Town Meeting: May 6, 2025

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.

0:05 With the warrant properly posted and returned and a quorum present. I call this meeting to order

0:18 from late last night, the effort began, but I don’t want to forget why you all showed up to exercise a 370 6-year-old tradition, which started 126 years before the revolution. Today’s monumental effort included just about every department from staff to administration. I want us all to applaud the effort, commitment, and sacrifices that got us all here tonight.

0:56 To start the night, I’d like to call up David Rogers, please for Pledge of Allegiance and a little remembrance. David,

1:12 Good evening. Before we do the pledge, I had like to honor a marble, a marble header, who recently passed away on Easter Sunday. You might’ve seen the four off sprays last Saturday. Fly through town. Harry Christensen was a marble header, a marine, a selectman, a clam cop,

1:41 great family man, and did a lot for the community. After he come home from Vietnam, he was in a horrific ambush battle during the tent offensive, was wounded twice, saved lives, and was awarded the Silver Star. I’d like a moment of silence, please, for Harry,

2:15 and if you would

2:19 pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much.

2:47 Uh, could I please call up Diane Gora for the land acknowledgement? Thank you, Diane. Thank you.

2:57 We, We acknowledge that the land on which we reside now known as the town of Marblehead, hold On, Is the ancestral homeland of the Nam Keg Band of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket tribes. They lived here under the leadership of the great SM Nana, passionate since time immemorial the nom keg, people maintain this land and surrounding water with the utmost respect, preserving it for future generations and treating it as sacred ground for the burial of their dead. They had an organized and thriving community before the arrival of European settlers. The nom keg people suffered great loss of life during King Philip’s war, and the smallpox plagues

3:45 and the surviving members were dispossessed of the land. Although we are unaware of any nom keg descendants living in Marblehead today, we honor the nom keg people of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket tribes past and present as the original stewards of this land and pledge to include their history in the history of our town. Thank you.

4:12 Thank you Diane. Uh, statement for from Joe Whipple from the task force against discrimination is Joe here? Oh, there we are. Former select board member community. Great. Joe Whipple.

4:39 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Johnny Whipple, 1 0 6 Atlantic Avenue.

4:49 Thank you for recognizing me to present this statement On behalf of the Select Board’s Task Force against Discrimination in, uh, two months, we will celebrate Independence Day, the 4th of July. We will recall the words of the Declaration of Independence that proclaim that all are created equal, and we will recall the words of the pledge. We recited earlier that ours is a nation with liberty and justice for all. Unfortunately, there are some people in this country. There are some people even in this town who do not believe in these American values. In 1989, a horrible incident of anti-Semitic vandalism led the, uh, selectmen

5:36 to create the task force against discrimination, and we continue to hear of hateful and discrim discriminatory words and actions in town from time to time. The task force seeks to work against attitudes and expressions of bigotry and hate, whether on the basis of race, religion, orientation, gender identity, national origin, or any other characteristics. We recognize that the schools must play a large role in developing respect for others among our young people, and we seek to cooperate with them in any way we can.

6:21 We also seek both to work proactively to promote respect for all and to react appropriately to incidents of hatred and bigotry. And I will note that, uh, since the early two thousands, we have had a designation, which is, uh, which is, uh, indicated by this banner, a designation from the, uh, Anti-Defamation League as a, uh, no place for hate community.

6:55 Examples of our proactive work to promote respect within the past year include sponsorship of the following, observances in cooperation with others. Hispanic Heritage Month, indigenous People’s Day, Martin Luther King Day Holocaust Remembrance Day. Uh, student book reads During Black History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. By the way, there will be a an a API craft fair in the high school cafeteria, which we all passed through. That will be on Saturday at from ten one till, uh, 3:00 PM. We also have a part in sponsoring Pride month

7:42 and the June 15th. The Juneteenth flag Raising hate crimes should be reported to the police, other incidents of bigotry, and, uh, the sort can be reported to the task force through the Select Board’s office in Abbot Hall. Thank you.

8:11 Thank you, Joe. Uh, let’s see. Before I start, I want to review some details for the meeting. Uh, the presentation lectern up front here is for presentations and replies from town officials. The microphones in the aisles, uh, are for deliberation. After a presentation. All comments and questions during the meeting are to be made through the moderator. There’s no back and forth. Uh, when you step up to the microphone, please state your name and address when you’re recognized. If you have an amendment to a main motion, which we already have several tonight during the meeting, I may request it to be in writing if snow. If so, I, I invite you to come up

8:56 and I have forms here at the stage that you can fill out. Any amendment will have to be reviewed before it’s presented. Uh, time limits. I’ll do my best to not have a clock on presentations and deliberations, but there will be motions which I will adhere to a strict two minute limit on speakers after a presentation is made. If you plan to speak, please be prepared. As a great deal of information can be shared in the allotted time. The assembly deserves order, and I will not call tolerate cat calling or disruptions to the meeting according to our bylaws. Every voter speaking upon a subject shall confine their remarks to the question before the meeting, avoid personalities

9:42 and be seated when they have finished. I may not always allow a motion to call the question should I deem that the motion would restrict informed consideration of the meeting or comes before an appropriate discussion has taken place. This is a widely used town meeting practice. On the other end, we may likely get to the point where I need to remind everyone of an old Marblehead town meeting saying it appears that everything has been said, but not everyone has had a chance to say it.

10:16 I’ll do my best to balance the conveyance of information with the budget of time. I hope you’ll join me in running this 376 annual town meeting, uh, with respect and integrity that it deserves.

10:37 So this is our second year with electronic voting. This year we have our own administrator helping us, and I’d like to thank Gretchen Langton from the schools and the entire school technology group for their assistance this year.

11:00 So I’ve been approached about a written ballot question for Article 23. Our bylaws state in part that under no consideration shall reconsideration be permitted of a vote taken by a written ballot after great consideration balancing the request with the precedents and last year’s reaction, I will be putting the option to you, the voters, with a subsidiary motion in hand. I will wait until other business is done before Article 23 and then put a question to the meeting as to whether you want to do a written ballot or not. Should we get to Article 23? I will require an affirmative vote under a simple majority

11:46 to adopt a written ballot for Article 23. If the written ballot is used, there will be no further reconsideration of Article 23 allowed. So you all are going to have the, the opportunity to decide whether we go to a written ballot if we do a written ballot that is not open for reconsideration.

12:10 Switch note. The next question is that the moderator may extend the floor to town management and staff and other non-voters, provided they must first be recognized by the moderator. Do I have a second? Thank you. If you favor the article, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Voting starts now. Hold it up.

12:40 Yeah.

14:51 Woo.

14:56 Okay. Thank you very much for accepting the moderator’s motion. Um, article one starts with an amendment,

15:05 uh, the amendment, uh, to Article one, which is articles in numerical order is to see if the town will vote to adopt an order requiring articles in the warrant to be taken up in the following order. Article 23, 34 and 33 and the remaining articles in numerical order, starting with Article two, this article has been moved. Do I have a second? Thank you. Mr. Han. Would you like to present your article?

15:42 This article is, was

15:51 the purpose of this amendment is to get you all here. I I I’m interested by a photo of hands. How many people are here because of they’ve heard about this amendment?

16:03 Oh, Seamus Seamus Han Fort Sula Lane.

16:11 This this amendment the motion.

16:17 It’s on. Alright. It’s on, it’s on. Seamus, will you come down here to the microphone please?

16:33 Of course. The microphone doesn’t work, right? It’ll work. Folks, trust me. We have faith in Ryan.

16:43 Thank you. Seamus Han

16:48 Ms. Han Fort Sewell Lane. Um, submitting this motion to encourage everybody to come here. It’s all about maximizing turnout. And Jack, this is not your worst nightmare. It’s your best nightmare. Okay? It’s a nightmare logistically, but from a turnout perspective, it’s the best. It’s fine with me, Seamus. I, I, I do what the voters want to do. Okay, so, um, I I urge you to vote on this article to, um, move up article 23, which is the three a article 34, which is the, um, Marblehead High School, HVAC, equipment debt exclusion. And lastly, article 34, uh,

17:35 33, sorry, 33, which is the, um, renovation of the Mary a alley, uh, municipal building. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Johan.

17:52 With no further speakers, uh, we’re gonna go to the vote.

17:58 Oh, wait a minute.

18:03 Mi Mr. Chu,

18:09 Bill McHugh, 38 Gingerbread Hill. This, uh, complete warrant has important business of the town. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for us to take him up in order and everyone stay put and vote. Um, thank you.

18:27 Thank you Mr. McHugh. Seeing no other speakers. Oh, do I have somebody approaching the microphone? No. Okay. Seeing we have no other speakers, um, we’re gonna bring Mr. Ridge. Yes, sir. Yes. Given that article 23 and it’s weight is so important to this community, I’m sorry, name and address please. I’m Sorry. John Deano six Drager Road. I oppose this amendment. I think we should vote. No, Thank you.

18:59 Okay, so this, this article would take the articles out of numerical order. Um, so the amendment to see if the town will vote to adopt a different order. Uh, if you favor the article, moderator use your green who? I’m sorry. Yes, name and address, please. Mary Ellen Walsh, broski five Spray Avenue. The reason we take the articles in numerical order and the reason that the warrant is constructed the way it is, is to make sure that we have enough voters for a quorum to do the business of the town. And if we take first the articles that everybody’s interested in, it’s very likely

19:47 that people will leave and we won’t have a quorum to do the business of the town. Thank you.

19:55 Thank you. We have another speaker.

20:02 Can You hear me okay? Name and address, please, sir? Yeah, Sure. Am I close enough? You can hear me? Can you hear me? Nick Ward six Rollon Road. Look, I think a lot of you are here tonight to vote on on three A. There’s probably a lot of you here to vote on the, the HVAC and renovation articles. Let’s bring them forward, particularly if your parents, I know I’ve got a babysitter I’m waiting on, so let’s bring it forward. A lot of you voting positions. Let’s do it right now. Vote yes, vote yes, vote yes. Thank you folks, I’m gonna ask you to speak right into the microphones, please so everybody can hear. And I have another speaker. Hi. Just come up folks. Folks, this is a deliberative process and if people are, if people raise to speak, they’re gonna have the opportunity.

20:49 Name and address, please. Three Hibbard Road, Marblehead, mass. Um, yeah, it’s stank coming here last night and not being able to vote it, you know, it was tough standing in the rain, but as they say, this is what democracy looks like. And just because we don’t want to vote on, don’t wanna be bothered with the stuff we don’t wanna look at, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be here to vote on it. So I vote that we say, no, we don’t go out of order, show up, go into order because this is what democracy looks like. Thank you. Thank you. Yes sir. Name and address, please. Jonathan Klotman, 32 Peach Islands. I just wanted to remind the rest of the audience that both Seamus and Nick are strong proponents for three A. As we remember from last year, we voted on three A

21:38 and then there was a motion for reconsideration afterwards when a lot of people had left the room. So I’m gonna suggest call me cynical. They’re moving this forward, so they have the vote, and if it’s a nay vote, there’s gonna be another motion for reconsideration after you leave. So stay in your seats, vote no

22:06 With no other speakers stepping up. Uh, amendment two, article one, articles in numerical order. Uh, if you favor the article, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts now.

22:40 Passes. Passes. Right? Then we, then we go to Article 23 is, yes. So if it passes, then we go to 23, right? What happens? Then we go to One.

25:44 Are you ready for that, Gretchen? 23.

25:52 Okay. Article 23 in itself comes with some amendments.

25:59 Of course it does. So the first motion on Article 23, the first subsidiary motion on Article 23, amend zoning bylaw three, A multifamily overlay district. Um, I have a subsidiary motion for indefinite postponement. Do I have a second? Thank you. Because any zoning change requires a public hearing of the planning board, I would like to invite Brendan Callahan up to give the report of that hearing.

26:39 Name and address, please. Brenda Brendan Kellyann five inch be Road Marblehead Article 23 was open on March 11th, 2025 and was unanimously voted five to zero to be continued. March 27th, 2025 with no discussion on where public comment taking place on March 27th, 2025. The planning board, again unanimously voted five to zero to continue this public hearing till April 8th, 2025 with no discussion or public comment taking place. On April 8th, the planning board took up the proposed amendment at the public hearing. It was presented with a brief presentation by Tom Town Planner, Alex ler. After the presentation, the planning board proceeded to open the hearing for public comment.

27:27 After public comment, the planning board unanimously voted to close the public hearing and deliberate after deliberation, the planning board unanimously voted five to zero. To recommend the town meeting adopt a Article 23. Thank you, Mr. Callahan. Um, given the direct relationship with the main motion, I intend we we’re, we’re gonna have this conversation either way. Tonight is basically what I’m getting to. I intend to allow full deliberation on the article now to discuss the issue in depth. I’ll be using the two minute clock on rebuttal back and forth after the initial presentations. Uh, the sponsor of this article was John Dano.

28:14 John, would you like to come up and present your article?

