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Home My WebLink About2022-09-13 Select Board MinutesO'�N OrH�i �� Town of Reading '(Linc IVLLJ rt, Meeting Minutes TOWN CLERK I, '' MA. ',N[OAMNAP -? b. Board - Committee - Commission - Council: 2122 OCT 12 Pry 1: 56 Select Board Date: 2022-09-13 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Select Board Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Mark Dockser, Carlo Bacci, Chris Haley, Jackie McCarthy, Karen Herrick Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Fidel Maltez, Mary Ellen O'Neill, Senator Lewis, Rep. Jones, Rep. Haggerty, Marriane Downing Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Executive Assistant Caitlin Nocella Topics of Discussion: This meeting was held in person and remote via Zoom. Mark Dockser called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Public Comment Mary Ellen O'Neill noted there is a business on Haven Street that has a camera with a live feed of the area. She feels it is unacceptable and needs to be taken down. State Legislation Visit Senator Lewis, Representative Jones, and Representative Haggerty came to visit the board and give updates from the state. Liaison Reports Bacci attended the Recreation meeting and noted the recreation department has a new administrator in the office, Ariel. Over 600 kids signed up for Saturday Night Lights program. Downtown Trick or Treat will be October 26i°. The School Committee held a meeting in regards to the Killam School building process. The Fall Street Faire was another success this year. Haley noted he also attended the School Committee meeting about Killam. The Fall Street Faire dunk tank raised $2,000. McCarthy noted the town recently did tobacco compliance checks at our local retailers and it went very well. There is a recovery and remembrance event taking place on September 281h on the common. There Page I 1 are upcoming covid and flu vaccine clinics going on around town. CPDC had discussions about Oakland Road at their last meeting. Herrick noted the Fall Street faire was awesome along with the September I3'^ ceremony. She has been working with the Chair of the Climate Advisory Committee on their polystyrene bylaw. There is an RMLD meeting on Thursday. She attended the Library Trustees meeting last night and noted their next program comes out soon. She will also hold an office hour on the 2& at the library. Dockser noted RECALC has a survey out that they are hoping to yield a lot of responses. The second RFP will be closing September W. Town Managers Report Maltez noted elections last week went great. We had a 25.3% turnout mostly due to mail in ballots. There will be a financial forum on September 21". He also noted there was a water tank project update that was in their packet. There will be 4 cell carriers on the new tank which is believed to help with cell service. Personnel Policies Haley read the hearing notice opening the hearing on amending the personnel policies. Human Resources Director Sean Donahue and Labor Counsel Jim Pender were available for any questions or concerns. The board has previously reviewed and discussed the proposed changes. There was no public comment. Haley moved to close the hearing regarding the personnel policies. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0vote. Haley moved to approve the proposed changes to the personnel policies as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. ARPA Funds The board has five requests for ARPA funds in front of them this evening. Marianne Downing, Chair of the RAAC, noted that the RAAC voted the following: 1. 8-0 for Birch Meadow Phase 1 2. 8-0 for YMCA Adaptive Swimming overseen by the Recreation Committee 3. 7-1 for Historical Commission 4. 8-0 for Conservation Commission 5. 8-0 for the Food Pantry McCarthy noted she will recuse herself from the vote regarding the YMCA as she is a part-time employee there. Haley moved to approve $1.5 Million in ARPA funds for Phase 1 of Birch Meadow as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. Page 1 2 Haley moved to approve $91,600 in ARPA funds for YMCA Adaptive Swimming overseen by the Recreation Committee as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 4-0-1 vote with McCarthy abstaining. Haley moved to approve $13,500 in ARPA funds for the Historical Commission as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. Haley moved to approve $22,500 in ARPA funds for the Conservation Commission as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. Haley moved to approve $46,200 in ARPA funds for the Reading Food Pantry as presented. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. November Town Meeting Warrant Preview Town Manager Maltez went through the warrant with the board. He noted some changes for FY23 include $80K for firearm replacement for the Police Department, $60K for Sturges tennis and basketball courts and $500K debt authorization for the Parker Middle School roof. The board then discussed article 20 in more detail. Article 20 is to add a new section to the Town's General Bylaws that would ban the use of polystyrene and disposable food service containers. Members Haley and Bacci felt this article is coming at a bad time with no outreach to the businesses beforehand. Haley specifically took issue with the fact this ban will only apply to our local downtown businesses and not affect big box stores and doesn't understand why. Herrick noted businesses have many other options to use for to -go containers while also noting polystyrene is not commonly used anymore anyway. Bacci suggested pushing this to April Town meeting so more outreach can be done with the businesses first. Discuss Capital Plan and Process Dockser noted that other communities do their capital plan and processing differently than we do and was interested in seeing if the board had any appetite to change the way we do it here in Reading. He noted other communities have a specific committee designated to putting together capital plans and they gather a lot more public input. McCarthy asked if this committee would be redundant to the Finance Committee to which Dockser noted no, it would focus solely on capital plans for the long term. RFI Responses and Steps for Cell Coverage Maltez noted we issued an RFI, a request for information. Allison Jenkins provided the results from the RFI. The first question we asked was are you interested in going on the water tower. The second question was are you interested in additional sites in Reading and the last question was if there were additional sites, where would they want them to be. We received responses from T -Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, US Wireless and Blue Sky Towers. Verizon noted they would be interested in a couple other sites around town as well. The answers to the RFI can be found in the Select Board packet on the town website. Page 1 3 The board noted they had been getting a few emails lately about the horrible cell service so they are hopeful these responses will be the starting point for carriers to provide more coverage in town. Select Board Retreat The board discussed scheduling another retreat. They settled on January due to their busy fall schedule which is rapidly approaching. Town Masterplan Dockser noted many years ago we did a master plan that was a 10-20 year vision with long term goals The board agreed this is a good idea and to ask staff on what has been done in the past and their opinions/ feedback. Future Agendas The board discussed future agendas and upcoming office hours. Minutes The board edited their previous meeting minutes. Haley moved to approve the meeting minutes from lune 25'h, 2022 as presented. The motion was seconded by Bacci and approved with a 5-0 vote. Haley moved to approve the meeting minutes from August 9'h, 2022 as amended. The motion was seconded by Bacci and approved with a 5-0 vote. Haley moved to approve the meeting minutes from August 301h, 2022 as amended. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. Haley moved to adjourn the meeting at 10:58 PM. The motion was seconded by Herrick and approved with a 5-0 vote. Documents Used: 2022-09-13 Select Board Packet Page 1 4