village Plaza, you know, assuming that obviously the property owner is amenable to it. Um, but yeah, would be an enhancement I think. And, and then she just gave a quick update on the m bt community plan, which was, there’s 20, we are required to have 27 acres required. Yeah. 27 acres. Um, and you know, it has to be within so much of the, the bus line, but because of the, um, we are 4.4 square miles. Most of the town is, and the only, um, you can, it doesn’t have to be entirely, you know, it, it has to be contiguous within five acres. So you can’t have a a,

2:01:23 a site, you’re design or a location that you’re designating less than five acres. So, you know, they have a consultant working at bowler engineering and we hope that they are going to meet with the planning board and our committee in the near future to kind of, um, present their draft recommendations for which, specifically which areas we design they would recommend we designate. I think that the key on that issue on the m BTA zoning requirements is that municipalities are required to implement, or thou shall not receive money from the state. Right? Yeah. So they’re, they’re putting a real hammer on, on municipalities to follow through and designate the zoning, housing zoning, the mbta. So that’s gonna be,

2:02:12 that’s gonna be a lift to to, to meet that requirement. And our, and, and we have to be ready by next town meeting. Correct. Because we’re also on a, all the municipalities are on a timeline. So the municipalities that are directly served by MBTA rail lines, ha they were required to meet the requirement this year. We are, uh, um, um, um, what, I forget what they call it. We’re, we’re on a butter two directly served. So we have this year in order to implement. But the key is, uh, to be eligible for a number of state grants, you must comply with this. 27 acres is a sizeable amount of property. So we are hoping we’re the Gil keeping it out of the historic district for obvious reasons. And then, um,

2:02:58 I think what’s kind of falling naturally as an area to, to look at is like that Smith Street post office, pleasant Street to high School. That’s one area at least that seems, um, you know, cons, all cons, things considered appropriate for, Yeah. Well Aaron, this this is really great. It sounds like you have some actionable items that are getting traction, which is something we’ve been waiting for, for a long, long time. So Yeah, it’s working well, Well done on that. Well done on that. And then we just invited, um, I emailed on behalf of the committee cuz we discussed inviting Brendan Creighton and Jenny Armini to our June 27th meeting. Great. Awesome. Alright, thank you. Jim. We have robbery.

2:03:44 Oh yeah, tomorrow You can losing my voice tomorrow. Very happy to say that. Uh, it’s the hundredth anniversary of the Rotary Club of Marblehead, which is kind of a, kind of a big deal. It was, uh, formed, I guess 28 years after the original founding of Rotary, uh, up in Chicago. So we have a long track record there. And we do have, I have to announce for anybody who might be listening that 11 o’clock tomorrow, there will be an unveiling of a gift that they’ve made to the town. Uh, a beautiful Looks good. It really does. I guess. Is it open? It’s not covered. It’s open. Yeah. You Can see it. I drove by need some Landscaping. I be, it’s a clock. No mystery. It’s striking. It’s unintended. Oh yeah. Striking. No, and it has the same face as the,

2:04:31 as a hall, which is kind of, which is kind of cool. But anyway, uh, so anybody you know, thanks. Go out to the long serving, uh, rotary of Marbley. Objection. Maybe we should send a letter. Well, we do have a proclamation. That’s right. We do have a proclamation, which we’ll, uh, which will, uh, read tomorrow at the ceremony. So, uh, that, that should cover that. But we, you know, we may want to do an additional consideration. We Okay. Uh, I don’t, other than that, Jackie, nothing. Okay. No motion to adjourn please. So move a second. All in favor. Okay. We are hereby adjourned.