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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-29 Annual Town Meeting MinutesANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School April 29, 2019 Performing Arts Center The meeting was called to order by the Moderator, Alan E. Foulds, at 7:33 PM, there being a quorum present. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was said by all. Motion made by the Select Board to take Article 21, 22 and 23 out of order Motion Carried ARTICLE 21: Motion made by the Select Board the Town vote to authorize the Select Board to acquire, by purchase or gift, a parcel of real property, consisting of thirteen acres, more or less, and shown on Reading's Tax Assessor's Map 34 as Parcel 1, for general municipal purposes on such terms as the Select Board shall deem to be in the best interests of the Town; and to transfer $25,000 from the Sale of Real Estate Fund to fund such purchase or acquisition. Backaround: The Town is in discussions to acquire the parcel described above and shown below. The parcel is surrounded on all sides by Conservation land in Timberneck Swamp, and the Conservation Committee expressed strong interest in adding this parcel to the Town's inventory of land. Further discussion is planned with the Select Board In Executive Session. The results of this discussion will not be available for the deadline for printing the Annual Town Meeting Warrant Report. Therefore, a supplemental handout created by Town staff for Articles 21, 22, and 23 to provide additional information concerning each of these Articles will be made to Town Meeting members and other Interested parties at least two weeks before Town Meeting, to meet all deadlines imposed by the Town Charter. Presentation given by: • Bob Lel-acheur - See Attached • Vanessa Alvarado Finance Committee Report - given by Erik Burkhart: At their meeting on April 29, 2019 the Finance Committee voted 5-0 to recommend this Article to Town Meeting. Ilp's, ANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center Bylaw Committee Report: No report Motion made by Elaine Webb, Precinct 1 to move the question 2/3rd Vote Required 145 in the affirmative 15 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members in Attendance Motion to Move Ouestion Carried 2/3rd Vote Required 152 In the affirmative 6 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members in Attendance Motion Carried April 29, 2019 ARTICLE 22: Motion made by the Select Board that the Town vote to authorize the Select Board to acquire, by purchase or gift, a parcel of real property, consisting of thirteen and 99/100 (13.99) acres, more or less, and shown on Reading's Tax Assessor's Map 35 as lot 133 and more particularly described as Parcel 2 in a deed to Dorothy M. Zanni, William R. Zanni and Marie F. Gagnon, Trustees of the Zanni Reading Trust u/d/t dated December 31, 2018 recorded in the Middlesex South District Registry of Deeds in Book 72124, Page 437; and as Lot 170-3 on a plan recorded with the Middlesex South District Registry of Deeds as Plan #49(2-3) of 1996, for general municipal purposes on such terms as the Select Board shall deem to be in the best interests of the Town; and to transfer $550,000 from the Sale of Real Estate Fund and $200,000 from the Reading Ice Arena account to fund such purchase or acquisition. Background: The Select Board held an Executive Session on February 13th to discuss strategy with respect to interests in real estate and the Town subsequently issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Acquisition of Real Property pursuant to M.G.L chapter 30B section 16. That RFP may be viewed at https:H/ w.readingma.gov/operations/procurement-office/pages/19-17-acquisition-of-real-property. Results from the RFP are due just before another Select Board Executive Session scheduled for March 26th. The results of the RFP and subsequent Select Board Executive Session meeting will not be available for the deadline for printing the Annual Town Meeting Warrant Report. Therefore, a supplemental handout created by Town staff for Articles 21, 22, and 23 to provide additional information concerning each of these Articles will be made available to Town Meeting members and other Interested parties at least two weeks before Town Meeting, to meet all Town Charter imposed deadlines. Presentation given by: • Bob Lel-acheur - See Attached • Vanessa Alvarado Finance Committee Report - aiven by Erik Burkhart: At their meeting on April 29, 2019 the Finance Committee voted 5-0 to recommend this Article to Town Meeting. Bylaw Committee Report: No report 21P, g, ANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School April 29, 2019 Performing Arts Center