The April 4, 2022, Select Board meeting had a new look.  This camera angle showed most of the audience that gathered to participate in person. Chair Tina Hein excitedly opened the meeting at 7:00pm thanking those in attendance – a first in quite some time.

FY2023 Operating Budget & Capital Review & Deliberation

Mr. Dan MacLeod, Holliston Public Schools Technology, joined Superintendent Dr. Susan Kustka to present the School Committee’s Capital Budget request for the May Town Meeting.  The total expense is $275,000 for technology upgrades throughout the district.  The request is broken into three components outlined below.

Several components make up the network upgrade as listed below.

Further upgrades would be made to the phone system.  Several options are being explored to improve communication reliability.

While all schools have radios, not all school radios can communicate with all the other schools. By adding the proposed repeater, emergency communications would be maintained at all times.  The Town’s public safety experts support this need.

A second Capital request is to purchase cameras that would be installed in high traffic areas in an effort to curb vandalism.

The Board thanked the School Committee and Staff for their presentation and cooperation in building this year’s May Town Meeting Capital budget.

The School Committee will be preparing another Statement of Interest to be submitted by April 29, 2022.  The item will be discussed at this week’s School Committee meeting and reviewed by the Select Board before the submission deadline.

A question on the Capital request on Town Hall painting.  Facilities Manager James Keast, below right, answered that this was a phase of the upgrades to doors, window, soffits.  Now that those things are done, painting is next.

2022 Annual Town Meeting – Warrant Review & Deliberation; including, but not limited to:

• Governance Committee update on Warrant Article

Sam Tyler, above right, Chair of the Governance Committee (GC), let the Board know that there would not be any formal article presented by the GC at the May Town Meeting.  The article previously sponsored by the GC, will be changed to reflect a Report from the GC. The Committee’s work will continue as it focuses on the Town Administrator Special Act of 1994.

• Board of Assessors update on Warrant Articles

Board of Assessors members Peter Barbieri (far end of table), Jeff Marshall (to Peter’s right), and Principal Assessor Kevin Rudden (yellow shirt) were joined by Mary Greendale via Zoom to review the several Articles sponsored by the Board of Assessors.  Some of the Articles are recurring items at all Town Meetings.  Of special note is the Article that would, if approve, petition the State Legislature to grant means-tested exemption for Seniors to facilitate “aging in place.” 

Similar legislation has been proposed by other communities with successful passage.  If approved, this Article would be tried for 3-years with a town vote to determine if it is continued.

Another Article would raise the Personal Property Exemption threshold from $3,000 to $5,000.  This could have a positive effect on small businesses in Town.

A Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) is proposed by the Select Board to enter into a 20-year agreement with the developers of the private solar installation near the corner of Prentice and Marshall streets.  Such arrangements provide a reliable payment schedule for all involved with the funds going to local receipts.

7:45 P.M. Class II Dealership Public Hearing: The Car Experts d/b/a Holliston Motors

The Public Hearing was opened at 7:46.  Due to technical difficulties, the Hearing remained open while the petitioners were able to join the meeting. When the Hearing resumed, one of the business partners (below) answered questions from the Board.

The operators already have two locations in town, 567 Concord, and 439 Washington.  There has been a used auto dealer at the 455 Washington St. location for over a decade. 

Cars are bought and sold one at a time – no big car transports.  Most of the sales are conducted online.  No members of the public spoke during the Hearing.

At 8:13pm, the Board voted unanimously to issue the requested dealer license and close the Public Hearing.

Progress Update: DPW Facility Feasibility Study (Weston & Sampson)

David Steves and Jeff Alberti from the engineering firm Weston and Sampson provide the Board with an update on a feasibility study of DPW facilities that was commissioned by passage of Article 33 from May 2021 Annual Town Meeting.  They outlined their approach for the presentation below.

Enumerating the many duties and responsibilities – including the hundred miles of roadways and water mains – highlighted the importance of the Department of Public Works.  Public Works employees are now included as first responders to many emergencies as signified by the recently released banner (below).

Next was a review of the conditions at the existing DPW facilities (Arch St. and Central St.)  Below are photos taken during their site visits.

Mr. Steves and Mr. Alberti summarized the status of the current facilities below.

