ok i'd like to call the meeting of the board of selectmen monday july twenty seventh two thousand and fifteen to order i'm sammy baghdadi the chair to my left is jim williams mark polow is stuck in traffic right now commuter traffic and he will be here shortly after that david calle our town administrator and phyllis marshall our assistant down administrator we we actually have a pretty busy busy agenda tonight  we have to public hearings one dealing with change of hours for movies on propel road and another for a beer and wine license for foodies which is in new hours for work by national grid at the bridge in belmont center safe grant award discussion an update on the grove street master plan and and after that we will be going into executive session to talk about pushing village and our conveyance of the status of our conveyance of the contre of the parking lot in in cushing square the municipal lot so what i suggest is why don't we go through our agenda we can begin and and then by the time we go into executive session we would have gone through the agenda so we don't have to open again to the public and keep people waiting here for for an hour while we do what we have to do so first matter any questions from town residents on topics not covered by the agenda ok we're off to a bit start ok next pavement management contract glen clancy contract far too fast and fifteen pavement management work going to talk about the details in terms of the winning bidder for basically this will allow us to execute the time contract so that we can  execute our payment management as executed in our capital plan and with that plan once you go through the detail who loeb it was in the streets and then we could talk a little bit about future coordination with recommendation this evening was by e h perkins construction that bid number was one point nine nine i'll read out one million nine hundred ninety three thousand two hundred fifty four dollars and ten cents i'd like to point out that that number actually represents roadwork and sewer and drain repair work as well and so that number further breaks down this is all in your memo by the way that further breaks down as the roadwork is one million eight hundred ninety eight thousand to twenty nine and ten cents the sewer work ninety five thousand and twenty five dollars so the sewer component is funded through the sewer enterprise fund the road component is funded through the annual  meeting funding as well as chapter ninety funds that we receive from the state and the list of roads that we're addressing under this contract is included in the meadow land we'll quickly just call the list so that people at home street to beach street richmond road richmond road from prospect street to lawrence lane somerset street from pleasant streets a shady brooklyn wellington lane from concord ave to somerset st warwick road common street winthrop road common streets a trial street garden street washington streets along hastings road common street to brentwood road elm street school street to pace and road cottage street school streets  emerson street concord avenue to louisa road bradley road gordon terrace to pearson road sheen road waverly street to gordon terrace concord avenue eastbound from common street to cottage street concord avenue west browns cottage street a common street ok now perkins we've worked with before correct have experience as we know that there are good contractor absolutely you know i think it's great there's there's about six hundred eighty seven thousand dollars difference between the high and low bed so that is certainly considerable just you know one broader question the work does not include any of the sidewalks right that's correct road and and sewer and drain work that's correct as you're aware mr chair the current policy for pain management is to focus on the paved road way the only deviation from that is on corners where accessible ramps are   at least i said that at the last meeting that you know in response to something raised by a town meeting member that it does make sense i think in certain instances that we look at the sidewalks as well we're working  management project requires coordination because you want to make sure that before we do a reconstruction re st now we're not going back to either put in new water pipes or if national grid is scheduled to do gas main replacement that they do that work i think the other component that will be added to that now will be now that we have a consistent allocation of sidewalk money of two hundred thousand dollars as you know the sidewalk money has been somewhat haphazard in some years it was an allocation based on maybe having to one time funds but there was one time fund to dry up and another significant allocation would not occur for a couple years so i think the plan would be is to have a consistent two hundred thousand dollars cation for sidewalks public works has a list of several hundred requests for sidewalk repair clearly they have prioritized school roads but i think back to i said earlier what i think the plan will be in glen works with public works closely and with my push of the water superintendent basically the plan will be to try to coordinate gas me more water work payment management work and i will look at sidewalks to see how we can coordinate all these so that we basically are doing one stop shopping if you would but again i'm what i would also add is that sounds simple but in some cases the natural gas work for example it's outside our control it's trying to coordinate with the utility to schedule their work and they've they've got a significant amount of work they're trying to catch up with but we i think we do a good job of trying to do that and actually that's going to come up in the next request of the board is like i know about that coordination effort so i think we hear you that basically now that we have an allocation of sidewalk monies that is consistent we will try to fold that in so the basic you are trying to do all these utility works the same time and you know i understand that we may be a little late this year but ok because that this has been in the pipeline for quite a few months but certainly better coordination you know to do some of the sidewalk work at the same time that's needed right well we should look to we should be very clear example people home will be saying be with my street on lease next year and we get new sidewalks clearly two hundred thousand dollars does not go very far so we'll have to prioritize and sit and do an analysis to see if where the opportunities are where the coronation can happen that's most affected and you know i mean this is a more detailed discussion than another meeting but i i did want to make sure that that was still in  our minds jen you have anything i do i'd like to do one thing at a time and i think sometimes there's a misunderstanding in the general public about how things work and so just to review we have a paper management program that addresses in its entirety over to over time public ways that's correct and then we also have mentioned in the past that there are private ways that the town is not responsible for and that listing is available so people who residents who live on private ways cannot expect the town to be paving a private road that's the responsibility of the people who live who abut the road that's correct dollars yeah and that's something that you consider when you buy your house that you know that that's your responsibility to to build that road  the other thing is since i drive concord avenue virtually every day i notice that garage and was on concord avenue going east and west this summer and i think the rise in the national grid national grid yes and i think that's just a good example of the coordination that you all