Motion made by Tony D'Arezzo, Precinct 2 to amend as follows: for general municipal purposes on such terms as the Select Board shall deem to be in the best interests of the Town; and to transfer $559,600 $400,000 from the Sale of Real Estate Fund and $200,000 from the Reading Ice Arena account to fund such purchase or acquisition. Motion made by Karl Weld, Precinct 7 to move the question 2/3rd Vote Required 142 in the affirmative 17 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members in Attendance Motion to Move Ouestion Carried 2/3rd Vote Required 148 in the affirmative 9 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members in Attendance Motion Carried as Presented ARTICLE 23: Motion made by the Select Board that the Town vote to authorize the Select Board to acquire, by purchase or gift, a parcel of real property, consisting of ten acres, more or less, and shown on Reading's Tax Assessor's Map 41 as Lot 59, for general municipal purposes on such terms as the Select Board shall deem to be in the best interests of the Town; and to transfer $25,000 from the Sale of Real Estate Fund to fund such purchase or acquisition. Background: The Town is In discussion to acquire the parcel described above and shown below. The parcel is in Cedar Swamp and is surrounded on all sides by Conservation land, Town owned land (the Reading Ice Arena on Symonds Way), land owned by the Reading Rifle & Revolver Club, and by Camp Curtis Guild. Further discussion is planned with the Select Board in Executive Session. olP.ce ANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center April 29, 2019 The results of this discussion and the Select Board's corresponding Executive Session discussions will not be available for the deadline for printing the Annual Town Meeting Warrant Report. Therefore, a supplemental handout created by Town staff for Articles 21, 22, and 23 to provide additional information concerning each of these Articles will be made available to Town Meeting members and other interested parties at least two weeks before Town Meeting, to meet all Town Charter imposed deadlines. Presentation given by: • Bob LeLacheur - See Attached • Vanessa Alvarado Finance Committee Report - given by Erik Burkhart: At their meeting on April 29, 2019 the Finance Committee voted 5-0 to recommend this Article to Town Meeting. Bylaw Committee Report: No report After some discussion a vote was taken 2/3rd Vote Required 153 in the affirmative 4 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members In Attendance Motion Carried ARTICLE 16: Motion made by the Select Board that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of four million dollars ($4,000,000) for the purpose of making security improvements to various Town and School Department buildings, Including the costs of consulting services, audits, plans, documents, cost estimates, bidding services and all related expenses incidental thereto and necessary in connection therewith, said sum to be expended by and under the direction of the Town Manager; and, for the purpose of meeting such appropriation, the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Select Board, is authorized to borrow said sum in accordance with M.G.L. Chapter 44, Section 7(1), or any other enabling authority; that the 41PaBe ANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center April 29, 2019 Select Board, School Committee, Town Manager, or any other agency or official of the Town, is authorized to apply for a grant or grants, to be used to defray the cost of all, or any part of, said project; and that the Town Manager is authorized to enter into any and all contracts and agreements as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Article. Any premium received upon the sale of any bonds or notes approved by this vote, less any such premium applied to the payment of the costs of issuance of such bonds or notes, may be applied to the payment of costs approved by this vote in accordance with M.G.L. Chapter 44, Section 20, thereby reducing the amount authorized to be borrowed to pay such costs by a like amount. Backaround: Respectfully, Town Meeting will receive far less information on this project than is typical. The details of the building security improvements are held very tightly among only a handful of employees including the Superintendent, School CFO, Town Manager, Facilities Director/Assistant Director and Police department. At present we have hired two firms, one an expert In municipal building security and the other an Owner's Project Manager (by good fortune the latter is the same OPM that oversaw the Library Building project). The detailed information is also very tightly held by these two parties. The