28:18 It’s a motion. It’s

28:38 Thank you for your presenting your motion. And I think you have, is this gonna be in two parts? Sorry? You’ll have two people presenting your, your motion? Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. So Mr. Dip, We consolidated two motions for John Dip Deano, six Trager Road, um, no matter what side you stand on on three A, the community involvement in democracy is something to behold this evening. Um, I am asking this body to, um, allow by voting yes, a motion to indefinitely postpone Article 23. The reasons I’m going to provide to you are as follows. We’ve heard from our administration and our select boards

29:26 and for the proponents of this article one side primarily of the story, all of the negative information that’s been provided with respect to what happens potentially if we do not adopt this measure, not why it’s good for our community. Let’s start with the misleading claims of the loss of grants. It began last year. I couldn’t figure out how we got from zero, according to my foyer requests to 5 million to 11 million to people standing up at the microphone indicating that Marblehead would wash into the North Atlantic Ocean if we didn’t adopt Article three A. It took me a little while to figure out that the claims of those loss of grants, the 8 million fig, those figures

30:12 of millions of dollars were not the amounts of money Marblehead could, was going to receive from grants, but was the entire grant pool of discretionary grants that Marblehead would compete with other communities to potentially receive some of or none of. As a result of the Freedom of Information Act request responses, uh, I was able to determine that the total amount that was in jeopardy as a result of the no vote last year, the grand total was $475,000. My quick back of the napkin calculations on that, based on the number of households, estimated households in Marblehead comes out to above 58 or $59 a household. I’m willing to write that check

30:58 and retain our zoning independence at this point in time.

31:11 The next misleading claim that we have from the proponents of three A and from our administration and from our select board, is that this is an affordable housing measure. I don’t know how many times the planning board went on record saying it is not, this is a market rate measure. The 10% amount that was put in was put in specifically to change the amount of votes that you would need to have to make a zoning change in these communities from a two thirds majority to a simple majority. Three A was gamed from the beginning and it was game gamed in favor of the state and against the local communities that market rate housing. All of the seniors who have been told this is for you, all

31:56 of the people who are young, who are starting out, who have been told this is for you, this is not for you. It’s market rate housing. Look at the boxes they’re putting up on the communities all around us. 3000, 3,500, $4,000 a month. Raise a hand if you’re a senior and you can afford a $4,000 a month rent out. That’s what you’re signing up for with three A.

32:20 The select board has not determined, not provided any studies or written materials from any head of any department in this community telling us what the, the, the cost of compliance with three ar. The state audited a division of local mandates after a K review has determined that this is an unfunded state mandate, meaning that the legislature at the time that this was enacted, was supposed to determine how much it would cost to comply and reimburse those direct costs to the towns. And it did not do so. We’re told not to worry about it. If they’re wrong, it falls upon the taxpayers to pick up the tab. Had there has been decision, there has been discussion that the boards have talked with Diana Delio directly. I believe that they have, and that Diana Delio was focusing on an engineering report grant

33:08 that we did receive in the amount of 25 or $35,000, an insignificant amount of money. But that was why they determined it was an unfunded local mandate. That may be true, but that does not settle the, the case or the, the issue of what does and what does not comprise a direct cost. But the select board wants to believe you to believe that it does. And, and when I say the select board, I mean collective body, I don’t think they are all of one mind on this, but I don’t think that they’ve given us both sides of the story.

33:39 The compliance we can file for a compliance exemption. I’ve implored the select board to do so that’s fallen on deaf ears. As to the claims of direct costs, these are not my words, these are the words of the towns in the pleadings filed by me. Lerman, the law firm that represents Marblehead and the towns that in those pleadings with respect to, let me just pivot to this one issue. 1, 1, 1 of the claims, it’s only a zoning change. Clearly intimates that that won’t be any building. Don’t worry about it. Well, in one of the pleadings for Three Town for four Towns town, Hansen, Middleton Rent them and Holden Mead Tallman wrote on behalf of their clients that chappa, which is a nonprofit membership organization

34:25 similar to the Marblehead Housing Coalition. In many respects, this is what they had to say about the claim that it’s own. His zoning mandate Chappa claims to the effect that chapter 40 a section three A does not mandate development are absurd and directly contradict the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities regulations, not my words, me Taliban’s words from their pleadings on behalf of the towns who had the courage and the, and the compunction to file for a compliance exemption. Under that state auditor’s local mandate determination

35:06 As to direct costs. The, um, pleadings show based on affidavits from the town managers and town administrators and heads of their department, the following claims with respect to direct costs of compliance, both of the towns I’m citing have a 750 unit requirement or the based on 750 units. Ours is 897.

35:34 I quote again from me, Tolerance’s, pleadings on behalf of the of their clients.

35:41 The affidavit of the Town Administrator of Middleton Multifamily housing required by the MBTA Communities Act would likely necessitate the hiring of 12 new police officers. The annual cost is such an addition would be $1.4 million Multifamily housing required by the MVTA Communities Act would necessitate eight additional fire and rescue personnel to 20 full-time firefighters. The operating budget of the annual cost would increase by $1.2 million. Satellite fire station $580,000 impacts on public works at the town of Militate Middleton Transfer Station. Have we had any problems, folks with our transfer station $200,000 annually, 750 units,

36:28 not 897 associated impacts on public education to the town of Middleton resulting from housing increase 150 to 375 new students, millions of annual operating and capital costs, not currently covered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. From the affidavit of Michael King, the town administrative manager of rent. Them associated direct costs with public education to the town of rent them results in the housing increase, 750 units, $4,100,922. Exhibit two, that’s from their head. Their department hits associated direct costs with, uh, law enforcement 703,194. Associated direct costs associated with fire

37:14 and rescue services at the town of rent, the residents including necessary infrastructure improvements, $10,254,872. Together the total direct cost $15,058,988 475,000 we’ve received in grants that we’re signing up for that, a potential $15 million net loss. Does that make sense to anyone? Doesn’t make any sense to me.

37:47 This is the part that I think really resonates for for me with respect to ne necessary public works and infrastructure improvement from this town complying with the 750 unit mandate, an operating budget increase of 5,383,907. Pay attention to what I’m about to tell you that they wrote me. Talman wrote into pleadings for their client more than double the anticipated new growth in property taxes associated with the mandate multifamily housing developments. The police department man, uh, manpower of these towns is somewhat comparable to Marblehead. I did that math. These numbers are real. The numbers we have from the select

38:33 board, we don’t have that. We’ll lose money we’ve never received. So I’m asking this community to indefinitely postpone Article 23 as a statement to the select board mandating it to file for a compliance exemption. The Superior Court has already consolidated all of those cases and there is an existing order in the court. The pleadings have already been drafted. And those that case would go to the Judge Gilday and the Norfolk Superior Court is already handling these five cases and they’re already under review, filing for compliance exemption. Give Marblehead the ability to negotiate with the state. I spoke with Mark Germaine, the chairman of the Select Board of Middleborough Monday.

39:19 Mark and I have had multiple conversations about middle borough’s situation because they filed a compliance exemption and were in, in litigation with the state. They were able to negotiate using their 40 R district to be deemed in compliance with three A John without John. I’m almost, you’ve, You’ve got a minute left. About 30 a minute. That’s all I need without complying with three A mandates. But you can’t do it if you don’t file the litigation Because of the articles being taken out of order and because of Mr. Klarman’s concern. Um, I just want people to know that if this motion fails and article 23 passes, I have taken the liberty because of this contingency of already pre-draft a petition

40:08 for a referendum vote and a ratification if it does pass, which is consistent with our bylaws and our adoption of chapter 4 0 5 of the acts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of 1954. That petition and the signature pages will be available after the meeting. You can see one of our volunteers. Thank you for your consideration.

40:32 That was the whole

40:39 Thank you Mr. Deano. I’d like to invite somebody up from the town to speak and make a presentation.

40:52 Good evening, Dan Fox, representing the select board. The select board, uh, opposes indefinite postponement of this. We’ve gone a long time. We recommend that we bring this to a vote tonight. Up board down. I was actually walking in here tonight and I had a conversation with a gentleman I met tonight for the first time, and he said to me something I haven’t heard before. He said, I don’t want to be a three A community. I’ve heard a lot of yes, three a no, three a. He said, I don’t want to be a three A community. I hadn’t heard that. And I thought that’s an interesting concept. The problem is we are a TA community. The state has made us a three a community. That is not a choice. We have, there was a lot of debate last year. There was indefinite postponement from Mr. Dip pano. There was a lot of debate.

41:37 There was debate about the, the, um, the merits of the statute. There was debate about whether or not these grants could be withheld. There was debate about the constitutionality, there was debate about whether or not the state could enforce this. That debate is over. The Supreme Judicial Court did that for us. Now we are here, we are a three a community, whether we like it or not, our choice tonight,

42:08 That’s the law. You know, I hate what three A has done to this town because of this. You know what, it’s done. It’s brought neighbors against each other. It’s brought people on our planning board worried about threats. Let’s, thank you. So I, I’m, I’m sorry we are here. We have a decision to make. We need to do this together. And I really, really hope no matter how we end up tonight, that we can go home to, you know, and, and show respect to each other because the three A has brought out a lot of disrespect in this town. So I would just like to finish quickly. Thank you. And we will move on. Okay. So the Supreme Judicial Court has made that decision for us tonight. We are here to vote on zoning compliance.

42:54 I’m gonna turn it over now to our, to our town planner, who is gonna go through our zoning plan. The planning board spent an amazing amount of time on this. My opinion is that based on what they were given, they did a great job. They didn’t have a choice. They worked within the constraints of the state and they have done a plan for us that retains the character, the history of our town. So with that, I’d like to turn it over to Alex, who will walk through that plan on zoning, which is what we are here to vote on tonight. Alex, Thank you Mr. Fox.

43:31 Just to let everybody know, uh, both, both sides to, for presentations, were given 12 minutes. Um, and I thank Mr. Deano for sticking to that, even though he said he was gonna do five and split it with Yale, but Yale will have a chance to speak as well. Um, Alex, Thank you very much. Uh, good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name’s, uh, Alex Seiter. I’m, uh, the town planner and conservation agent to the town of Marvel Head. Um, we’re just going to go ahead and just jump right in. Um, we’re, I’m gonna give a brief overview of Article 23, particularly the zoning plan. Again, this is just the location of the zoning. Um, and we’ll just go ahead and get started. So I’m just gonna give a bit of background information about three a particularly. Um, this was adopted back in 2021. Um, and this was, uh, for 177 communities.

44:19 Marville Marblehead is classified as an adjacent community and within that requirement from the state, um, we are required to zone for approximately 1% of marble, marble head’s total land area. And within that, um, we have to zone for around 10% of our total housing stock. 897. That’s where that number comes from. Um, and we have to zone for a total housing capacity, the 897 units to be and within that zoning district to, um, allow this zoning to multifamily housing to be, uh, used and built by. Right. Um, however, it’s zoning. Um, and that’s really, that’s a key distinction here is that, uh, this is zoning for a total capacity of 897 units. Um, and next slide please.

45:06 So I just want to reiterate, as, as Dan spoke earlier, um, this has already gone to the courts. Um, what this presentation is here this evening is for, is specifically for a zoning district. This is for you all the town of Marblehead to decide where you would like to place. The zoning district where it is located is based off of a planning report. And the planning board did an excellent job of putting together, um, a fantastic plan that really compliments the existing infrastructure and character of Marblehead. But I just want to emphasize this is the zoning. And tonight you are voting on where the location of the zoning is taking place. So I’m just gonna give a brief background about what zoning is. Generally speaking, zoning gives local municipalities the

45:52 ability to regulate land use and dimensional size. Um, so dimensional size is referring to the height, the bulk, as well as the setback requirements, um, as well as the use of residential, industrial or commercial or mixed use. Um, zoning does not mandate. Building zoning simply allows for certain uses as well as regulates how those uses can be used in the conjunction next to other uses, but also the dimensions of height setback requirements, um, and so forth.

46:27 So I’ll jump into the plan that we proposed. Um, the planning board worked over the last couple of years to propose a excellent plan that really brings together, um, and really minimizes the impact of this zoning, generally speaking so that we meet a nice middle ground between being compliant with three A, but also making sure we preserve the integrity and character of Marblehead. Um, it’s broken down into three sub-districts. The first of which is gonna be in Tioga way, an average parcel size of around, um, 0.38 acres. The second district is Pleasant Street average parcel size of around 0.18 acres. And the third district is Broden Road with an average parcel size of 0.28 acres. And this plan, generally speaking, was developed to make sure at the end of the day

47:13 that we meet a nice middle ground, that the town can stay compliant and, and b, you know, three A compliant, but also that we minimize the impact of any new potential development coming in. And we’ll break it down based on each subdistrict. So we can go to the next slide and we’ll have Tioga away. And just to give some context and geographic area, the highlighted area in blue is, um, has Hood’s Lane as kind of the core spine of this district. There’s already existing multifamily housing within this area. 71 out of the 73 parcels have already been developed. That being said, there’s already existing 40 B projects that are currently here. So similar uses already exist here. Um, as well as the density requirement of 20 units per acre.

48:00 There’s already housing residential that is at that density, if not higher.

48:07 Second district is Pleasant Street corridor, this is in the purple. Um, and Pleasant Street kind of forms the spine of this district. Again, similar to Tioga way, there’s already existing multi-family housing within this district, meaning that we want to make sure, and particularly the planning board, their approach for this is, again, we already have existing housing that is of similar use and also the density is similar, meaning why not zone for an area that already has these amount of, um, this density as well as the actual use itself. Um, and also can help Marvel headers generally speaking to support local business. Should more development come in of the total parcels within there. There’s only one vacant parcel and that is owned by the town of Marblehead. So this is a very already built up, developed section of Marblehead to begin with.