are doing because you know they had that street torn up from top to bottom just as you say from common the cottage cottage to comment and then now you're going to repay that and then go it's all done in the proper way so congratulations on that the coordination to working with the other thing is that i always like to ask even though we know that he h perkins is a good contractor for us what would account for a thirty percent difference in the i mean in your mind well i think in this case we've got an excellent bid and an excellent number from perkins on the sort of work historically the number has been very good on the sewer piece our contracts lately well i guess going back quite a ways now we've included that sewer and drain component when we felt that the repairs could be made by a contractor that also would be doing road work so for example if we know there's a piece of sewage main that requires a lining we do not include a section that requires lining in a road contract road contractors do not have the capacity to do that kind of work but they do have the ability to do the excavation of the point repair work that's often required as well perkins has historically given us a very good number on that on that type of repairs so that probably accounts for some of it land where would the middle bit have come in we do a bit at the right time and they've got a capacity in their schedule and that allows them to fill up that capacity then we can get a good price if you if you're over booked for work and you really don't need to work then you basically bid with the premium so basically i think where it all depends when you bid it what the individual vendors have for book a business and what what holes are trying to fill right but i remember from the belmont center construction project that you all were kind enough to give me the bids right and i went through and look from belmont center there there was not a landscaping quantity in a contract like there's there's no sidewalk obviously no curbing no lighting this is a very simplified bit it really is the items that are required to rebuild the road and do the construction work right so this is a lot this is a very simple bed to kind of plow through when you're looking at that comparing numbers but my point was that if you you know if whoever's bidding if one of their what do you call the person times for the p v c and then you know you can see that in the contract and then you know well ok that that's the difference in the bid right and i think it's also good for the public to know that what is it can you discuss the rule about how does it work in terms of selecting the lowest bid isn't that that's a requirement is not that's correct and unless it is unless you just cause to not make that selection we're obligated how does that work can you describe how that works you know a justification well or it is going to look bad how do you have quantities and you basically have specifications and basically you have to meet the minimum requirements of the specification terms of workmanship but also there's a price component that basically analyzes to basically make sure that the individual components are the lowest it comes up at the lowest price and so basically you're not doing a request for proposal you're doing a low bid contract that has certain quantity that any betters be pre qualified based on their prequalification system so we have to work with the state prior to this being advertised to submit to them the information that makes up what we are trying to achieve under this contract they in turn publish a list of contractors that would be pre qualified to be able to bid on this project so there's another layer of you know scratch test there was ok and then since i've said through and larry's presentation several times this year on the budget i have this two point seven million burned in my mind and one of the comments that she makes about the budget is that we really can't do more than two point seven million a year on on pavement because of what it would take to block the traffic and all of that and i think that's an important point that week several years ago we were asked to sort of try to put a dollar amount on the maximum amount of work that we thought first of all community development could sustain its terms of being able to adequately inspected oversee work and then also you know how much of an impact could the town itself sustain a four square miles in terms of being impacted by construction  o we try to live within those parameters for pavement management you know the reality is in the year two thousand and fifteen with propellor road under construction with belmont center under construction with everything else that's going on around the town i think that you can't go very far in belmont these days without encountering some kind of inconvenience and so if that were the test in and of itself i would say that we've exceeded what the idea was behind that two point seven but there were other factors and there was welfare ok i just wanted to mention that and then this is the final question and i know you regret asking me but with regard to the seven hundred thousand that's not going to be spent now and in light of the fact that you know we're still doing the same number of streets that we planned which is it is it possible to add more streets this year or it's not something that you would recommend and if we don't do that what are we going to do with the seven hundred thousand dollars i can tell you that there is not seven hundred thousand dollars ok i mean you're doing the simple math and i appreciate that but the reality is that the pavement management funds that we get annually covers a lot more than just construction it covers the engineering design it covers the police details it covers a lot of other things other than actual construction yeah ok soft costs and so as i sit here jim right now i can tell you that with with this in my pavement manage ok and then also any funds that may not be expended to get to rollover right so basically because their capital funds or state grant funds which actually are allocated on a reimbursement basis you don't lose the money so work and war and drain construction the amount of the contract being one million nine hundred ninety three thousand two hundred fifty four dollars and ten cents i make that motion second all in favor ok i'll try to be more specific and no no it's ok ok remember i'm the lawyer spring into the summer but i just want to digress for a quick moment and recognize the effort that national grid has put forth for the town of belmont trying to get the gas work done on all of the roads that we want to reconstruct it's been a difficult task for them they right now have three crews working in town most of the time it's two they've been able to steal a crew from lake street to do a little bit of work in town for us there they're trying to get enough ahead of us so that we can get some meaningful work done this year  we're trying to coordinate caught a treat for example because of the opening of the pool recognizing that cottage in concord and when you're on the slate to be reconstructed so we're trying to manage sort of the scheduling of all of this  the work at the at the end of pass which is the request that's before you tonight is made necessary because all of the work that they've done so far in belmont center up concord ave and all the work that they've done on cod street none of that can be activated until they kicked everything together under the bridge the reason that it's taken so long for them to get to the bridge is because they ran into the same licensing complications that we ran into from the end bta and from keyless the people who were on the commuter  so that finally broke for them last week and