From Weston and Sampson’s work on about 100 such studies, they calculated that the necessary space to house all the functions, people, equipment, and storage would be about 45,000 square feet.  The table below illustrates how the proposed need in Holliston compares to other Massachusetts towns.

Following the space need, was a discussion of available space at Town-owned sites.  Three sites were examined: 1) Arch Street acreage, 2) Central Street acreage, and 3) a 76-acre parcel behind Pinecrest driving range and garden plots.

The pros and cons of each site were presented by Weston and Sampson. See below.

How much might a new adequate facility cost?  Below Mr. Steves and Mr. Alberti illustrated how construction costs are trending and what the total cost of a new facility might be.

The estimated total cost is shown below.

Every Cost / Benefit analysis has cost projections in dollars.  The benefits are often less visible / tangible.  Below are the areas that would likely be improved for the citizens, the DPW workers, and with the option of solar power, the environment.

The Board thanked Mr. Steves and Mr. Alberti for their candor.  Members of the Board made some requests for further details.  Members of the public weighed in with questions / comments:

Michelle Zeamer – Are there any development restrictions on the Prentice St. land? No

Stacey Raffi – Will the Prentice St. site negatively impact the golf course?  No

Cynthia Listewnik – How far away from abutters is the potential Prentice St. site.  At least 400-500 feet.

                                Were other Town-owned parcels examined. No

Jean Spera – As a Water Street resident she stated, “great report, great outcome”

Suzanne Adelman – Is there any historical / archeological impact in the Prentice Street site?  Will follow up with local experts.

Where will the access road(s) be? A few options are being explored.

Future public discussions are planned – but not yet scheduled – to gather input from the residents.

Warrants: The Board approved the weekly warrant totaling -> $2,380,905.75

Public Comment:

• Mr. Cronin:  Asked about extended recycling center hours (see below in Mr. Ahern’s comments)
• Mr. Sparrell:
  • Acknowledged and apologized that the recent issue of the monthly newspaper Holliston Local Town Pages contained the QR code to the closed Envisioning Future Holliston survey.  Activating that QR Code now will direct you to the committee’s page where you can sign up to be notified when the next survey opens.  (It certainly makes online news publishing an up-to-date resource – just sayin’.)
• Mrs. Hein:
  • Encouraged residents to consider joining the curbside composting service.   During April, the month of Earth Day, she wants to focus on an eco-friendly resource at each week’s Select Board meeting.  A press release from Sustainability Consultant Matt Zettek will be posted by the Holliston Reporter in the coming days.
• Public: None (although the public did comment on earlier agenda topics)

Comments from Town Administrator:  Mr. Ahern shared the following:

• Community Profile – Click here to view the 6-minute video. The professionally produced overview (literally by drone!) of Holliston is now posted on the Town website.  The Town owns ALL the recorded footage for future use by the Town and even local businesses.
• Second installment of Ask the TA on HCAT – View the promo here -> https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=714035933102636 You can send questions to AskTheTA@holliston.k12.ma.us to be answered in a future installment of Ask The TA.
• The Marshall Street Recycling Center has added dates in April and May to handle spring yard clean up:
  • Sundays, April 10th and 24th (Closed on Easter the 17^th)
  • Sundays, May 1st, 15th, 22nd and 29th (Closed on Mother’s Day the 8^th)
• Street / Sidewalk work in Mudville will begin on Monday, April 11^th.  Project notices will be delivered to Mudvillians in the coming days!

Board Business:  The Board took the following actions:

• Appointed, Eric Raffi and Elizabeth Greendale as Registrars with a term to expire April 20, 2025.
• Awarded the contract for a Feasibility Study of Wastewater Treatment Plant on Linden Street – to Lombardo Associates.  The contract cost is not to exceed $150,000 (ARPA funds previously approved).  A report is expected in October 2022.
• Signed the updated Annual Town Meeting notice including the time change (7:00 P.M. May 9, 2022)
• Awarded the contract for catch basin cleaning and debris removal to Brighter Horizons. The contract cost is $72,000.  Going forward this work will be done annually for a lower cost.

Other Business:

• An item on the earlier agenda was omitted. The Board returned to the Town Meeting discussion under “any other items of interest” and voted to waive attorney / client privilege on a confidential memo from Town Counsel Jay Talerman related to the Citizen Petition on the size of the Select Board.  The memo will be available to the Town Clerk and citizens.

The meeting adjourned at 9:38pm.