documents produced for this project contains sensitive information relating to the security or safety of persons, buildings, and other critical Infrastructure within the Town of Reading. Because releasing these documents may significantly jeopardize the safety and security of the public, these documents are exempt from release pursuant to Exemption (n) of the Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.4, s.7(26)(n). Debt authorization is requested at this time in order to be able to proceed with different aspects of the project as needed. The Town's share of the project is planned to be the already approved $500,000 and an additional $4.0 million of debt. These amounts are incorporated in the FY20 budget that is presented to Town Meeting for approval. However, the motion on the floor may be for a larger amount, either in April 2019 or at some future Town Meeting, in order to add state grant funds to the project should they become available. This background is replicated from the Town Manager's Budget discussion about capital in the Shared Costs section. Building Security Improvements: Funding Appropriated Nezt Decision Step Funding Planned FV19Budget - November'18Town Meeting repurpose to April'19 Town design & project mgmt Meeting $4 mil/1OVr debt Oebt Authorization & $500,000 FY200udget in capital plan This topic will be reviewed in an Executive Session on April 11, 2019. The Select Board, School Committee, Board of Library Trustees and the Finance Committee have been invited to attend. As in the previous Executive Session, full details will not be shared for security reasons, but a lot of progress on process has been accomplished by town and school staff that will be reviewed. This building security capital project remains the highest priority of both the Superintendent and the Town Manager. November 2018 Town Meeting approved a change In the purpose of $500,000 already approved In FY19 to be shifted to School & Town building security design services, instead of starting with a renovation of the Dispatch Center. Allison Jenkins, our Town & School Procurement Officer, described the designer selection law M.G.L. chapter 7C, sections 44-57, to the elected boards. The Town Manager ANNUAL TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School April 29, 2019 Performing Arts Center adopted these on behalf of the Town Departments, and the School Committee has adopted these for the School Department. We are using this process for this project. • The change approved at November 2018 Town Meeting has allowed for the hiring of an Owners Project Manager and to assist in hiring a designer. As a reminder, projects estimated to over $1.5 million require public agencies to hire an OPM. • To date the Town advertised through the RFQ (request for qualifications) process facilitated by Facilities and Town Procurement with representation from the School Department on the selection committee. The contract was awarded to STV of Newton, Massachusetts. The OPM assigned is familiar with the Town of Reading and worked as the OPM on the Reading Public Library building project. • The Director of Facilities has had preliminary meetings with the OPM to discuss the scope of services as well as to review the prior work and report completed by TRC. • The next steps in the process are to advertise for design services, select a designer and then have a schematic design completed with a cost estimate. The target is to have this information available for November 2019 Town Meeting. Finance Committee Report - aiven by Erik Burkhart: At their meeting on April 29, 2019 the Finance Committee voted 5-0 to recommend this Article to Town Meeting. Bylaw Committee Report: No report Presentation given by: • Bob LeLacheur - See Attached • John Doherty - See Attached After some lengthy discussion a motion was made by Vanessa Alvarado, Select Board to table the subject matter. Counted Vote 81 in the affirmative 60 in the negative 164 Town Meeting Members in Attendance Motion to Table Carried On motion by Bill Brown, Precinct 8 it was voted that this Annual Town Meeting stand adjourned to meet at 7:30 PM at the Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center, on Thursday, May 2, 2019. Meeting adjourned at 9:55 PM with 164 Town Meeting Members in attendance. Motion Carried A true copy Attest: Laura A Gemme, CMC /CMMC Town Clerk 6 1 P aB• FY20 School Committee Budget Presentation Update on Override - continued ,..w.,.,.b,.n...1.- dlreFwd..wlatl.>o.m. P r... Iunc ..Im a w.mw. Vmq Cl.np.o ampe.q...n�s. n�ema.gyw •E4m.N.ry Nww(pwa.vanA............. Ewmnn- pnlw xn w..rv..q eu,m fill.tl k. v V �m wbtl w�-. 5/31/2022 Update on Override . 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