they have been waiting for this for a while and once they got their go ahead they mediately made plans to get this work done without realizing that they were going to leave approval from the board of selectmen and really i was in the right place at the right time and when i realized how all of this was progressing i quickly picked up the phone and called fellas quickly put this memo together had a conversation with sammy and here i am this evening sort of carrying the water for a national grid but i guess i want to stress a couple of things one it really is important that they get this work done sooner rather than later because this is the linchpin that's going to tie everything together on concord avenue and cottage street also we preemptively last week friday morning  police department put out an e nine one one notification to a large neighborhood around the underpass letting people know that you know if everything went well tonight that national grid would be working tomorrow night and then into friday night so i think that they're hoping it's going to be a four day i think i notice actually had five days to build in a buffer there but national grid figures that the work is going to be four days i only received one call back on that  one one is from a resident who does a lot of traveling at night around visiting people and just wanted to make sure she wasn't going to be detoured from getting under the bridge the answer to that is is that there is no intention at this point of blocking the bridge the work is going to be done in and on one half of the bridge so the other travel lane will remain open there is still they plan to begin work at eight o'clock at night and so there's still m b t a bus service that has to be accounted for as well as any of the traffic that still remains from people visiting the center and so all of that will be managed through the belmont police department police details that will be on site what else can i say the sparks going to begin tomorrow evening with the approval of the board  what i would imagine it's going to be probably around four o'clock four thirty that there would be there would be a lot of there before the morning commute because because of the location that they're working condition i'm just trying to understand the impact of the residential neighborhood yet underneath the bridge maybe less so than i don't know as it directly under the bridge it is and that's why the night's work which perhaps provide some buffer to that although they'll be noise i'm residential buffer around the work site to make sure people were informed it's just with traffic and that being the choke point it's just really isn't practical to do that where in the day traffic as bad as it is right it would be impossible right is it isn't it also the same residential area that will benefit from having a national grid in the space and maybe a stretch  maybe a stretch of gas was gas but you know i mean there's there's some validity to that i mean in general when you look at the distribution system town wide i mean yes i certainly i think there's a benefit at some point to what degree the benefit is that condition on this street opening permit is that they have a detail officer there to make sure the traffic is managed whatever traffic you'd find overnight to get the work on concord ave in cardiff street complete i can't get a crew from national grid over to elm street which is a street that i need to get done this year until we get them to button up cottage street and they can't button up cottage until this piece is that there's a domino effect here it's terrible i am should also point out that we have thirteen streets that we're targeting for f y sixteen national grid wants to do main work on ten of them ok good and they can't get there they're not they can't finish the f y fifteen main work yet and we've already queued up ten streets for f y sixteen so we are where we are trying to manage a log jam here ok do we do manage it in a way that will not impact traffic in the manager in a way to get the work done as quickly as possible david if i could just ask me i can recall that when we were doing center  call the police department so just understand that that might take place will make sure the coordination of the people doing the work with the police well there's your contact number right the benefit we have here is before the water main and gas main work that occurred in belmont so no one on for weeks and months this is literally days so i don't know if anyone does complain we know these give them the good news using you know i know that can't be tolerated now and you know what and that's something that we can make clear to the detail officer they can control that are they can they can manage that when they're on site with that crew ok do i hear a motion and so is it do we want to just be specific about the i  whether the incentives for mean do we keep it open ended and i actually did not declare in my memo the hours i know from being involved that they intend to start at eight p m i don't recall if there was a time on the back end of that range once again i know they're going to want to be i don't know as we don't want to go until seven o'clock and have a large him in the senate i mean don't we want to try to restrict the number of hours they were i would say that five or five thirty is a reasonable hour for them to be gone ahead of the work tomorrow night yeah i actually went on the lam and instructed that the nine one one go out in anticipation that we would grant disapproval just to provide as much maximum notice as possible you know with the idea that if we didn't approve then we would you know that that would be the lesser evil to send out a notice saying that the work's not being done so ok thank you thank you ok next item on our agenda is safe grant award mr chair of the cambridge savings bank has made a donation to the town of five thousand dollars which will allow the fire department to continue to do their student awareness of  fire education safe program and this will allow the fire department to go to elementary schools and basically educate children on various fire safety matters ok so we are doing our action here is five thousand dollars for the fire department student awareness of fire education program be accepted by the board of selectmen and that is a very good well detailed motion  idea actually so that i do ok next grove street master plan so this is not an item that we're going to take specific action on tonight but  you know as you may be aware this is an effort that began under and the role haas and that was to try to create a master playground plan for broad street and that was in reaction initially in reaction to the baseball pages yet baseball batting cages and it made i think we talked about the master plan is not meant to provide absolute details that have components or the project moves forward you know a substantial way there during the design process some of the details that were talked about get flushed out in terms of specifics so again a master plan is not a final design it's a concept basically of of what is possum well what we are doing tonight is transmitting this to the  board which then we will transmit to the recommendation as we said at our last meeting and basically that will allow the wreck commission to basically have further conversations within the rock commission and within the public as well as for the board to do the same and basically come up with future recommendations either in terms of concepts or phasing or funding this process began in march of two thousand and fifteen there  soccer fields tennis courts or sliding hill and basically basically added additional walking past within the grove street playground option two was more expansive and basically