48:54 And the last one is, uh, Broden Road. Broden Road is operated and managed by the Marblehead Housing Authority. Um, it has been so since the 1950s and again, already has existing multifamily housing. Um, the actual road itself forms the spine of this district and isn’t highlighted in green is where this zoning district is located currently. They already have in the pipeline a new project to add new multifamily housing through 40 B, which means they bypass our local zoning restrictions to begin with. That is a state level mandate that they are allowed to do that and that goes forward whether, um, the, the local town likes it or not, they have their own jurisdiction for 40 B. And that’s important to note here because this is a similar alternative that can be taken for this type of development.

49:42 So I think at the end of the day, when we break down all three of these districts, it’s very important to note what does it mean. At the end of the day, these three districts allows for BuyRight multifamily housing, but it does not mean that our local zoning restrictions don’t apply. They do apply. They are maxed out at a height of 35 feet, roughly three stories. They’re maxed out at a total density of 20 units per acre. You saw the unit, the average parcel size for each one of those districts. These are snot big parcels. These on average are extremely small. And all three districts of all total parcels, 199 parcels across three districts, three are vacant parcels all owned by the town of Marblehead. So again, you know it to emphasize

50:28 that these areas are selected and already built and developed areas, but our zoning restrictions still apply. I think another important note is particularly the open space requirement as well as the two parking spaces as a minimum, meaning that based off of our back of the envelope calculations, developers are coming in and should they develop on any of these parcels, they’re losing anywhere from 50 upwards to 70% of the parcel depending on the configuration of a multifamily unit. That’s important to note. That makes development extremely difficult and it allows us to be compliant at the end of the day and we don’t have to deal with any potential consequences associated with being non-compliant. And I think this is another very important note. What you see up here is a couple of examples

51:15 that we’ve noticed throughout the community that have been circulating about various similar min bulge family projects, either in Marblehead or adjacent communities. It’s very important to note this is not what you’re gonna have through three A not in Marblehead. The zoning that is provided in these districts is in Salem and Swamp Scott, both of which have entirely different zoning restrictions, entirely different. We don’t have anything that allows them to go above three stories. You can’t go above 35 feet. That’s just a just one of many examples of this. But the density is significantly higher in these and the reason for it’s ‘cause they have different zoning requirements and it’s not one Marblehead has. We have very stringent requirements. 30 Seconds. Thank you.

52:06 I just wanna reiterate to visualize here to explain, as you increase in height, your building footprint decreases. And I do wanna make this very clear that visually developers are losing a substantial portion of their land regardless of which approach they do. Whether it’s, whether it’s one story, two stories of three stories, and the average parcel size for Pleasant Street, you can only have four dwelling units. It doesn’t matter how how high you go, you can only have four dwelling units at the end Of the day. Thank you Mr. Ler.

52:52 You can finish the presentation through, through debate back and forth. I’ve, I’ve given both sides the same amount of time. Yes, The, it, it, you can keep the slides ready to go and you can come up for two minutes with your back and forth if you want to. Um, sure. If you want to finish that was 12 minutes. Yeah. Um, so if, if you would like to speak on the, uh, article for indefinite postponement, which is really to speak, um, which is really to speak on Article 23. You can line up at the microphones. I don’t see anybody there yet. You can line up at the microphones and have your two minutes to go back and forth.

53:44 And I just need to get my timer set up here and

53:52 I’ll first recognize Mr. McHugh. Name, name and address please, sir. Bill McHugh 38 Gingerbread Hill. I think it’s likely everybody here tonight can agree on one thing. This is a lousy piece of legislation. Um, in particular, it, it’s become divisive and it’s a one broad stroke brush for every community. Unfortunately, this is not a sense of the citizens of of Marblehead. This is the law. So I think taking grants and, and putting them forward is probably the wrong approach. We’re gonna lose grant money. Grants aren’t free. Normally they have a match to them and often communities seek grants that might not be

54:40 for high priority projects ‘cause the money’s there. So let’s take grants off the table. Let’s just talk about ramifications. If we adopt three A, we have a planning board that put protections in place, very significant protections. If we don’t adopt three A, we stand the chance of the state coming in and imposing their own overlay and provisions. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McHugh? Yes. Naman address please. This? Yeah, please. Hi. Um, Yael McGinn, um, west Shore Drive. Some of you have seen my signs, you just say it. YAEL Yael.

55:29 Um, I also filed a motion to, um, indifferent postpone this article. Um, People have tried to say that this article is a partisan issue. I have talked to people that are actually afraid to voice their opinion because people are gonna call them racist or you don’t want diversity or you don’t want affordable housing. That is not the case. This is a zoning bylaw. I, I’m an a municipality attorney. I represent towns on a daily basis. That is what, this is what I do. And I can tell you that some towns that I represented immediately adopted three A. And why? Because they already had multifamilies and their zoning bylaws. They already had a lot of units, some towns did not,

56:18 and they negated it. Now zoning bylaws are specifically the interior of a home. We decide as a town how our buildings are gonna look like, how our roads are gonna look like and how our density are going to look like. This is the only thing, one of the only things that we actually have power on. They’re trying to, to scare you that if you don’t support three A, you’re actually not supporting affordable housing. Actually, that is incorrect because what’s gonna happen specifically in Tioga way that is now has 40 B, which allows for multi-units to have 20, which requires multi-units to have 25% of affordable housing. If they build under three A, it’s only gonna be 10% of affordable housing. And it’s only above six units.

57:04 That means that anybody that bills five units and below are gonna have zero affordable housing. Anybody who bills between six and 14 units, we’re gonna have one affordable housing compared to three of, compared to three units of affordable housing. This is not going to increase affordable housing. They’re trying to scare you about grants. Like they said, one grants grants come and go. Literally today the federal government announced that they are stopping housing grants to Massachusetts. Thank you. So what’s gonna happen to our grants if I just wanna say one more thing? They scare you that you Have to, you’ve had your two minutes please. Thank you. We’re gonna respect it for everybody.

57:48 And just as you were the second speaker for the or original presenter, I’m gonna let Mr. Atler have two minutes. Thank you very much. Um, we can just go ahead and go to the next slide.

58:01 Yeah, absolutely. Brendan Callahan, uh, 500 Bill Road. The town has always relied on grant funds to kickstart projects, advanced projects, incomplete projects, the ability, the ability to apply for and be awarded. Grant funding has always been important for the town of Marblehead. Today with budget constraints, it’s even more important that the town has the ability to apply for and secure as many grant funds as possible. Since last year’s town meeting, the town has been able to scare a hun secure hundreds of thousands of dollars for infrastructure improvement projects, transportation, as well as addressing impacts due to climate change. These grants have town wide benefits as well as cross departmental Ben benefits addressing priority projects for the Harbor master DPW Recreation and Parks,

58:50 and ultimately the Marblehead resident. These grant funds also offset project talk costs to the Marblehead taxpayers. I wanna briefly highlight three grant funded projects that are impacted by three. A grant eligibility list build, street, bridge current car, current construction costs cost is $5.1 million and that doesn’t include the design costs associated with the design. We also know that the construction costs aren’t, aren’t going down as as. So today’s construction cost estimate will likely increase by the time it’s shovel ready.

59:26 The bridge is near the end of its life spec expectancy and we need to be and will need to be replaced within five years, maybe 10. And I’m told that is being optimistic. The town is actively pursuing funding for the next design phase as well as construction funding for this project. And state funding is critical to move this project forward.

59:46 Sent, Oops, sorry.

59:51 Uh, the town was recently awarded a Mass Mass Works grant for the Five Corners Intersection Rehabilitation Project. This project will move, will improve. Sorry, Mr. Callahan. That’s Thank you. Your Time. Thank you. Thank you.

1:00:08 Yes. This microphone in the middle please. Cheryl Patton, 25 Lee Street. Whether you like it or not, three A is the law legislator passed it, two governors signed it and the Supreme Judicial Court upheld it. There are consequences to breaking the law. The consequences have been laid out by the loss of grants and other monies. It’s the law. Deal with it. Stop fighting with each other if you have issues about school overcrowding. We have lost over 700 students in the past 10 years. We have room, we have empty desks, not students. Any new housing that may be built. It’s not required.

1:00:53 It’s a may. Those new housing will provide more revenue to offset any costs. School budget costs have gone up like everything else. Skyrocketing health costs, high energy costs. Building maintenance has nothing to do with three A. Also, the communities have been selected because of their walkability. They will provide people the opportunity to walk to things downtown retail where there are many empty storefronts. We could use more people. This council and agent medical facilities all within walking distance of these stores, of these buildings. The allegation that there are gonna be 500 new cars on the street tomorrow is absurd. Marblehead could pass a law that says we all have

1:01:41 to take e-bikes. That’s equally absurd. Let’s deal with reality. The reality is this is the law. Marblehead retains its zoning ability to direct housing. We need housing for seniors looking to downsize and want to stay in the community. We need housing for the young professionals who wanna live here and spend their wonderful discretionary money in our bars and restaurants. We need some housing diversity in this town. And it is not a made a terrible thing to say. Yes, it is important that we say yes and not be penalized by the state as it is allowed to be. We will incur tens if not hundreds of thousands

1:02:26 of dollars in litigation fees trying to fight a quixotic request. Those two lawyers who were at the last meeting charged $250 an hour. That’s your time ma’am. Thank you.

1:02:47 I’ve said before, you can say a lot in two minutes and if you’re planning to speak, be cognizant of the time to this microphone over here. Name and address Sir Angus McQuilkin. 39 th lane. You know, this motion to recon this motion, uh, to postpone it, uh, in the words of Yogi Barrett feels like dejavu all over again. Mr. Deano made the same motion a year ago before this body, and he said we should wait because the town of Milton had a case before the Supreme Judicial Court and they were gonna find the law constitutional and we should wait for that outcome. Well, guess what? He was wrong. The town of Milton lost that case and they spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars losing that case. So the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the law is constitutional and enforceable.

1:03:32 What’s different this time around is we have a compliance deadline of July 14th. If we do not have a compliant plan in place by July 14th, we lose access to millions of dollars of state grants. Every state grant application is being amended, including all the competitive grant programs to include three, a compliance as a scoring component in those grants. Millions of dollars, even the opponents of knowledge in their own materials that we’re talking about. Millions of dollars of grants. Add to that, once there’s a court order in place against us for noncompliance with the Attorney General has made clear she will pursue and the court decision gives her the right to do, we’re gonna face court imposed financial penalties for noncompliance and the cost of litigation are gonna be enormous. Speaking of which, on this unfunded mandate,

1:04:19 wild goose chase that Mr. Deano wants this to go on, right? Town council appeared at the select board meeting, said that will be a year long trial with discovery depositions. You’re talking hundreds of thousands of your dollars spent on a quixotic, good word quest and a wild goose chase. Now, there is a mechanism in the unfunded mandate law that allows any 10 citizens of a community to file their own lawsuit and argue that it’s an unfunded mandate. John Deano and other opponents could do that. Why do they not wanna do that? Because they’d be spending their money to litigate their complaint. Instead, they want to spend your money litigating their complaint.

1:05:03 That’s your time, sir. Thank you. That’s your time. Thank you. This microphone in the middle please. Name and address. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, Nick Ward. Six six Rolleston Road. Could you speak, speak into the microphone for me, Mr. Ward? Sure. Sorry. How’s that? Thank you. Sorry, I gotta bend down a little bit here. Um, my mom will please hear that. Sorry. So, um, I’m not sure how many, uh, truly undecided voters there are, uh, out in the crowd tonight. But if that’s you, you are who I’m speaking to right now and I’ve got good news for you. I I’m not a lawyer so I’ll be quick and I promise I’ll be clear. The question that I think you’re probably weighing in your mind right now is, what if Marblehead changes in a way that I don’t like? But that’s only half the equation that you have to grapple with.

1:05:49 ‘cause you need to ask yourself, what if I change and Marblehead doesn’t? I’m sure a lot of you out there assume that you are going to live in your current home forever and that you’ll never have any need for multi-family housing. My mom thought the same thing until she fell down the stairs, broke her leg in three places and that was the end of that. I’m sure a lot of you are expecting that as your children grow up, they’ll stay close by and you’ll get to watch your grandchildren grow up as well. But at town meeting last year, I sat next to a kid who grew up in this town his whole life. He just graduated from college, but that summer he was gonna be moving to Michigan because he couldn’t find any way to live in this town. I think another way of saying what I’m, I’m trying to say is you might not be interested in change, but change is always interested in you. And the fact is, Marblehead is changing whether we like it

1:06:36 or not, our schools are shrinking. Traffic is getting worse as our businesses have to hire staff from further and further and further away. And our property taxes keep going up. As the cost of town services get spread amongst fewer and fewer residents. Voting, voting up three a supporting three A tonight is about steer taking control and steering the change that is already happened happening to our town instead of being swept away by it. So I urge you on this motion, vote no vote, no vote no. Thank you.

