In attendance: Chair Tina Hein, Vice Chair Ben Sparrell, Clerk Damon Dimmick, Assistant Town Administrator Kathleen Buckley
Chair Hein opened with the following “good evening, Holliston, and welcome to the October 28, th 2024. Select Board meeting we are meeting tonight. This is the first time after a very successful town meeting last Monday night I would like to thank all those who turned out to vote. We had again great progress made for the town, passed 23 of the 24 articles, many of them quite significant. We won’t run through it all tonight. Of course we will talk about a few later on under agenda item Number 3, but really again wanted to acknowledge the success of last town meeting. Thank all those involved in preparing for it. Primarily Town Hall staff who do the lion’s share of the work, and then also thank everyone who attended to vote and those that watched online. The engagement is just so important to how we make good decisions here in Holliston.”
Jasper Hill Estates follow up on ADA accessibility of proposed sidewalk behind Town Hall
After a lengthy discussion, no action was taken by the Select Board pending information from Town Counsel and the Planning Board. Both parties agreed to reengage during the next Select Board meeting.
Advanced Life Support (ALS) Ambulance Service – Update from Chief Michael Cassidy and Assistant Chief Brian Kelley on initial month of ALS license
Chief Cassidy joined the SB at the table. During the October fall town meeting in 2021 article 8 authorized a fire and Ems organizational evaluation, which was an appropriation from town meeting for an outside consultant to be brought in to evaluate how the Department was operating, what services we were providing what services we could potentially provide in the future, or if things should be outsourced and that funding was approved by fall town meeting, and therefore the procurement process went forward, and we engaged the services of municipal resources, Inc. Also known as MRI. They did their due diligence during the winter of 21 into 22, and they brought their report to the board in May of 2022, and that was posted to the town’s website, and we determined who it is that was going to be responsible for some of the over 100 recommendations, and we started chipping away at those one of the major milestones of that MRI report was the hiring of someone to oversee the ambulance operations on a day-to-day basis. Someone who would be licensed and certified at the AMS level, and the board. In July 2023, we appointed the assistant fire chief, Brian Kelly, and he started in late August of 2023.
We talked about the process of where it was that we were going and what it would look like for us to seek and achieve AMS licensure here in Holliston, and, as I mentioned earlier, I was here on the 16th of September. At that point we were anticipating. It was going to be 2 weeks when we would get the license. We were thinking. September 30. There were some administrative red tape at the State level, but we did achieve the licensure by the end of that week, and by mid-morning on October 4, which was a Friday. We didn’t have a license in hand, which point we immediately went to the pharmacy at the hospital, obtained the order which we had already placed, and we’re just waiting for the license before we could take delivery of those medications, and as of one o’clock on October 4, we were equipped, and have all the necessary medications and equipment that we would need to be able to operate the Ms. Level, and within 15 min we had our 1st call, for which we were able to respond and transport treat and transport at the Ms. Level. There were several calls that afternoon that we were able to all accomplish at the MlS level.
Chief Cassidy also explained the difference between an intercept (where Holliston does not have the staff to handle a call and we pay another community) and mutual aid (when a crew from another town assists Holliston or Holliston helps another town (where no billing is incurred for either party).
Chief Cassidy also explained some of the ways they are handing training current staff to meet the ALS requirements and discussed some budget challenges.
The board congratulated Chief Cassidy on how far they have come with this process.
(Slides shown during meeting published below)
MBTA 3A filing with State House (Attorney General’s Office)
Follow up from the October 2024 fall town meeting of last Monday night. We have 3 items here. Some of them are status updates. Some of them require a little bit more conversation. So in terms of MBTA. 3 A filing with the State House. We need to submit some documentation to the Attorney General’s office. And, as I understand it, there’s 1 outstanding issue to complete that basically upload of information to the Ag’s office attorney General’s office. We have a map that will pull up on the screen if our tech support can find that again. I saw it earlier.
There was an amendment on the floor of town meeting that changed district, one which is the district that was identified up at the Ashland border. We are waiting for the town planner to do so, and as soon as that’s done it will go up to the Attorney General’s office, and we will be able to check off our piece of complying with the State law, which is incredibly positive news.
Town Manager Act Special Legislation filing with State House (via Rep. Arena-DeRosa)
State Representative Arean-DeRosas’s office will be presenting the approved article from town meeting to the legislature for them to take action on. I believe we can share the update, Kathleen. It was last week that it was sent to represent Representative Arena DeRosa’s office and we’re looking for passage by the session ending December 31.
With that in mind, SB has started the process necessary for the transition from TA to TM.