had more configuration of the fields and basically was more aggressive in terms of its concepts we had a public meeting and basically overall it was the consensus that option one with revisions with the walking past that initially we're going through that with you throughout the open space area basically were not perceived to be desirable in those who are scaled back so basically we ended up with a revised option one that was presented to the public in june we also at that time itemize the specific tasks so that we we could have a phasing mechanism so that clearly  total cost estimate is a million six almost so clearly it is a based upon the revised option one so we basically asked the consultant to do a phasing plan just so that our last meeting in addition to talking about the different components there was additional conversations of maybe a sub phase if you would about looking at the exterior fences taking a look at what kind of portable fences might be available on to the field baseball fields they're basically in the off seasons they could be removed and basically would open up that space for a majority of the calendar calendar year we talked about maybe redefining  parking spaces or taking a look at that and basically looking at the batting thomas i think so all those components were incorporated in the phasing but then we had a sort of a specific question about what the breath and scope of the project could be again there were people at the meeting who like the entire plant there were people who said we don't want anything to happen at a grocery playground and then there was sort of some shades in between so i think this is a launching point it's as the rec commission to basically get input from residents and get their feedback because again it does have implications in terms of our programming at the at the grocery playground so that's why we've transmitted to board to sort of get the ball rolling to  continue the process continue to get input from the public to basically receive more feedback and let me let me just say a couple of things one misconception that direct connection recognition can begin this work without the approval of the board of selectmen that's not true ok so the next step would be for us to to hold a working session and look at some of these of improvements and approve them as the par commissioners it is not the case that just because we went through the series of forums that the record commission can can begin doing the work number one number two you know this is a plan that's really evolved you know i regard this final plan is an attempt to make it look less urban there were more walking paths in between the fields that were removed the other significant thing that came out of this exercise is that any batting cages would be temporary and would be easily removable so they're not going to be fixtures that will be visible to people who enjoy the park you know twelve months a year they would they would be limited during the baseball season and even then they are down in the top dog or fee so so with some proper landscaping you know hopefully they're impactful we minimize be minimized the other thing is there are currently some fences around the baseball fields to contain where the ball skull another idea that came out of this is those fences can be temporary toes so they can be removed at the end of the baseball season to to go to your point where we could agree to one point six million dollars from the tree if i could just get clarification from you do because it is option one generally been agreed to by all parties or we're still working through that i think we're going to work through that because i think there was a lot of conversation which i thank you yeah i think i think the idea was i mean you know understanding that one point six million is a lot of money i think at least my recommendation you know would be that maybe we would do the improvements in phases we don't have to do them all necessarily in the same fiscal year and we can you know certainly the baseball people have raised some funds for some of the improvements in the batting cages that you know maybe we can look on to spend on a park excuse me it's a lot to say i know i'm one parks you know even the side nearest faces and i'm not saying i'm against it i think we need to consider this even the idea of phases for one thank you i had several questions of i may one is this this report is the report that was produced as a result of the money that was approved two thousand and fifteen two thousand and fourteen was of thirty thousand thirty thousand dollars yes and then as i remember one of the questions around doing that and it was a this board in essence we're talking about you know i think this workers is good and you know i think it's nice to prove street but since we're talking about the recommendations undertaking a review put that in cages and you know they needed a process which which initially never really was you know no process this field has been used for baseball on the field and it just made sense and you notice none of the uses have changed you know the tennis courts are still there when one plan called for the removal of two with the tennis courts  before and residents were very much you know against that same plan called for i believe a forty car parking lot within the field to help alleviate parking within the residential areas and that was very strongly you know opposed so this is this is largely the same failed certainly the fencing around the field is a mess it's god knows how many years old and needs improvement and probably you know the most one of the most at least significant costs that the county would have to look at is this notion of this walking path around the perimeter with  exercise stations and that's you know that's going to be a significant cost and that's something we would have to certainly look at and and address and in more detail so it is the idea of having a plan for all of the parts not under consideration is that you know as mark says and i'm not arguing the point that as mark says a million six or so there's a lot of money for one park and i kind of like the playgroup during the summer months and there's a lot of families with kids and second soccer taking place throughout the entire community so let's say we ignore grocery but i think a broader view of or situation i think is w we can direct as the board the recreation commission perhaps to look at those things because i think it's it's kind of the same as the pavement management you know it's it's it's a better way to manage not just you know you know to residents use parks that are near their homes and we have a number of parks throughout the community that probably need aspects of repair ok fair enough and certainly the residents have been speaking at at the forums and i think when we roll our sleeves and get into this in more detail that would be the appropriate time to have more resident and put in the meantime ok what i would suggest is there are some various funding sources that could be available that that we could look at and you know understanding that the whole price tag is one point six if we were to break that  you know given that we have some private funding sources and then possibly c p a maybe an alternative for some of these for why don't we try to come up with some kind of phasing plan that we would consider understanding the wouldn't do all the work at one time at and and certainly this whole discussion of how this fits in with other parts is a fair point we can agree with you there's many of us that can agree with you more about looking at an overall plan for the town and maybe scaling back a little bit and really looking at the town as a whole and i think that is the most i think many would agree that's the