1:07:15 Thank you Mr. Ward. This microphone over here, please name and address, Uh, John Burkhart intrepid circle. I think it’s important to point out that surprising as it sounds, the arguments that we are already a three a community, that this is a law and it is settled, are really not actually germane to the debate we’re having right now. There is ample historical precedent at every point in the country’s history for states, counties, cities, municipalities, to simply not go along with legislature that they find inconsistent with their own beliefs, their own values, and their own best interest. Does preemption exist as a legal concept? Yes. Is there ample historical case precedent

1:08:02 of municipality saying, we recognize this but we choose to go our own way regardless? Absolutely. In 2004, the city of San Francisco began recognizing same sex marriages at a time when California state law clearly and unambiguously said, this is not consistent in something that we support. Preemption applied. Nevertheless, San Francisco said, we choose otherwise. When Massachusetts voted to decriminalize cannabis, cannabis was a schedule one compound by the Controlled Substances Act. No acceptable therapeutic uses. This is a clear case where federal preemption applies. Nevertheless, Massachusetts said we choose to do otherwise. Are there consequences for failing to go along with

1:08:47 what the state legislatures put down upon us? Very likely will our taxes increase it’s possible, but asserting that this is the law and therefore we must vote for this is disingenuous at best. It is perfectly fine to say we’re not ready to vote on this right now. It is perfectly fine to say we recognize that this is state law, but this is not who we want marblehead to be. I implore everybody to vote yes on this amendment.

1:09:24 Thank you. Just a reminder, please remember to speak into the microphone. This microphone over here. Mr. Meyers name and address please. Yep. Rick Meyers 30 Phillips Street. Uh, supporters and opponents of this plan agree on many things. Uh, we all love Marblehead. We’re all concerned about the town’s finances. We all wanna preserve the character of this town. We differ in our beliefs about what will actually happen with the plan. Uh, opponents have voiced many fears about it, but those fears are unfounded. This plan simply draws lines around three neighborhoods that already contain multifamily housing. Says we allow multifamily housing here. There are no empty lots for sale in any of them. The impact will be modest and tightly controlled. If you’re worried that someone’s gonna build multi-family housing on Broon Road, I’m sorry, but you’re about 70 years too late.

1:10:10 It’s been multi-family housing since the 1950s. It may be redeveloped if that’s whether we passed this plan or not. It’s still zoned single family only, but changing the zoning will have zero impact on the ground. You may be concerned that this plan allows multifamily housing by right, that sounds scary, but it’s not. Other things that are already allowed by right on Pleasant Street include funeral homes, laundries auto dealerships, and of course single family homes. No one’s knocked down shoe to build an auto dealership. It doesn’t make economic sense. Just because something’s allowed doesn’t mean it will happen. The economics of redevelopment are very challenging. The last major redevelopment in town was Warwick Place had to be done by a nonprofit funded by donations

1:10:57 ‘cause it wasn’t economically viable any other way. And our plan makes redevelopment even harder with added restrictions to preserve local control. The off street parking has to be in the back or the side of the building. Imagine how costly it would be to move the parking lot to the back of Village Plaza. The real killer is the open space requirement for a three story building. The lawn has to be bigger than the building footprint. 50% bigger existing buildings on Pleasant Street don’t meet that requirement. So a developer would have to tear down a perfectly good building and build something that’s smaller if they’ll have the right to do it, but it won’t make economic sense. If they wanna make the numbers work, they’ll have to apply for variances just like they do today. Preserving local control. This plan was designed to minimize the impact on our

1:11:44 town, preserve local control. As a result, any redevelopment would be beneficial to Marblehead, giving us more choices, improving our finances, and enhancing the character of our town. Please vote no on the motion to postpone. Thank you Mr. Meyers.

1:11:59 We’ll go to this microphone over here please, sir. Name and address. Kurt James Norman Street Bega, um, speaking opposition to the motion to extend. Um, this is a state mandate of course, but it also is a town mandate and I just want that to sink in for a minute. What I mean by that is that our 2020 master plan actually mandates the expansion of multifamily as of right zoning districts. I recommend anyone to read it. It’s on the town website. Um, as we know, our town was founded by fishermen and lobstermen and their families hundreds of years ago. However, the abilities of our families to remain in town is threatened by ever increasing home prices pre covid, which is to say the seven years before the master plan was adopted, the number of residents

1:12:45 between the age of 25 to 44 shrunk by 63%. That’s a status, that’s a stat right out of the master plan in order to address this trend. The master plan includes as one of its higher priorities, a mandate to expand as of right multifamily zoning, overly districts, which is exactly what three A is. And the reason is, regardless of the affordability requirement of 10%, just look at any statistics online about relative housing prices of single family homes, which a marblehead is an average of $900,000, which is to say many or way in excess of that. Whereas a condominium or multifamily housing, the average is under 600,000. There are condominiums in town on the market for $300,000.

1:13:30 There’s no way you could buy a single family house for $300,000 in town. I know what people are saying. It’s been on Facebook, it’s been on all sorts of feeds. People are worried that the day this passes, developers are coming in with bulldozers and they’re gonna basically demolish half the town. That’s not gonna happen historically, and this is important. All you need to do is look at what we already have in town. We have two smart growth overlay districts in town. They’re vacant parcels. One is on Pleasant Street, another is in Vinton Square. It’s multiple acres. It’s vacant. Land developers wanted to build there. They could do it today as of right, but they haven’t. Thank you, Mr. James. Thank you.

1:14:14 Microphone in the middle, Mr. Whipple, Johnny Whipple, uh, 1 0 6 Atlantic Avenue. Just want to respond to a couple of remarks that were made. Uh, at the beginning. Uh, the thought was we should retain our zoning independence. Passing this, uh, zoning amendment retains our zoning independence because it has been developed by our own planning board as the, as the most intelligent response to the state law. Whereas if we do not come into compliance, we do not have zoning independence.

1:15:01 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts can come in and dictate where the, uh, where the districts will be and, uh, we don’t get to do it for ourselves unless, of course, they recognize the wisdom of this plan and decide to do precisely what this plan proposes. Uh, and there was also a remark that the costs of lost, uh, grants is a speculation. I would, uh, put it to you that all the horror stories about increased traffic, about increased, uh, municipal expenses are

1:15:48 likewise speculation at most. And the fact that law firms are putting in pleadings on behalf of the towns that have cases before the court does not mean that those pleadings are 100% accurate by a long shot. And the town of Marble Head is not those towns. So those pleadings really don’t matter to us. What matters to us is what, uh, Thank you, Mr. Whipple. Thank you.

1:16:27 Yes. This microphone over here. Name and address Please. Hi, gene Lambkin, 19 Devereaux Street. I’m a hardy no on this indefinite postponement amendment, and I hope that everyone gets to vote overwhelmingly in favor of Article 23. Um, and here’s why. Um, I wanna consider what this is not just for the housing, it could ultimately maybe build, but what it means about community. So I want to talk about that. A landmark study by the Knight Foundation called the Soul of the Community, researched what emotionally attaches people to a place. In the three year study of 26 communities, they engage with more than 43,000 people to learn what makes them want to put down roots and build a life someplace.

1:17:14 They found three things that were common across all of these communities. The three priorities were not surprisingly, jobs, the economy or safety. What were they? Social offerings, places for people to meet each other and the feeling that people in the community care about each other. Openness, how welcoming the community is to different types of people, including families with young children, minorities, older people, and recent college graduates. These top factors of community attachment match many of the reasons I love Marblehead and why I am voting yes on Article 23. By saying yes to the potential

1:18:02 to offer multifamily units in three districts, we are signaling that we are a community that values openness. Though it may be years before a young family college grad or downsizing senior move into such a home, there is an immediate payoff for a yes vote tonight. A yes vote reminds us that Marblehead is a caring town filled with capable people who cherish our history, are optimistic about our future. Thank you. We are confident. Thank You very much. Thank you. Please vote yes. Thank you.

1:18:43 So our our lines, our lines are waxing and waning back there. Um, I just wanna remind everybody, uh, when we start getting too repetitive, uh, that’s when I’m going to, um, stop the debate back and forth. So please limit your remarks to try to limit your remarks to things that have not been shared with the, with the assembly. Uh, we’re gonna go with this microphone over here, please. William Stevenson, uh, one 16 Front Street. And I think I’m one of the caring community that this woman just spoke about. And, um, I know each one of us here gets two or three newspapers every week. And one of the things I really got hooked on is

1:19:28 the police log. I love reading it because in Marblehead, the police log is very unexciting and dull.

1:19:38 No, I really don’t want that to change.

1:19:42 I grew up in a town that had a lot of projects and we didn’t have, we haven’t talked about, uh, drugs coming into the town. Respect for the speaker, please. Pardon me? I just asked for respect for your speaking. Go ahead. Uh, how am I not being respectful? Oh, oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Um, you know, we haven’t talked about the influx of the traffic. We haven’t talked about. And by the way, people there is such thing as crime and we have to bury our heads in the sand. If we don’t think unaffordable, affordable housing will not bring in some crime. I’m not saying, I’m not saying everybody

1:20:31 that comes in affordable housing will bring in crime, but I grew up in a city, uh, Cambridge that had affordable housing. They were called projects, government sponsored housing, and we had drugs in our schools. Um, we, this goes to show you actually what Marble Head’s become, and I think Marble Head’s a beautiful town, and I just love to keep it that way. And I don’t think making Marblehead into a city is what I want to see. So I actually vote for the postponement. Thank you. Thank you for the microphone over here, please. The name, Address, hi. Hi, once again, Catherine Cunningham, Roja three Hibbard Road, Marblehead, mass. Um, I live in the same house I was born in,

1:21:18 and, uh, my mother would come to town meeting to speak all the time. And I have not been a good show up and vote at Marblehead Town Meetings person. Um, because like everybody, I get busy raising the kids, going to work, doing this and that. The, the primary question for me really about this, and someone brought it up, is if they build a five unit Building, do they still need to have 10%? Are we gonna just have, you know, can people sneak in under that boundary? Because for me, it really does come down to more affordable housing for Marble, had to have more middle class and working class people living in it. I’d like to read this to you, please.

1:22:05 Unclear to me what the future will be, but this morning I must work with what I have, not what I wish for, nor what my neighbors think I should have figured out by now, nor what children hope I have already accumulated or confined at the magic ATM. Today is my day for today. In the 1950s, my parents bought a house a lot in house on former farmland, one of many robins capes on acres paid for by those surviving World war vets. I heard they had a tiki bar in the backroom basement next door. Then now we fix things with a tube of welded melded. No fuss, no muss, no heat, no flame required tubes.

1:22:50 Mother fixed my small dresses, hems with a safety pin more than once

1:22:57 when there was no wherewithal for a stitch in time saves nine. And now I see some local policy yard sands. Don’t turn us into wonderland, and I don’t know what that means. My Dakota ring must need a different battery or a microscope I can’t find, but in my heart and mind, I do know this, my Hometown. Thank you. We need housing. We need fairness. We need hope. Thank you. To the center microphone name and address, please Bill Kaney to Beverly a Marblehead. I came here yesterday with 2000 other people to hear the town’s presentation on three A and to vote. I came here today about 2000 people

1:23:45 to hear the town’s presentation on three and to vote. I support three A and I’ve worked hard to try to get accurate, constructive information out there. And I studied the plan very well. I certainly hope to win the vote, but I wanted to win it by contributing to an informed debate. Mr. Dip Pano wants to win by manipulating the process and spreading misinformation to confuse the issue and scare people. Clearly, Mr. Dip Pano and his fathers want to block our vote on three A, therefore, I vote no in this motion to, to indefinitely postpone the article. Mr. Diano. Enough is enough. Thank you.

1:24:35 Thank you. I Think that’s Mr. Roberto over there. Name and address, please. Yes, Bob Roberta, 36 Chestnut Street. So I just want to point out, 250 years ago, we didn’t take kindly being mandated by the British government and we kicked him out.

1:25:01 Not only Did we kick them out, but we kicked both of their, um, governors out. Okay. Huson and Gage and sent ‘em back to England. Um, I, I, um, with all due respect to the planning board, um, I, as a developer myself, I did Tioga Way. Um, I believe we need housing. I just don’t agree with the plan that, that that, that we had to do mandated by the state. You know, Marblehead has a history of doing their own thing and, and some of those descendants are still in Marblehead.

1:25:46 Um, the Glover, um, and, um, and Blacker, is he here?

1:25:53 Uh, too bad. Um, but I think there are other alternatives. And again, with all due respect to the, um, school committee, we are sitting on two school properties. Why weren’t they considered? Okay, I would like to, and again, um, were they wa thank you. Uh, if, if they didn’t waste so much time debating a flag in the classroom, We need to stay on topic. Mr. Roberta? Yes, sir. Uh, I will. Um, but as a veteran, I wanna say there’s only one flag that should be in that classroom. Okay. And on the state. That’s it.