The board committed to changing the description of the job duties as well as the evaluation process and agreed they would investigate changes in SB meeting schedules since they may not be required weekly once TM is in place, which will likely be on a bi-weekly basis versus weekly.
Sewer Commission (3 members) Recruitment Process
A discussion occurred regarding how this three-member Commission would be handled and it was agreed that TA would prepare a draft for a future meeting and for communicating to the public what requirements are for participating in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Public Comment
Clerk Dimmick: Article 20. Which was the article concerning the ability of legal and non-voter residents of the town to participate with a little bit more freedom in the actual conversations that we have a town meeting. There were some interesting conversations that came out of that afterwards. I believe there was. One commentator pointed out that that particular piece of information was already well within the bounds of the authority of the Town Moderator. and I think that was a debate that I would have loved to have actually had. But there was an amendment on the floor. That kind of hijacked the conversation. I could feel the wrong term when that came on, because it was definitely postponed makes things a little bit more tricky. But I wanted to let my colleagues know that I intend fully to continue working with the citizen petitioner who brought this to our attention to try to find novel policy methods for pushing on this particular subject. I’ve been very forthright with her about the fact that we’re probably fellow travelers for quite some way along that road, and then at some point we may diverge.
I think it’s a laudable goal in general, and I will try to be creative and respectful with this Board’s time and try to find solutions that move us in the right direction. So just putting that on the table. I don’t intend to let that abate, but I will certainly take a gentle approach related to that. I think that what we saw at the town meeting is a really good example of how strong passions sometimes can undermine sensible changes, and I think that no one was ill intention. There were no bad players, but it’s 1 of those things where people could talk past each other very easily, even if they have a common direction in mind. I’m going to try my best to increase the circulation of information and get people aligned before the next time we have a conversation with them.
Public Comment
Chair Hein: Community Traffic Safety Awards were presented to Officer Alex Parent, Officer Charlie Grace, and Officer Chris Mustard at an event held on October 18th at Gillette stadium. I wanted to thank them for their dedication to addressing traffic safety. Here in Holliston we acutely know that traffic safety traffic management is a huge concern for residents, and the calls for police enforcement police involvement are nonstop, and these are 3 officers in particular, of many from the halls and police department,
On a more somber note, those that follow the news here in Holliston are aware that last week we lost somebody, Deola Fair. We lost her too soon, too young. Deola was a champion for equity and diversity. As a member of multiple local nonprofits and advocacy groups, she devoted much of her time to advancing these causes, especially with youth and families, and that is how we at the board know d-fair through those roles here in Holliston particularly, and we recognize her loss, and our condolences go out to her family and friends in this very difficult time.
Weekly Warrant:
Clerk Dimmick made a motion to pay the weekly warrant, 2nd by VC Sparrell, motion passed.
TA Comment
2024 Humanitarian Award – it was agreed that during the 300th it is not the best option to not award this during 2024. It was agreed that the date of the presentation of awards would be on December 16 at 6pm prior to the SB meeting.
I think there are a few announcements in the clerk’s thing that we can do based on the schedule. What comes next? But those are some. Here’s a few minor articles of interest just to have fall leaf pickup. December second, through December 6, th 2024. All bags of leaves must be at your curbside on your regularly scheduled trash and recycling day by 6 Am. Don’t miss it. There’s a lot of leaves.
Winter parking. Ban. No. On-street parking, November 1, 2024, through March 31, st 2025 from 1 am to 5 am. That is this Friday
Starting the weekend of November second, the recycling center will be open 2 days per week. Saturday, Sunday, through the month of January 2025,
Other Business
Welcome, Peter Barbieri up to the table for the 1st item here under Board business holiday decoration request. We want to do a display of Rudolph, the Red Nose reindeer characters Yukon, Cornelius Hermie, Rudolph Santa and Bumble. These are plywood figurines ranging from 2 and a half to 6 feet in height. Mr. Keyes has designated an area for this display which would be removed at the same time as the Holliston Lions holiday lights.
Motion made by Clerk Dimmick, 2nd by VC Sparrell, motion passed.
Motion to accept Minutes for September 9, 2024 SB Meeting – Motion made by Clerk Dimmick, 2nd by VC Sparrell, motion passed.
One day beer & Wine license for the Alcohol Enthusiast D/B/A Crafted for the Library on November 2, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for an Adult Book Fair
And
Request from the Fiends of the Library to waive the fee for the One Day license for the Adult Book Fair on November 2, 2024
Both motions made by Clerk Dimmick, 2nd by VC Sparrell, motions passed.
Board adjourned to executive session – Strategy with respect to Collective Bargaining Agreements (Holliston Police Association) and non-union personnel (Town Administrator)
Chief Cassidy Slides
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