most efficient way to move forward  so two very quick points one is so we are to assume that the master plan that has been prepared is really a master vision of sorts and then a a real work plan implementation plan to give it a different name will be prepared over the next x number of months working with the recognition and so forth so that there is a plan i just want to make sure that the community understands the process oh this is a concept plan ok that's a that's a and yes their ideas ok we've committed to do you know sit down and look at it and see how we can implement it be able various aspects of the plan but certainly certainly there will be more opportunity for discussion ok and can we also assume or should is there the understanding that let's say there's a component of the park where the funds are currently available is there not going to be any further work done at the project at the park new capital projects for example until there is a final plan prepared  with all of the elements listed and the staging as you mentioned earlier because some of the clearly there is the interests to perhaps submit a grant for the c p a funding for example but there's other funds that are available for some of the projects that have been outlined and what we're what the residents in the neighborhood are trying to understand is will there be another full plan that will be prepared prior to any outside funding be permitted to do work in the park in the next six months year or eighteen months is my question makes sense i'm not sure i understand if we were to do things like this parameter pass i think you need more detail planned so if so if if baseball wanted to put in the batting cage soon yes is that something that is considered a project that's moving forward because the funds may be available for it now or is there going to be another process where there's a complete plan prepared that the community can take a look at and say ok these are the things that have been approved  you know i if i may i think we have a concept plan and yes that was the purpose of the whole exercise and paying thirty thousand dollars yes to two activity was ok and i think that's something that was at least from what i've seen a result of considerable you know community import and resident input so i think that's something we would work off of rather than go and invent the process you know from the beginning and you know part of our challenge and discussion is going to be you know what aspects is there funding for you know what aspects are we going to address first you know with the idea that we are moving in this direction will everything get done i don't know ok i think that's a discussion that we need to have as a board of selectmen with the recreation mission and and certainly you know open to resident import you know i'm sorry jim i think madonna maybe is saying is because just this whole thing grew out of the request to put in batting cages and i'm not trying to put words in your trying to read between the lines here perhaps the neighborhood concern would be that ok we did this plan and put in the batting cages and were done so i don't think that's the i know you're all that i'm here you know so that is over here we do this plan to reach out to the community we got this wonderful concept when the board decides not to move fo the yeah i mean i think that what i think the neighborhood is first off i want to just take a step back that the neighborhood is very excited about improvements to the park and right now the even the changing the of the perimeter fencing which in all of the parks needs to be some review but this is the this is a start and i hope that the grove street park in the plan can be a template for looking at some of the other properties in town so that's great but i think what we are concerned about is that we would like to make sure there is that there is a working plan before we before we're going forward on any capital and capital investments in the park be it privately funded or town or c p a fund it will be more does that that's a question ok thank you ye s from what i know about it working in where you are asking that in terms of a construction terminology a defined term or was it just it just well let's say i think the c p a there is a defined term working plan ok in the construction field where you move from concept to you know what level to work thank you all thank you for the update david ok next moving on review of an application from belmont ice cream l l c the v a moseys to change the store hours ok off would you like to tell us you are right now your hours are from eleven a m to eleven p m and you're requesting that we change your common fix your lawyers license so that you expand your hours of operation from to begin at six a m to eleven p m presumably to serve breakfast the stores opened about two and a half years ago i was the old brigham's as everybody's pretty much aware of well we took all we i think we cleaned it up pretty nice family atmosphere in there the problem with the businesses it's a great business in may june july and august is just a really rough business in october november december and january and february and  what we're trying to do is incorporate a breakfast type menu there in the morning it seems like the town has a need of that we've had a lot of iraq people who patronize us speak to us about g two but you don't serve breakfast to buy you don't serve coffee we do serve coffee but it's at eleven o'clock in the morning so in time so the idea is to try to go out the business really needs to survive because those months during the winter like this past went to especially as it's a real tough it's a it's a tough be expanding no ok just offering an additional that's correct service ok and the other thing i think i hear you saying is that this is something you feel like you need to survive and that location hey you know excite happens and i happen to be in a landscape construction snow removal business so i think i went to like the past what the sort of helps us out to able to transfer of funds from one business to another but basically the businesses there is a tough business and the people that had it before me experience the same thing so the business the great business during the warm months but it's a tough business as you know in the wintertime that's really about looking to do use expand on the changes you have to make internally to prepare breakfast i mean obviously the footprint won't change but you currently have a st point because we don't have any we don't have the capabilities of doing that and the requirements for the board of health would be an overhead fan and a ventilation system and a fire suppression system and in the building so we would take out a an old ice cream case that is a dated back in the one nine hundred twenty s that was originally there that we try to really capture late and we take that out probably decrease our ice cream capabilities a little bit so we could have more room for preparation of food and a little modifications with with respect to dishwashers and those kind of things and a food prep the area that we don't currently have several pretty a decent lunch in menu at this point and we rap now that now let me ask you the hard question and i know there is jim i think the chair of the board of health might have some yet now we're going to open it on this point my question is david taking the first appropriate step to see if it's even possible to operate the business but there's still several steps that would need to be made including formal plans you know that would need to be submitted so i just i want to make it clear that i presumably brigham's with burgers and they had and so we're being very very strict as far as what's being put into our sewer system