1:26:45 Well, let’s not do that again, please. Um, over here in the middle please, sir. Now name and address. Thank you. Uh, Robert McNulty, 46 Chestnut Street. Uh, I worked in business ethics for a long time, and, uh, one of the things I saw, uh, repeatedly was that, uh, there are many businesses that would, uh, knowingly violate the law or the regulations knowing they would get fined. But, uh, they consider that the cost of doing business. Um, I think that we have to ask you, we’re doing something similar here. Uh, the United States has a short a shortage of housing. Everybody knows that estimated at least 4 million housing units need to be, uh, constructed as soon as possible. Here in Massachusetts, according to the Healy administration, they need,

1:27:32 we need 222,000 units. And, uh, the state is reaching out to the communities to try to address this problem. We love this town. It is a great town, but it, we also need to change. And I do not think that complying with the state, it’s the same as the United States being, uh, uh, cowed into mission by a king in England. This is our state government and we are part of that state, and we benefit from this state. And I think that we should do our part to see what we can do. And yes, our town will change, but you know what? There’s a lot of people that were very animated against the Mariner Project.

1:28:18 Like it was gonna be a big disaster. I think it looks pretty good. I don’t think the town has fallen apart because of the Mariner Project. I don’t think this is gonna destroy our town either.

1:28:30 Thank you, Mr. Buuba. Thank you Mr. Mar. Moderator. Great job. Jack Buuba, five Palmer Road and a almost lifelong marble header. I have three points. I think they’re new. One is three A is really like the hotel California. You can check in, but you can never leave. Alright? Once, once you’re in, you can’t get out, which is why going for a exemption is really the right thing to do. And why is that important? Because the law is not fixed. What you’re voting on tonight could be changed tomorrow by the legislature. And we’ve already opted in. They don’t give you a chance to vote again and say, oh, it changed.

1:29:16 You’re buying into whatever they say to do in perpetuity.

1:29:30 Now the select winner saying that we have to do this because the, the state will punish us if we don’t do that. My friend Shamus stood up and said, we’re gonna be punished by the state. Marble headers are not afraid of the state. That is why we are here tonight,

1:29:51 Right? Eldridge Jerry is spinning in his grave that we’re sitting here tonight cowering about the fact that the government is gonna be mad at us. I urge you to vote for indefinite postponement.

1:30:12 Thank you. So the middle microphone, please name and address. Uh, my name’s your Tom Beninger 1 26 Pleasant Street. Um, I believe and know, first of all, I think the legislature, as he said, is trying to scare everybody. Once you end will end, we can’t go out, which will be exemptions in grants money come and go and no one knows what will be in the future. But what I do know is that all these developments, and I’m sorry to say these slides seem disingenuous because the 0.18 of an angle developers buy more layouts. And if they didn’t do it for, for 40 B, which had more affordable housing, they’ll just come in

1:30:58 and create, put five units and no affordable housing and just market face. We will lose our, like, to make decisions. We’ll lose a, like for any future that we want. And if you care about the state coming down on us, let them do it and let them do it. And we’ll have more affordable housing than what was proposed by the cell, by the consulate model. Because what you have now is really not because developers will make sure that it does not a foot make any affordable housing market rate. And that will be about it. Thank You. Thank you. Okay,

1:31:43 over to this microphone. Name and address, please. Carol Arnold, 25 Bennett Road. Um, two things that I wanna say. One is a vote for against a vote against three A is gonna be a vote four 40 B, which means people can come in and build that 10 story building if they want to. We have no, no choice to say about it. Um, the other comment I wanna make is in relationship to the numbers that we were given on what the actual costs will be. Um, Middleton really isn’t the town to compare with what could be built and what chances are will be built if they have three A because they have space, someone could go in and buy a farm and put up all the affordable hou

1:32:30 or all the multifamily housing. Whereas Marblehead, you’re gonna have to come in, buy one or two or three lots, tear the houses down, and then, you know, build from there. It’s gonna be very expensive. Thank you.

1:32:47 Thank you. We’re getting to that point where we’re being, um, redundant. So, uh, we’re gonna do, Oh, no, No, I need, we’re gonna do a speaker on each side and then we’re gonna go to the vote. Oh my gosh. In the middle, please. Not to make my heart race or anything there. Um, Heather Bandon Huble, I’ve never spoken to Tom meeting before. I live at 2 78 Washington Street, just down from Abbott Hall. Um, near Five Corners. Uh, my hands shaking, so forgive me, try not to cry. Um, the, I’m wondering why that there wasn’t more honesty in what the districts are named as someone who didn’t realize

1:33:33 exactly where this three a overlay was. My home is completely eclipsed by three A. I’m surrounded on two sides. The Sony Pleasant Street District is the very center of town, the place where we all try to drive in and all try to drive out and get our kids to school, go to shops. It includes Washington Street. It includes five corners, it includes restaurants, it includes many multi-family housing. Units are there. We have neighbor, after neighbor, after neighbor of single family homes have been broken down into condos, apartments. We have our very first home we’ve ever bought in our lives. Right there on Washington Street. One little single family home that’s surrounded by this.

1:34:21 Imagine if your home, and it’s not just me, there’s a few others. It’s about to be surrounded by thing after thing after thing, being bulldozed. We live in Marblehead too. We love this town. We matter. We pay taxes. Our kids struggle to walk down the street, past the bulldozers, past the water projects. We’ve had multiple housing projects on our street. Please consider that it’s very busy in some of these areas. Why not choose to build the housing where there’s open spaces, there are places that are abandoned, there are open lots, but why put it right in the center of town? It’s going to be incredibly painful for many of us to get in

1:35:09 and out to do anything. Thank you folks. This is the last speaker, and then we’re gonna go to a vote for indefinite postponement on Article 23. Uh, yes sir. Name, name and address, please. Okay, it’s Dave Nagle, uh, nine Westminster Road. No pressure at all, being the last speaker, uh, on such a unimportant vote. Um, the thing that strikes me about this group is this audience, is that people are both tough and stubborn. And that’s what makes Marblehead Great. And whether you think it’s $400,000 or whether you think it’s $11 billion that we’ll lose in grant money, we will lose grant money and we will not get any

1:35:56 of our tax dollars back from the state until we do comply. Whether you think it’s $1 million or $15 million on the other side, that requires building, that requires the $15 million was an estimate based on 897 homes being built in this town. This town hasn’t changed its population in 20 years. We’re not building 897 homes anytime soon. We have three vacant lots in that entire area. It would require us rebuilding all of those neighborhoods completely. This is, this is a scare tactic for the $15 million.

1:36:44 The, the way that we can get out of this is to comply with the law, be able to build according to our own, our own concept, our own zoning plan. And if you want to resist, if you want to be that tough stubborn marble header and resist, don’t sell your land, stay on your land. Don’t allow any development on it,

1:37:10 but we have to comply with the law.

1:37:15 Thank you very much. We’re gonna go to the vote now.

1:37:24 Hold your clickers up high.

1:37:31 We’ve finished debate, sir.

1:37:35 We’ve finished debate, as I said in the beginning, when, when we get to the point of being as repetitive as we, as we have been, we’re gonna move to the vote. Um, so the vote, article 23 for indefinite postponement. If you favor the article, use your green. Yes, I’m sorry. If you favor the motion, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts now.

1:41:15 Definite postponement failed.

1:41:19 Which brings us to our second amendment on Article 23, which is a subsidiary motion for amendment.

1:41:31 Uh, and that, and that motion is as follows. I move that article 20, that amended motion is as follows. I move that, move that article 23 of Marblehead Town Warrant 2025 be amended by adding the following words, not in the first sentence between the word to and amend and adding the words. And request that the select board file an exemption extension amendment regarding the implementation of chapter 40 a section three A after the word bylaw in the first sentence. And strike the rest of the language of Article 23 after the word bylaw in the first sentence, so as to read, to see if the town will vote to not amend the zoning bylaw.

1:42:18 And request that the select board file an exemption extension amendment regarding the implementation of Chapter 40 a Section three. I want to add a personal note. A moderator’s note that the word not reverses the original motion, not yet heard. And that the directive to the select board is advisory, given the limited powers of the legislature in this regard.

1:42:45 So, uh, the, so I have a motion, do I have a second?

1:42:53 I heard second. Um, Yale, would you like to speak to your amendment?

1:43:02 It’s a process, folks. We take ‘em one at a time.

1:43:08 I had a second. Yes,

1:43:14 thank you.

1:43:22 Hi everybody. Um, again, I just wanna thank everybody for being here yesterday and today. Um, this is absolutely amazing. I represent a lot of towns in Massachusetts and I have never seen 1500, 1700, 2000 people at a town meeting. So this is why I love Marblehead and I grow Marblehead my home. Check our article. Section three A is going to change the face of our town. We’re going to lose, we are going to lose our power to decide on our zoning bylaws. I don’t wanna repeat everything that was said because everybody wants to get through the town. Meaning, and I don’t wanna take more of the time,

1:44:10 but I do want everybody to know I work with towns every single day and laws change all the time. Section three A was not here two years ago. We don’t know if it’s gonna be here in two years from now. 174 municipalities in Massachusetts do not need to comply by Chapter three A. Basically what the state did is it said, you know what, we have a housing crisis and we do. But they decided how can we improve it? How can we change it? So why don’t we just take MBTA towns that have some kind of MBTA in them trains, commuter rails buses, and mandate them to put multi-families

1:44:57 in single family zones.

1:45:01 We have businesses right now on Pleasant Street that if section three A passes, we might lose them.

1:45:13 We have multi-family zoning here for multi-families under chapter 40 B, that if three A is adopted, we’re gonna lose those affordable housings.

1:45:27 The town people in the town asked the select board to file an exemption or an amendment to section three A. I can tell you again from my experience, that the majority of the towns adopted Section three A. What does that mean to the state? That means the state probably is not going after the towns that are not going to comply after the handful of towns out of 177 towns that have already adopted Section three A.

1:46:09 We have, we have the future of marble ed in our hands right now. And I just want you to think about this. No, no, no. I just want you to think about this. Why are we rushing? What is the rush? Section three A just came out less than a year ago. The state has not done anything with grants or punishing any municipalities. We don’t even know what is going to happen. We don’t even know if the states are going to have these grants.

1:46:46 Folks. Folks, we have a Process. And so where amendments and articles are, and motions are heard and each one gets due process. So yelling isn’t gonna help anything because I’m gonna give the people the, the time that they need to talk about it. When we get to debate afterwards, it’s not gonna go on as long as it just did because we’ve discussed most of this already. Excuse me, please go ahead.

1:47:16 Hey guys, this is democracy. This is what we do. If you wanna find a solution and you wanna fix something, you try to find every single way to do it. You have people here that have been fighting not to adopt Section three A because we are going to lose the landscape of our town. Now this amendment, what we are doing now, if we do say yes for this amendment, we are not saying that we’re not going to comply with section three A, just the opposite. We are going to tell the state that we want to comply with section with section three A. We just ask for an exemption or an amendment or an exception. And I can tell you this from experience that when a rule isn’t enacted, you always have those

1:48:03 that immediately accept it and then that’s it. Once you’re done, you’re done. You can’t go back. But you always have those that stand on their feet and say, you know what? This law is not going to help us. We want an exception. We don’t want not to be in compliance. We don’t have to lose these grants. We can still be in compliance request for an exception and not have Section three A mandate. Our zoning laws. All we’re doing is we’re pushing back what we need to do. All we’re doing is we’re asking for select board to please on July 14th to go to the state and ask for an exception or exemption or amendment in order to adopt Section three A. That is all we are doing.

1:48:49 There is no need to rush and there is no need to immediately accept a law that will not benefit the town. Thank you.

1:49:07 Um, yeah, we’re, we’re, you can, you can have your two minutes. That’s all I would like. Thank you. I’m gonna make it a lot quicker than two minutes. Mr. Fox. I feel like we’ve been here since six o’clock last night. Um, so just to be clear, name and Address please. I’m sorry. Name and address, please. I’m Sorry. Dan Fox, uh, west Cottage member of the select board. Just to make it clear, this is very similar in my opinion. And select to and definitely postpone. Oh, sorry. I’ll lean forward. This is very similar to another indefinite postponement. There’s also something in here that is non-binding, asking the select board to file for an injunction. I am, I think the select board again, would like to see us go and vote up or down on the original article.

1:49:55 So to be clear, a no here gets us to the actual vote of Article 23. Thank you.

1:50:06 Okay. I’m gonna give two speakers on each side is, is what I’m gonna allow. This has been debated, but I’m gonna give two speakers on each side. We’re gonna start in the middle. Name and address, please. Cheryl Patton, 25 Lee Street. Uh, we’ve talked about this eight waste to Sunday. I’m gonna call the question please

1:50:30 question called calling the question. Okay. I, um, I’m, I’m going, I’m going to do what I said I’m going to do, which is allow and not allow that, um, that motion. And I’m going to allow two speakers on each side. Okay? Then I’ll talk. We, we’ve already been over this for, for since last year, and we’re here now two and a half hours. There’s nothing more to be said. It’s the law, an injunction and exemption. It’s the law. It is not adverse to marble head’s best interest. It is in Marble head’s best interest. We get money, we get control over the housing. We get control over our schools since we are

1:51:17 700 people down. Our population is less today than it was in the 1950s, where a thousand people down. This is in marble head’s best interest. It doesn’t cost us any money now, it will cost us tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in quixotic litigation fees. And we will lose any state monies coming our way. And with the cut and the federal funding, those state monies are going to be paramount to our very survival in all the projects we need. We will be at the bottom of the list for money. There are 177, let me repeat,

1:52:04 a hundred and seventy seven three A-M-B-T-A Communities in the state, less than a handful, are looking to weasel their way out of the law. I know it’s, thank it’s popular now to say no to the law, but the law is the law. Thank you. Over here please.

1:52:26 William Crouch one Mulford Street. I just want to say that I’ve been in the back of the room here for a few hours and we just had a vote a little bit ago that apparently didn’t register, but several people didn’t even know what we were voting on. So I would ask or make a motion or whatever is necessary. Let’s very, very clearly, regardless of whether or not we need to read the bylaw language or anything else, say this is for dose, uh, definite postponement or against definite postponement so people know what they’re voting for because many, many people had no clue or we’re asking each other. Thank you. Thank you. In the middle please. Frank Kaner, 24 Pickwick Road.

1:53:15 Uh, it is my, uh, recent understanding that the planning board interviewed all of the other department, uh, of departments of the town and learn that no additional infrastructure will be necessary to support three a. I want to, um, try to put a positive note on things that I haven’t heard, which is that, uh, cooperation, uh, seems to be a little passe and I want to bring it back. I admire the state government for what they have done on this. I admire the town and the town planners and the town departments. I, I, I want to give credit to the people

1:54:01 who have furthered this le furthered this legislation

1:54:07 And thought about housing the town, the people, the infrastructure. So, uh, I, uh, urge that we reject this amendment and that we, uh, as soon as possible move to the question on three A and support three a. And I wanna make one further point. Some of us are old enough to have lived through a time when states and towns and cities had no money, no infrastructure, no fixing roads, and we could be in for a time now of stagflation for even a decade. And to do anything to endanger improvements

1:54:56 to the infrastructure of Marblehead is crazy. And I know it’s hard to imagine, but imagine the Village Street bridge not getting repaired and imagine traffic and marblehead if we had to go around that unrepairable bridge because no one could afford it. So I actually am speaking for corroboration between city town and this is no rebellion. I’ve rebelled against authority. Thank you, sir.

1:55:31 Okay, last speaker.

1:55:36 This microphone over here, last speaker Carl Caswell, 1 74 Pleasant Street, Marblehead. I’m one of the old timers in town. I go back about six generations. I’ve seen this town change over the years. You know, it’s got a lot of crowded and you’re gonna add more people to the town. And my house is right, right in this one of the zones. I could see ‘em tearing down my neighbor’s house just to put three more families in it. You know, uh, it’s, it’s, you lose a charm of the town, you know, it’s, it’s changing and you add more people. It makes it more crowded and you won’t have the same town spirit. You know, it’s the same feeling in the town. It’s a nice town. I lived here for generations by being, it’s been here for generations. And, uh, I, I’m not, I’m against happens.

1:56:23 That’s all I gonna say. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we’re gonna go to the vote. And this is on Article 23, which is a mends zoning bylaw three A of multifamily overlay district. This is voting on a subsidiary motion for amendment. The amendment reads as follows. I move that article 23 of Marblehead Town Warrant 2025 be amended by adding the following words, not in the first sentence between the word to and amend and adding the words. And request that the select board file an exemption extension amendment regarding the implementation of chapter 40 a Section three A after the word bylaw in the first sentence.

1:57:09 And strike the rest of the language of Article 23 after the word bylaw in the first sentence. So as to read, to see if the town will vote not to see if the town vote to not amend the zoning bylaw. And request that the select board file an exemption extension amendment regarding the implementation of Chapter 40 a. Section three A, here’s the vote. If you favor the motion, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts. Now.

2:01:13 We’re mo we’re we’re just, we’re mo we’re moving. Bill Phil

2:01:27 Announce folks, the, the vote was 673. Yes. 1060. No, the vote does not pass for the amendment.

2:01:42 Okay, now we’re at Article 23 and at, as I mentioned, um, as I mentioned in my original remarks, I’m gonna call for a vote before we get to Article 23 as to whether the body wants to have a written ballot done or a written ballot taken on Article 23 when we get to the vote.

2:02:13 I did that, did that beginning. Okay. Okay. The, the, the reason why I did that is because I had a request that, that we take a written ballot and, and balancing past precedents with, um, with the, the mood of the room last year. And the mood of the, the audience that I’ve heard is that when we have a, when we have a written ballot, it eliminates the opportunity for vote for reconsideration on the article or on the motion. I’m sorry that that was requested of me. I decided to, uh, turn it to the voters to let the voters decide as to whether they want to have a written ballot or not.

2:02:59 That’s the next vote that we’re going to take right now. And we need to set up the motion. So hold on one second please.

2:03:29 What’s the motion for her? What’s the,

2:04:26 Here we go to the vote.

2:04:32 Will there be a written ballot? Vote for the vote of Article 23. If you favor a written ballot for the vote, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minutes starts now. Hold them up, folks. I

2:07:54 Okay, folks.

2:08:00 Okay, so we will, we will not have a written ballot.

2:08:06 The vote was yes. 676, no, 1029. Now article 23 to the vote. I I have a motion. Do I have a second? Thank you. Thank you. Uh, if you favor the motion to amend the zoning bylaw three, a multifamily overlay District Article 23. Use your green yes button if you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts now.

2:09:04 Hold him up.

2:09:50 Will. Well, Well,

2:11:09 Yes, sir.

2:11:54 Okay, folks, the, the vote is in

2:12:00 Marblehead accepted Article 23 by a vote of 951 to 759.

2:12:15 Okay. According to the, um, to the amendment that we are working under, we’re now going to Article 34,

2:12:27 article 34 Marblehead High School Roof, and HVAC system, uh, which is, which is listed in your warrant.

2:12:42 Yes, please. Um, folks, this, this vote, uh, when it’s voted upon, is a two thirds vote. Um, the article has been moved. Do I have a second? Thank you. Um,

2:12:59 our first speaker is from the school department. Name and address, please, sir. Michael Ping, assistant Superintendent for Finance of operation and operations of the Marblehead Public Schools.

2:13:17 Folks, please be quiet as you leave.

2:13:23 Thank you, Michael. Thank You. Thank you. I’d like to begin by, um, thanking the finance committee, the select board, the school committee, and the community for all of your support over the past 10 months to the new administrative team at the Marblehead Public Schools.

2:13:44 Uh, just a little brief history. Uh, the Marblehead High School, which are seated in right now, was, uh, approved as a project in 1999. It began construction in 2001, completed in 2002, and it opened to our students in 2003. When we look at the age of a building, the Mass School Building authority, they do not look at the day the roof went on the building. They look at the day the students occupied the building. So later in my presentation you might hear, uh, a comment about the Mass school building authority not supporting our project. ‘cause the roof is not old enough. It goes by when the students occupied the building and not when the building roof actually went on the roof.

2:14:30 Uh, we have done no major work to this roof, to my knowledge, since it was originally put on the building.

2:14:38 Um, the high school was built using a debt exclusion. Uh, that debt exclusion is rolling off in 2026. So within this fiscal budget that you’re voting on tonight or sometime this week, um, that roll off will result in approximately $253 savings per household. Um, on the average, some median numbers might be a little higher or lower, but on, on the, on the average, it’s $253 per household. And just for a little history, there are 850 students currently attending Marblehead High School.

2:15:17 This next slide shows it’s an, it’s a map of the roof. There’s several sections identified here, 10 sections in, in all. There are different elevations, different materials, uh, different wings. The green dots indicate where we had leaks in December of 2024. Those leaks have all been repaired, otherwise you’d all be getting wet tonight.

2:15:43 The blue squares are from an in infrared scan of where we had wet insulation underneath our roof membrane.

2:15:53 I’ll just let that soak in for a second.

2:16:00 I did not even mean that was All right. Next slide. We’re gonna keep this moving. Um, so currently our next steps, um, to accommodate these additional, did I miss a slide? I did. Uh, so a little bit of the history, uh, a couple years ago, 2022, the town here or over at vets when there weren’t 1600 people or 2,700 people or something, uh, voted to approve a $5.36 million debt exclusion to replace the Marblehead roof. Uh, again, a debt exclusion is a temporary tax increase. It’s not a permanent increase. Uh, the district at that time applied to the mass school building authority for a new roof mass school building authority will,

2:16:47 will support new buildings, new roofs, windows, and boilers. Uh, the application was denied due to the roof age of the roof. The, the roof at that time was only, uh, 20 years old. MSBA requires 25. And I know from experience that year or that that few years there, they were actually pushing 30 years for an, for anybody to be considered for a new roof. So we were, we were already 10 years too, too early for a new roof for them to support the funding for it. Uh, we’re still actually too early. So, um, in spring of 2024, the school department contracted or went out for an RFPA bid to hire an on project manager that is required for any construction project

2:17:34 that exceeds a million dollars. So we hired an an onus project manager through a bidding process. That onus project manager is left field and they’re the same onus project manager that was on our Brown Elementary School project a few years ago. The next step in the project, we are also required to hire a schematic designer. And that schematic designer was, was we went out to bid again, uh, last summer. And in August we awarded the bid to RDA Raymond Design Associates. RDA is coincidentally also the designer who worked on our brown school a few years ago.

2:18:20 The first thing that RDA did was they did a comprehensive study of our roof. They got up there, they measured everything, they looked at everything, all the membrane, all the seams. Uh, and they also decided to look at the HVAC units, which we are very thankful that they did. Uh, they came back to us with a recommendation in November that all of the HVA units are gonna have to be lifted off the roof regardless of what we do. Um, whe when they get lifted off the roof by crane, it’s unlikely that they will survive that they are that, um, weathered by the sea, the sea we, the sea air that’s around us here. Um, so they’re recommending in their feasibility study that we look at replacing them at the same time they feel that they’ll go back on the roof.

2:19:05 But, but, uh, two things. One, it’s using the old refrigerant or something, somebody will have to help me out here, but it’s the one that you can’t get anymore unless you buy it on the black market. Uh, they’re recommending that we replace it with the newest, latest refrigerant, uh, units with refrigerant. Um, If we put the units back on, they said that even if they could get them get going back again, they’d need to be replaced within three to five years. And the big problem with, with doing that is in three to five years, when we lift them off the roof again, we will likely void the warranty of the roof that was just installed. So we don’t want to put bad money. Chase, chase good money after bad money. Um, the other part of their point was if we waited

2:19:50 that everything’s gonna have to be staged twice and it would add several million dollars to the project to do both in separate stages. Ultimately, that’s why we’ve kind of paused this project. We probably could have had the schematic design completed by now, but we paused intentionally because we did not want to do this in two phases to cost the taxpayers more money.

2:20:13 Alright, so accommodate, uh, to accommodate this new, uh, portion of the project, the HVAC units, it’s an estimated $8.6 million additional on top of the 5.36. So it’s just shy. The whole project would be just shy of $14 million, you know, just to make sure everybody’s aware of, of the full clock cost of the roof with the HVAC units being replaced. Um, so as I said, we are currently on hold with the design until we understand the vote here tonight and then at the ballot to understand if we have the ability to move forward for both projects at the same time. Just to give you an idea, the taxpayer costs for this, um, miss Alicia Newan. I’m sorry, Benjamin, go ahead. Sorry.

2:20:59 You weren’t right in front of me. Sorry. It was Alicia Benjamin. Um, she helped us calculate out what it would cost for this additional 8.6. So this additional 8.6 would ca cost the, uh, median home average $68 a year, and the average home $87 a year. Alicia’s gonna share some more numbers with you, bringing all the projects together that are being requested tonight and, uh, that were approved, uh, for other roof projects in the past to kind of show where we are with what’s rolling off and what’s coming on. But I’m not gonna steal her thunder unless I just did. No. Alright, so this, uh, next slide. This is just a, a just a, a slide that, uh, left you’ll put together for us. This is just the, um, the timeline that we’re looking at. As I said, um, or maybe I didn’t say, as soon

2:21:46 as we get the town meeting approval and the vote ballot vote approval, if that goes through, I’m hopeful it is. Otherwise we’ll be sitting in next year definitely getting wet. Um, once that all goes through, we will, um, begin the, the design of the project and at that point we’ll have a better understanding of exactly what’s going to be needed from a, from a roof membrane or an applied liquid fluid applied, um, coating. There’s a couple of different options we’re looking at right now. Um, but again, our, our plan is to start construction this

2:22:18 a year from now, the day after graduation on the field. We’ve, we’ve indicated that we do not want any construction materials or equipment on premise during our commencement ceremony.

2:22:31 So as I mentioned, there were a few different options. The first option is to replace the roof, tear it off, take the installation, take everything off. Um, we’ve been instructed that that will probably exceed our ask by at least another two to $3 million. So that has pretty much been taken off the table right now. Uh, the next option is to recover, which means that we would leave the existing roof roof membrane. We would replace any installation that is, uh, wet from the infrared scans. Uh, and then we would lay a new membrane on top of the existing me membrane. And then the third option was something that very recently came to our attention through community members here in in Marblehead. I appreciate them. Uh, it’s called the restore method and it’s, it’s where we would, uh, put a liquid, um,

2:23:21 applied coating over the existing membrane. So, uh, it, it would again, leave the existing membrane, replace the installation that’s damaged, and then put a liquid coating over. Um, all three of these options would come with the 20 year warranty. Just to let you know, we’re not, we’re not, um, buying a 10 year, a 10 year buy if we were to go in that direction. And I can tell you right now, there has been no decision made. I think we need to go through the full schematic design. One of the options will probably be when we bid the construction that will bid two different projects and see how they both come in so we can make an educated, informed decision.