something mr clancy i know is very happy about and so we would need to see very clearly exactly what would be generated and what would be leaving the building and it is possible and again i'm speaking i pathetic hours on location on parking anything like that it's purely is it something that can be safely put into the building i mean obviously though you fire department also would have to come into play because there's not going to be more cooking and you know that's the type of thing that the board of health coordinates with the fire department whenever a new have on the community and the residential area you know starbucks tried to locate next door to you know and i know before the zoning board there was a lot of a lot of controversy  there's no starbucks going and there's absolutely no starbucks going at all ok and do you see any impact on parking and well timetable from when i start serving ice cream and lunch it after eleven thirty so i think as i was assessed and i think the parking is very minimal in front of that location at this point  if there's no other questions i mean i'll take comments from people in the audience at your residence so please come to the mike identify yourself  in the present if movies were to install a kiosk related to certain branded items which are related to quick turnover and high volume output for example starbucks coffee this would bring an associated increase in traffic and demand for parking without a parking lot in the area there is simply not enough parking along propel road to accommodate such demand neighbors on all adjacent side streets belmont road pine street oak avenue would be severely negatively impacted from six am to eleven pm that seventeen hours a day seven days a week and i don't know of any other business that that puts that kind of demand on its neighbors furthermore there is a question of the impact on the future if morning hours are proved so that the location becomes a breakfast cafe with the exemptions to parking requirements which are currently granted to moseys be extended to future businesses on the site if so what protections are in place for neighbors from the high volume quick turnover coffee shops that might be interested in the site as was the case last summer when starbucks applied for a special permit from z b a to operate sixty eight apollo road and i refer you to the letter i sent to the board of selectmen that was that addressed in great detail the neighbors concerns from last summer to the c v a and it was cited by sixty six sixty seven neighbors so that's what my summary of my if i may i would share your concerns ok i think we don't want to starbucks there and i think that is you know that is clear we did look at the zoning you know our community director certainly i would want to be absolutely certain that this isn't a front for starbucks to come in or some other use that's going to significantly increase the intensity of what goes on there i think that w restaurant currently and so if the nature if they're going to serve things that are sit down to be eaten premises that stays in the restaurant if it ends up being something where the food is a high volume turnover you you take it out it's pastries it's coffee people don't sit down to eat doesn't that change the definition to a restaurant takeout which then it would require zoning different zoning and i don't think i don't think the intent is that this is a common we are deciding on a common virtual is license for this business in this business only it does not set precedent for future businesses the board of selectmen if any new business were to come in there if users were to leave that space they would have to apply for a comma victrolas license to do business however they decided to business it doesn't set precedent for anything this is specific to the business don't want to be mellow see doing business as movies that's it it stops and begins and ends there so the movies were to leave that space or close its business it does not grandfather anything whatsoever it would have to be a new business there were a command that we would consider and provide you know i just know that whatever the solutions we make are specific to this business in this business only again project what the future will hold but will consider if i'm sitting on the board member sitting here will consider whatever business decides to come in at that space kiosk you know i'm willing are you willing to i'm willing to suggest a condition that would prevent something like not sure what that means what is a kid and on the way in other words give a space for starbucks to operate with where  from standing in from the board of health we have had exactly zero complaints that it's actually an example of how a restaurant should be run in town and i for one as with my close proximity have found it to be a good neighbor he keeps the place clean i don't find trash in my area having said that i do feel that it's important to note by this board that this is a little unique because it does really center in the community that people are living throughout the perimeter on belmont street watertown as well as belmont oak avenue pine eccentric my proximity for instance is that my son has told me he can pick up our wife ike why having ice cream in the shop which is why we have you know for those of you i want to pass word but worry about it later so there is a certain there is going to be an input by by expanding the hours six a m is a little egregious especially on saturday and sunday and as mr muzzy only pointed out certainly places for breakfast for families is a great idea not a whole lot of families at six in the morning compromises i've always to find out when nobody leaves the table completely happy i would like to maybe propose it if you folks are considering allowing him to expand for breakfast that maybe seven seven thirty during the week and eight o'clock on the weekends to be a little more palatable because with my close proximity in particular i don't want to hear that type of traffic at six in the morning chappelle or road pretty much opens up at seven in the morning during the week i mean that's when commuters are coming  a six am also means five thirty because his workers are going to need to be there so that's the type of activity that i don't think we as neighbors really want to hear especially on a saturday and sunday morning on the other hand you know there needs to be something to be business friendly for this particular establishment that obviously has provided quite a bit for the town so if in fact you are considering expanding i would maybe propose a slight alteration of the hours that would be accommodating a little more for the neighborhood the only other thing i would ask that that would be put in is parking for the workers that early in the morning you know having somebody you know having two cars me i'm assuming they'll be two people most people have that two cars there all day long takes up two spots so maybe they would be you know he certainly should have to pay for parking but maybe not something directly in the area so that if in fact people are coming and going it's not as much of an input for parking finally i mean that's a business consideration that well it is except that you know again that the parking that you're talking about in this case does impact the people that are parking in front of their homes to drop groceries and candle kids and things like that and if you have a worker party in front of your house all day long because they're working or even from five thirty or six until noon that is an impact and to people that are living there you know i mean you're correct that he probably wouldn't want somebody parking entrepreneur in front of is what i'm saying is they should be parking on pine or parking on oki maybe that there's some accommodation that could be made for that and the only final thing if i could mr chairman is i happen to understand completely what you're talking about the passing of the victuals license because this is something that because this only extent this so that was my question does it's from six is it expires at the end of this calendar year so we could we obviously we would revisit this license in the context of whatever we do a little context of the business but if we do expand the hours luxury of that transfer in business from one business to the island but that business should stand on its own two feet it's really night it's not able to it doesn't tolerate november december january february at this point i would like to speak on one thing you know i've been a part of this and i base my application on just being a good neighbor for the town and i think if that's if that helps out and not walking away you know what we're trying to do have making a compromise and that we got out i would put that  would put that forward i would also like to hold that space i'd like to maybe rees's a debt at a future reference but speaking as jim said i'd hate to invest a lot of money and open up this business and in four months or six months  a poll because you know i don't have reason i came in here i tested the waters for two years i was had no experience in the food business we try to run a clean business i respect david's client kind words about the business and i would say i would suggest there is nothing that would suggest we do anything different with this i was operating in the additional breakfast i was a follow up if i may how long is your lease i believe i leases twelve regard to the hours is can you operate a business there twenty four hours a day i mean could we approve not not that he's asking for it i'm just curious about the extent of what it would have it's unclear to me whether we could we would never do that obviously  ks an eight am and we i think i wouldn't i probably would not be happy with that you know the bus the people stand out the bus at that hour bus a pretty active time i think of trying to capture the people trying to get a cup of coffee and come in and have a quick toasted bagel and things like that and i would suggest six am sense of you know the other breakfast spots in the town i think a compromise my position they're open at six am and i believe the starbucks  seeing you lose business of it opens at seven rather than i think two to compete in business with the other two people right down the street from me and have a different opening time it impacts your business  k any other comments from residents i just wondered when you just said ok the implication at first was bacon grilled sit down food which is what the restaurant definition is and now he what it's just been said was six a m that people want take their coffee and take their bagel to go which is a restaurant a takeout restaurant which is different from sit down restaurant to make that response and yes i think all restaurants you can go to legal seafood and get takeout at that their fine dining restaurant i primarily have the capabilities to see people in a warm atmosphere and a friendly atmosphere to serve the product inside but i certainly would not be opposed to some it came in and i got to go cup of coffee because they're trying to make they have a schedule that will do the same thing with ice cream right i want to take my ice cream and go eat it as i walk home ok potentially you're setting a precedent for other businesses in l b three i'll be three zoning to be open for such long extended periods of time boy i certainly would judge it on a case by case basis i don't think it's person  reach application separately in the state on its own as i would look at it and the other comments ok i mean i'll tell you what i'm going to recommend ok i mean i i think when i drive by the store during the summer evenings you know you're crowded there's a lot of families there they're eating ice cream they're sitting outside i think the store offers a certainly a good service you know for belmont residents families where community i drive by in the winter it is a ghost town you're empty ok and i i would hate to lose a business and risk that a starbucks may want to come in and take over the location you know at least you're a belmont man you're a belmont business and you do offer i think a good a good family  service and operation however i would want to put some restrictions to make sure that you can't bring starbucks in and have them operate a kiosk you know or a dunkin donuts for that matter to that that could  exactly what dr alpert said but maybe if you do open later on on weekends you know i think during the week we're all up you know where we're all up early and kids are out early you know  taking the boss and you know other breakfast boy dunkin donuts has incredibly long hours i mean they're they they open five six in the morning and they are open  know ten eleven at night you know you know as well and they are more of a of a high volume yeah high volume and so i would i would also impose a restriction personally this is you know and i understand this is annual ok so if if you know if we hear that you know five in the morning you know there's loud noises coming out of the restaurant th you know we could impose restrictions next time you can you come to renew but i know you've run a good operations i know it's a tough business and i know you know i the other thing going on in my mind is i wonder whether once you look at the hole in the grease traps and order suppression and everything else whether it's going to be cost effective you know for you but that's a business decision that you have to make everything we decide is subject to on the intent of the expansion of hours which would necessitate approval by the board of health and the fire department itself so that what that means is if you don't go through with the improvements that you plan to make your hours are back where they were then you're not making the investment and your hours are back to where they were i think in all due respect to this board i would i would prefer to come here and ask for a change rather than go board help and i ask him this is my plan i'm right implicated so you know i was sort of trying to get  that will align with the fire department but if i may have another question the point of information if if you have a sit down restaurant with a takeout capability and i take your point that people take the ice cream just want to add that crease traps are a plumbing code issue as well so there's a new development that's on sammy if you look at the definitions of restaurant takeout restaurant fast food restaurant you read the definitions as they are written and i was owning by law given the nature of the operation that exists today one could argue that any one of those definitions applies i think this is sort of the the gray process before the zoning board of appeals isn't always a straight forward clear cut path well it's probably true that if you sell ice cream which they do you know people obviously take it out right and so you could you could kind of think of that as as a takeout restaurant although i don't think people do but certainly if you're selling coffee and bagels you know even even a breakfast sandwich that somebody can take to the bus with them it becomes more and more takeout like than not unless takeout like and then my question is does that change the approval process is it is it a different approval process if it's doing both all i can suggest is that if you look at the wording of the definitions it speaks to what is the primary purpose of the use of well in this case it would be said well as i said if you look at the definition