2:23:59 We’re very close. Sorry. Um, so again, the best option will be, will to be determined after the schematic design and the bidding. Is that my last slide? Oh, I got it. Oh, really quick. This is the last slide. So if it’s passed, design will happen this summer. Bid documents will be created, that’s part of the design and they’ll be sent out to bid this fall. We will begin construction. Um, we’ll award the contract late this fall begins construction next June. Construction will end in October of next year. If it fails, if the motion fails, so the article fails, uh, we will move forward with the $5.36 million already allocated. Uh, we will just do a recover or restoration again, depending on how the bids come in. It’d be between 80 and a hundred percent of the project would be able

2:24:45 to be done without touching the HVAC. They’d still have to be lifted off. They’d be put back down, probably not working, uh, not to scare anybody. Uh, again, the same time lane next summer completed in October. That’s, thank You, sir. Thank you. Okay. Um,

2:25:06 Excuse me. Yes, Felicia Benjamin.

2:25:14 That’s okay. Thank you. Uh, good evening town meeting. Alicia Benjamin, finance director. So I wanted to bring to your attention, I know it’s very hard to see up on the screen, but the savings. So the average single family home at 1,218,000 with the high school rolling off in 2026 is a $253 savings to your tax bill. The impact of your previously authorized and onis issue debt right now would be $98. Your tax bill impact of adding the high school roof debt is $86. I know we haven’t gotten to 33, but the tax bill impact of the Mary Alley is 62, which is a net savings of $6. Your median single family home at 956,000 has a tax bill impact high school roll off of $199

2:26:02 a tax bill Impact of adding previously authorized nonis issued of $77 a tax bill impact of adding the high school roof debt issuance of $68 and a tax bill impact of adding Mary Alley HVAC improvements of $49 for a net savings of $5. So essentially the high school is so high that even with us adding these two new projects, you’re still having a net savings to your tax bill. I also want to list that our authorizing on issue includes our road and sidewalks that was voted at the May, 2022 town meeting, the Mary Alley building roof project for 480,000 and the Franklin Street Fire Station improvements at 130,598 and a million dollars for the school Brown school completion

2:26:50 that we’re waiting on an MSBA audit for which in the future, once that audit is complete, we will probably come back and give that money back to the town. Thank you Alicia. Alicia Benjamin, our finance director

2:27:06 now time for deliberation. Um, I am gonna put a two minute clock on this. We’ll start at the middle, sir. Uh, name and address please. Uh, Joe King, 10 Carroll Road and also science teacher up over there. Um, I teach here at the high school, um, but I only got two minutes. I’d like to thank the custodians for what they did here, but also after every rainstorm they spend the day replacing ceiling tiles. Dozens outside my room alone. Um, fortunately, uh, two weeks ago I was teaching around a barrel in my room as water was falling down two months ago, rain destroyed a smart board, a $5,000 smart board, another science room. And there is an active leak in that room still today. I saw it. Um, I’m thankful

2:27:51 that we don’t have the moldy smell at the e winging anymore after every rainstorm. So some of the repairs have improved things, but we still need to get this passed. If you look up above and see those square tarps and you’re sitting beneath them, those are made to catch the water. So we need to get this done. Let’s pass it tonight, get it onto the, uh, so we can vote as a town and get it done because it’s not safe for the staff, the students. Anyone. Thank you. Thank you.

2:28:24 I knew that was coming tonight to the microphone over here. Please name and address, uh, CL Clive Colony two Jailed Road. I’m, uh, Marlin High School Senior. And I just wanted to say, just wanted to say if you’re voting against the new roof, you’re voting against the health and safety of Marblehead High school students. We need a new roof. We need a new roof. It’s not okay that there’s damp and wetness in these roofs. That mold is terrible for you. So one of the worst things that you can be exposed to if you vote against that roof, you’re voting against the health and safety of Marblehead students. Thank you.

2:29:06 It’s been a long time since we’ve had an 18-year-old come up and speak, so thank you for doing so. In the middle, please. Albert Jordan Roosevelt Avenue. Um, I’m in favor of this project in the Mary Alley building. It’s long overdue and we need to continually fix the buildings in town that are falling apart to make sure they’re safe and provide a safe work environment for everyone. So this, this is good money spent and it makes, uh, we should do the two projects at once. The heating system, the air conditioning and the roofs. It makes a lot of sense. Let’s do it now. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Jordan. This microphone over here, please name and address

2:29:54 Leonardo Rosado. Um, three Martin Terrace. I’m also a senior in high school. The roof situation is an absolute mess. Everything Mr. King and Clive said is absolutely correct. I have multiple friends who are sick, who are absolutely disgusted by the school. This is not the reflection of our town that we want and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that people are against this because it’s just gonna cause more money that we need to spend in the future. If you vote against it, let’s get this over with now. Have a good roof for the future and I guarantee that we won’t be arguing about flags if the roof falls down on top of all of them. Thank you. Thank you very much. To the middle

2:30:42 microphone, please name and address Sam Altru, uh, 4 22 Ocean Avenue. Um, I fully respect that there are a lot of hours of volunteer work that went into putting this proposal in front of you. Um, I spent a lot of my, spent the bulk of my career investing in a managing office and industrial buildings. Um, and I’m currently the part owner of about 35 buildings with flat roofs. Um, some of ‘em are bigger than the high school roof and some of ‘em are smaller. Um, my, this proposed $8 million expenditure for HVAC equipment runs counter to my experience. I think there’s money already appropriated that can fix the roof.

2:31:28 This is about ac. Over the past 15 years, my partners and I have replaced about a dozen of our roofs. Um, and we’ve replaced untold numbers of HVAC units. We never ever accelerated the replacement of a piece of HVAC equipment because of a roof replacement. Their independent things we never removed and re-installed a piece of HVAC equipment, unaccountable roof replacement. And that’s what part of the justification for replacing the AC equipment that’s being, uh, advocated. We never replaced a piece of HVAC equipment because the refrigerant was no longer manufactured. You can still buy refrigerant that isn’t manufactured

2:32:15 and it’s not black market. It’s very legitimate and it’s a lot cheaper to buy the old refrigerant than to replace the equipment. And we never lost a warranty because of roof, um, work on HVAC work subsequent to a roof installation. So I think the underlying arguments for the AC proposal are just, they just don’t hold water. Uh, um, I favor replacing the roof as soon as possible, and I think the decisions are independent. I oppose this article. Thank you. Thank you.

2:32:50 This microphone over here please. Hey folks. Dante Genevese nine Gary Street. I’m also a senior at Marblehead High School and I just wanna make it clear to everyone that this roof proposal is not something that we have to consider as a potentiality for the future or something minor. We are past a point of needing a new roof and we’re already talking about starting construction in a year from now. I myself have had water dripped on me. I’m a theater kid. We have a trash barrel sometimes in the auditorium when we’re rehearsing water dripping right past the super expensive lighting equipment in the ceiling into this, uh, big, I think 55 gallon trash barrel that I, I don’t know if it’s still there to this day, but would smell like sewage in there.

2:33:37 I have a teacher who, uh, the school found mold in one of their walls in the classroom. And as a solution to that, they in this big classroom can fit about 30 students. They had a plugin humidifier that they gave them plugged in, sitting in the corner of a room at all times as if the mold’s not an issue. I have another teacher who would consistently, for the past two years-ish, have water pour into their classroom during the rain and has asked a variety of their students if being in their classroom causes them to feel ill. And the general consensus is yes, uh, there has been black mold found in the school. Um, and it’s,

2:34:23 I think a big reason that a lot of people come to Marblehead is because of the schools. It’s why my family, uh, came here. It was a big step for my family to move into this town. But we came here because my parents wanted me and my sister to grow up in a very, in a town with a very good education. System. And as it stands right now, it’s going downhill. The roof is literally falling apart. We’re losing students as, as we speak, our population for students is dwindling. And, um, people are worried about property values, especially when all the talk about three A and stuff. A, a good school system is paramount to high property values. And as it stands right now, we have, we could be giving a tour of the school to someone and they might have water drip onto their face that smells like sewage.

2:35:08 It’s, we’re, we’re, we’re past a point where this is acceptable and, um, I think that it is necessary that we get this roof fixed. Thank you.

2:35:26 That was like two minutes on the dot. That was great. Bravo in the middle please. Mr. Han and Seamus Han Forts Lane. Um, I think we’re all agree that the roof needs to be fixed. There are two issues here. The roof, fixing the roof and the HVAC equipment. And as, um, Sam Altru talked that those are separate decisions in his esteemed opinion based upon many, many years in commercial real estate. Okay. Uh, we’re asked tonight to talk about, actually, the money exists to do the roof since May of 2022. It should have been done, uh, 18 months ago completed Okay.

2:36:12 Except for the negligence of the school committee. Okay.

2:36:18 Okay. So what we’re talking about here is the HVAC equipment for 8.6 million. That’s a big number. And by the way, the fact that the debt exclusion is gonna go down if we vote this in, is a red herring. The question is, should we even vote for the 8.6 million? Okay. So I have three questions Okay. Which I have not found any answers to in the, any of the presentations. The first one is, there are 77 pieces of equipment on this roof. Okay. What I wanna know is how many pieces of equipment have failed outright, and what is the replacement cost for those pieces of equipment? We probably need to do those right away. Second question, what, how many pieces and what’s their replacement cost of things

2:37:04 that are working have had no problems? The third category is those units that have been significantly repaired, maybe, uh, to the extent of 30 and beyond just maintenance, okay. Of, um, maybe 30% of the replacement costs. We have no idea what, what the categories of this equipment is. Second question is as what is the impact of tariffs? Now these units have heavy steel content, heavy aluminum content, probably, um, maybe made, not made in the us. Um, maybe we, um, and these tariffs potentially are temporary. Maybe we shouldn’t do this all right away. Thank you, Seamus. Okay, we’re gonna go

2:37:50 to this microphone over here. Please name and address, Uh, Alexis Sol Front Street. I have, um, just a quick question. I didn’t hear any mention about solar access, solar panels on the roof. And I, somebody in the electric department had said that they were considering putting solar panels on the roofs of various schools. So if that’s not a part of the design phase, I would urge it to be part Some, sometimes, ma’am. Thank you. We’ll get you an answer.

2:38:26 Ryan, could we turn this mic on please? Thank you. Thank you for your question. Um, both Brown School and the high school are PV ready, which means that anytime we could put PV on, uh, we do work with the Marblehead Light Department and, uh, working with them to identify the best time. Uh, I guess there’s, there’s some timing issues with that, but they are both ready to be PV ready or they’re both PV ready. So when they’re ready to install solar panels, we would work with the Marblehead Light Department to do that. It’s, it’s a little tricky that we’re not dealing with National Grid because then it would be a lot easier decision. But Marblehead Light Department does some restrictions when you’re dealing with the municipal light department on putting solar on a building. So I, I’m not an expert on that, but we’ll work with the model headlights department.

2:39:11 Thank you. Um, so we’re gonna stick with the last three on each side because it’s an $8.6 million project. Um, and I’d like to go to the middle please. Name and address. Great. Thank you. Uh, Becca Whidden, Atlantic Avenue. Um, I’ve lived in dec in the town for about a decade. A little more advocated in the schools. Um, in my time here, I’ve noticed we don’t do a great job of maintaining our school buildings. I think we all know this. Uh, we heard about it very nicely from the students who spoke tonight. Um, I, I think that right. What we have right now is a new assistant director of finance who is incredibly on top of things. I’d like to encourage folks to support his efforts. And I think the folks who’ve spoken about, um, property experience, 8 million plus dollars is a big number.

2:40:00 Um, but I think they spoke about commercial property, um, experience. This is public procurement. These are public school buildings. The money is big. I see this in my day-to-day work, which is related to school construction. Um, I think we should vote in favor of this and support the schools.

2:40:20 Thank you, Mr. Roberta. Name and address, please? Yes, Bob Roberta, 36 Chestnut Street. Um, I’ve replaced, I have a construction management, I do commercial as well as, uh, residential. Anyway, I just replaced the, uh, couple years ago, the charter school roof. My question, a couple of questions. One is, where is the warranty on this roof? Does anybody know? They mostly, um, most of the, um, rubber roofs are guaranteed for 30, 40 years. Do we have the warranty? I would ask the, I would ask the school committee. Uh, you know, have you looked into it? Second of all, I concur with this gentleman.

2:41:06 I, I’m sorry I don’t remember his name. But you do not have to pull the air conditioning units to replace the, uh, roof. And the, the other thing, speaking of air conditioning units, um, you can replace the refrigerant, um, and you can, um, well I would ask, have you do, do you have alternate bids on that? Because you can replace the pieces of equipment as well within the, um, unit itself. Has that been looked at? Um, and lastly, um, uh, I’ll put my money where my mouth is ‘cause I’ve volunteered pro bono to oversee the construction on the vet school

2:41:56 and, and some of the other schools. And I’m willing to do it for the high school. Um, you know, I know what it’s like to live with a leaky roof ‘cause we lived with it at the charter school until we could replace it. So school committee or whoever’s on the construction project team, um, get in touch with me or, um, the Mr. Moderator knows where he can get in touch with me. So, um, willing to step forward. And I would, I would ask, um, the gentleman that spoke before who was also a construction manager, thank You Mr. Retta to, to join me. If you Thank you

2:42:44 to the middle microphone please. Yep. Thank you. Jim. Regis, one Lee Street. Um, I also have 35 years of experience in real estate management and facilities management. And, uh, I feel a little bit like a bait and switch. Excuse me. Could you get a little closer to the mic? Alright, I didn’t wanna overpower the mic. Okay. I feel a little bit like a bait and switch. There’s been talk about new roof, new roof, new roof. And I just heard 10 minutes ago that this is a repair, that there is no new roof. Mike, do you want to take care of that

2:43:19 As Yeah, it’s not a repair recover. Almost like putting a second set of shingles on your asphalt roof. They’re putting a new membrane down over the existing membrane. Right? But I don’t believe so. That’s not a, that’s not a repair from what I’m told. I’m not the expert, but Right. You’re overlaying an existing roof. But this existing roof has significant underlying problems and significant amount of water infiltration and is significant amount of deterioration and overlaying that roof is not undoing the problems that exist. Everything I’m reading on the screen says new roof. And I don’t feel like we’re getting a new roof. And I feel that all of this is new news because all we’ve heard about is what a terrible roof.

2:44:06 This is what terrible problems exist and that it has to be replaced. And I don’t see replace, I hear we’re gonna overlay our problems with some kind of marvelous material that then says we’re coming back again for another $15 million. Some other point in time. I approve a new roof for this building because I think it’s deplorable, the condition that it’s in is deplorable what we have to tolerate for another 15 months. But I am seriously concerned about spending $8 million on AC units that aren’t failed and not getting a new roof. Thank you. And we’ll get an answer for that. Mike.

2:44:53 Mike, Mike answer the answer to the, to the roof being covered or replaced? I, I mean, yes. I mean, again, we’re gonna go through schematic design this summer. We have not decided on an actual recovery product yet. Whether it’s recover, replace, or restore. We welcome your feedback. All the meetings are public. They’ve been public for the past year. You’re welcome to join in. We’ve had other community members join in and restoration is really the only thing we’ve heard other than recover. So the meetings are public, they’re posted. Please join us. We welcome your feedback. Uh, there is a lot of industry expert in this, in experts in this room tonight. I appreciate that. Um, I understand that a lot of you are in commercial construction, own commercial buildings. Um, Massachusetts is a little different with you’re dealing

2:45:40 with a public building. We can’t just go out and hire the logo or our sub. We, we can’t pick and choose our vendors. We have to go through the bidding process. We have to hire an OPM, we have to hire a schematic designer. Those two things right there are both very significant costs that typically private buildings do not require an OPM or a schematic designer to come on site and do the work. So there’s, there’s more to it than just putting something on the roof or replacing refrigerant because we have held to different standards, I believe is what I’m told. Thank you. Um, we’re down to the last three, Seamus. Thank you. Um, over here. Please name and address, uh, Dylan Crow 38 Blueberry Road.

2:46:27 Um, I have a question for, um, for you guys. So it’s my understanding you haven’t written a scope of work for the roof. Uh, and how are you trying to move forward with 8 million, I’m sorry, $8.6 million when you are unaware of the material you’re using? Uh, and it’s my understanding you haven’t done a thermal scan yet of the roof. Uh, one of the first things of addressing a commercial roof specifically for a school is to perform a thermal scan, which will give you an idea whether you need to replace, restore or, uh, resurface the roof, um, at a very small, um, cost. It’s usually like 12 or 1300 bucks to have that done. Uh, there are state approved vendors to do it for, uh, through combines or whatever, you know, state portal you’re using for bids.

2:47:12 So I’m, I’m kind of confused why you haven’t taken the, the small amount of money to assess the damage of the roof. That’ll tell you the saturation levels of the installation. I I’m gonna just interrupt. It has been done. Infrared scans have already been done and they’ll be done again this summer. So they’ve already done just, just, i I thought it was in the presentation, but infrared scans have been done if that’s what you’re referring To. You, you, okay. So you performed the scans, I’m Sorry, what? You have performed scans on the roof. Our, our schematic designer RDA performed infrared scans, if that’s the same thing it was you’re Referring to and you, and you still don’t know whether you need to replace it, restore it or resurface it. I, the speakers up here are horrible. I, sorry. That’s why I keep, sorry. You, you don’t know what type of construction you need to do for the roof yet. So it’s one of the three options. Well, there’s, there’s only three options

2:47:59 Until somebody comes up with a fourth. Right, but you, so you don’t know if you need to replace the roof or not. I think they’re gonna bid it as an alt. You can either bid it as a replace, recover or restore and get Those three options are significantly different prices. Correct. And that’s why we’re asking for the 8.6. We may not borrow the full 8.6. Okay, thank you. Yes. I mean, an 8.6 is a borrowing authorization. We’re not borrowing it until we get the bids in. Um, Alicia will attest to that. Uh, the other point that gentlemen over here made for me is, uh, on the private side, you don’t have to deal with prevailing wage. We are required to pay prevailing wage, which is usually union rate work. So thank You Mr. Buuba.

2:48:44 I thank you Jack Buuba five Palmer Road. Um, I’ve made this point in the paper several times. I agree with all the horror stories, how bad it is here, but I think it’s really important to point out that the people who have brought you this horror story are this school committee who have demonstrated through their leader tonight who’s telling us about the project is really doesn’t understand the project, and now we’re gonna give them millions and millions of dollars to do something that it’s pretty clear to me that they actually haven’t figured this out yet. And so I think we should fix the roof. I think we should fix the air conditioning. I just think we need to get some people who can do it. Right. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Uba. Last speaker over here, please.

2:49:31 Name and address. Yeah, Sorry. John Ville, 20 Stanley Road. Um, so obviously I have to bend down like Dylan over here. I I I, I fundamentally agree that we need to fix the roof. I I just wish we could take a higher level of responsibility how we got here in the first place. So it sounds like a lot of people in this community want to get more involved. And we came to this meeting to get more involved. I think we need to get more involved on issues like this. So we get these projects done right so that kids never get leaked on again. As a, as a father of a, a rising eighth grader going into ninth grade, it’s completely unacceptable to me that the kids are gonna get mold going to our school districts. So we gotta repair our buildings, we gotta take care of our buildings and we gotta hire smart people so this doesn’t happen again. That’s all I have to say.

2:50:16 Thank you. Okay, we’re going to the vote on article 34 Marblehead High School Roof and HVAC system. Uh, if you favor the article, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts now.

2:50:53 Yes. Show the number.

2:51:08 Yeah. Yes.

2:51:12 You know What I mean? Yes, I do know what you mean. Yes. Even though I can’t speak it,

2:51:27 Know that.

2:51:32 Yes.

2:51:40 Hold those clickers up,

2:51:57 please don’t everybody leave because I’d like to get through one more article tonight.

2:52:20 This is gonna meet, need to be a two thirds vote because of the borrowing.

2:52:34 Good job.

2:53:34 That’s probably about it. Okay, here we go.

2:53:44 Article 34 passes, 804 votes to 283 votes.

2:53:55 Thank you. So if, if we get through Article 33, then we can start at the beginning tomorrow night.

2:54:04 So Article 33 is Mary Alley building HVAC system. The motion’s gonna be up on the screen. The, the article is moved. Do I have a second? Thank you very much. Uh, speaker Steven Cummings, our building commissioner.

2:54:35 Good evening. Thank you for your patience. I will make this as brief as possible. Quiet please. So for the Mary Alley improvements in HVAC system, I have with me Steve Cummings, our new building commissioner, who will be managing this project. Uh, we’re asking for an authorization of $5,750,000. The actual project cost is 6,230,000. We have a previous authorized and un issued borrowing of 480,000 that has not been borrowed yet. For the Mary Alley roof. That’s what brings it down to five seven 5 million. In addition, the sustainability coordinator will be applying for a 250,088 grant so that we can put in an elevator in 2 88 bathrooms downstairs.

2:55:23 This is what our existing building looks like. So you can see the roof. There is some hazardous material that’s been identified at the roof and throughout the existing building.

2:55:32 The existing elevator is not in service. Existing drinking fountain requires a DA modifications. Um, we would like to make this a fully a DA building. This includes railings, this includes having meetings there that’s fully a DA accessible.

2:55:49 We had three options as well. We went with option three. I know it’s very hard to see. It’s a VAR it system with heat recovery.

2:56:01 We have our project schedule, which was our feasibility study that was finished not too long ago in April. Taming our debt override vote in June. Design phase to happen in the summer bidding contract award span of 2026. And construction assumes a phased approach so that we wouldn’t have to disrupt too many operations. We would do it in phases so we could move people throughout the building instead of having to go and relocate people Again. I wanted to highlight the tax impact, um, that it’s a net savings on the bill for the Mary Alley HVAC With $62 on the average single family home cost and a tax bill impact

2:56:47 of $49 on the median single family home. I also put up on the side the select board policies to be less than 15% of general fund revenue, and we’d be at 9.94%. And debt service as a percentage of the tax levy is 12.35%, which is in line with the last five years.

2:57:08 This is a chart of Article 33 and 34 debt impact. So it’s showing the current in Orange, Mary, Allen Blue, and the Medford High School, I’m sorry, Marblehead High School that you just voted In green. Here’s the current debt proposal. The proposed debt and proposed outstanding authorized and UN issued. So the orange was at 11 million. If We borrowed everything according to what’s outstanding and on issue the green, we’d be at 10.8. So that’s what that slight net savings of the five and six. And as you can see, there’s the decline. So what we’re doing is we’re monitoring the debt service and as debt falls off is when we add new debt service. What’s wonderful is that last town meeting, you adopted a new capital planning committee,

2:57:53 which is looking at any and all projects that are a million dollars and over in addition to our standard annual capital plan. Um, some issues I’ll highlight from being in that building myself is my concern was a lot of people in the building, including myself, we use space heaters because our HVAC heat does not work. We also, I found out recently don’t have a sprinkler system, which is even more frightening in our building. Um, I know from working there and working with a lot of the other employees that there are many, many updates that need to be done. I truly hope you’ll vote to support this article. Thank you.

2:58:37 The one add in is the Capital Planning Committee did vote in favor of this project, eight to zero And the high school as well. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you.

2:58:52 That’s me. Sorry, Steve, are you all set? Thank you. Um, we have one speaker, Mr. Michoud. My name is Jay Michoud. I live at 25 Ocean Avenue in heaven. Marblehead, uh, I’m in favor of this. I was in favor of the last one. I still have my clicker. Uh, this is for you, Mr. Moderator. Number one, I wanna compliment you for your bravery last night in what you did.

2:59:28 We need to stick to the topic, Mr. Mico. I shall. Okay. But I’m gonna ask you one question. Where are we meeting tomorrow night? And will we have a decent PA system? We’ll be meeting back here at 7:00 PM I hope that somebody can do something about this PA system. Maybe it’s because I’m old and my hearing is going, but I have had difficulty all night long. Li I know I’m way off subject, but maybe I’m the only one. I haven’t heard half of the, of the things. It’ll be top of my list. Promise. Thank you. Promise, sir. Promise. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. Thank You. Okay. Oh yes.

3:00:14 In the middle please. Name and address Larry Ard. 90 August Avenue. Um, the state has a program called Green Communities that thus far Marblehead has not elected to join in. Could you step up to the microphone for Mr. Show please? Thank you. Sure. Uh, how’s this? Thank you. Alright. The state, the state has a program called the Green Communities that provides funding for projects like this. Marblehead has thus far not filed an application to join the Green Communities program. There would be a substantial potential for offsetting some

3:01:02 of these costs if that were to occur. And I’d like to urge the, the town to move forward with the Green Communities Act application so that it’d be the opportunity to reduce the cost of this project and potentially the high school project as well. Thank you. Yeah, that Said, I have seen the mechanical systems at Mary Alley building and they’re terrible. So the, the work needs to be done, but I would encourage the town to try to further offset costs by joining Green communities. Thank you. Thank you. Alicia Benjamin, finance Director Town is working to join green communities and apply by June 30th this year.

3:01:52 Thank You, Alicia. One more speaker. Uh, Walter Casey, 16 Gerald Road. Excuse me. Um, I wonder, you know, you open up an old building like this and you’re not gonna find good stuff. So I wonder, have you considered just a new build and maybe frankly, a controlled burn?

3:02:28 I didn’t hear that. Okay. We’re gonna go to the vote on Article 33, Mary a Alley Building HVAC system. Uh, if you favor the article, use your green yes button. If you oppose, use the red no button. Three minute voting starts now.

3:03:03 Hold them up.

3:03:33 Can we have a little bit of order please? And please stay for, for my, my last motion to reconvene to tomorrow night. Just be a minute.

3:04:55 No, no. We’re done.

3:05:08 45 seconds

3:05:21 and we need you back tomorrow night to do the rest of the business, please.

3:05:32 20 seconds.

3:05:53 Okay. Article 33 passes 671 to 103 votes.

3:06:04 At this time, I would welcome a motion to reconvene to this same location, the Field House of Marblehead High School for tomorrow at 7:00 PM So moved, seconded. Second hand count. All in favor. Thank you. Thank you very much everybody.