of takeout versus just straight restaurant versus fast food one could argue that any one of those definitions applies in this case but the challenge that we would have as a code force one official is to look at any change to that business in the future and determine whether or not there's been some kind of a shift of what the primary focus is of that business and then determine whether or not there's enough of a change from something that you've identified previously as the use of that business and whether or not that has triggered a need for a special permit through the zoning board of appeals not clear cut not extended to two six a m to eleven p m for purposes of operating the current moseys business ok only the board reserves the right to limit the hours of any other business operated at this location as the public good may require and no portion of the business shall be used to permit any third party like dunkin donuts or starbucks to prepare or sell their products from the premises  extended hours on saturdays and sundays weekends yes it's six a m to eleven p m monday through friday on weekends it would be seven a m to eleven p m and of course provided that you get board of health and fire department of new development and community development of england just indicated two to do the improvements the idea being that if you don't convert it you know if you don't other third party to prepare and market food from from the cancer under your license so you can't suck blood it during the week six a m to eleven p m saturdays and sundays from seven a to eleven p m and of course improvements are subject to the board of hell fire department and community development  all in favor ok congratulations ok next on our agenda affirmation of appointment of human resource director  david i'm going to let let you give an update but the new human resource director you know diane crimmins recently retired and the person you have gone out and posted the job and interviewed candidates and the candidate that you are recommending is just a couple order ok who was assistant town manager in bedford and also served as a human resources assistant at a lot of the human resource functions in bedford i've had a chance to meet her and she's you know a wonderful person either and excited to in publications like boston to boston dot com professional organizations like the massachusetts personnel directors association m m a basically we accept their resumes we do a resume screening we basically interview what we feel the top candidates if i can just use the forty seconds yes when when she interviewed with me and i also found her be a good choice someone coached her that i was interested in retirement and open  get her homework and i have to mention this i know i'm told not to mention this but i have to mention this because bedford there they have addressed their open situation in such a way that it will they will be clear and twenty so a little background my father victor sr started the company and nine hundred ninety eight and he started it with a passion for food and community today we see ourselves not only as a provider of food but also a gathering place and a community cornerstone where neighbors will often see each other and talk and various neighborhood organizations  be able to rally and exchange ideas we have committed ourselves to developing the best grocery store experience we possibly can at our site here in your town and we are very excited to become part of the community here some highlights we're looking forward to bringing to the store include a great selection of grocery items many local products as well as hard to find specialty items high quality produce and meat including a large selection of organic items as well as prime and age cuts of beef beyond items that have to be cooked we plan on having a large selection of prepared foods all made on site by our kitchen  staff we currently operate three locations in the boston area our original stores located in boston's historic south and neighborhood when we started in the south and we were a small convenience store and as the neighborhood developed we expanded and became what we are today which is a full service grocery store we had originally been looking for another location open in boston but with new interesting locations at this time we found our duxbury location which became our second store and i'd be lying if i told you the transition from boston to duxbury was easy it was not but it was at this location that we learned how to operate a suburban store as you can imagine many more large families with different needs than our boston customers our newest location is located in south boston affectionately called southie to the residence in our workers there the location was essentially abandoned when we took it over and it was completely rebuilt only the excess the outer shell exterior was was left behind it's an excellent example of our ability to take an old property and bring new life to it it's now one of the more attractive buildings in that part of the city so this is our most recent rendering of belmont and you know basically not the finished product but something working on it's a department that customers in this area have become accustomed to expecting in a grocery store and we feel it is critical for us to have in order to compete for business as a whole foods and fresh on that has to be on line as well as other stores in the area we are fully aware of craft beer sellers and vintages and look forward to working with them to make sure we're all successful here our intent is not to hurt anyone we hope to instead drive business to the center of belmont rather than away from it and lift sales for everybody not just food and justin will walk us through a little bit of the store layout sure you have to go over our department so that a pretty extensive organic offering a core may section of your normal dry goods groceries  here and wine as well obviously won't be selling tobacco or lotteries to do well with that list and i hope so so and across merchandising we're hoping to do some of it's going to be or is for proposing for it to be it's about four percent of the store five hundred square feet and it's located directly next to the cash office and be customer service desk so we'll be able to keep a close eye on what's going on in there  in addition to the normal check outs that area that are in that area so it's not sort of tucked away in a space that we want to be able to keep an eye on that's the primary objective of that so butter et here to a no craft policy so pending approval of this of this beer and wine license we will be setting up another meeting with suzanne and kate just to sort of verify what skews they are comfortable with us rotisserie chicken at whole foods in cambridge i have to pay seven and a half percent tax because it's prepared food is that is that true and on it well you know we have taxes the meals tax is their meals tax on prepared  is there's two taxes there's a portion of the meals tax goes to the state and we've approved the local option we get point seven five percent of the meals tax which yields about two hundred thousand dollars a year to look at but that's business as usual out of boston y to check somebody out who is purchasing beer and wine our system set up so that if if a beer and wine item goes through the registers or it sets off an alert the cashier and i know you've got you mentioned you've got two or three other stores we'll be spending your time primarily at the store certainly as we get open i'd be here ok most of my time we spent here from people in the audience yes please identify yourself and i so i'm diane malcolmson i live that nine pinehurst road in belmont and i would like to say that i would be enormously excited to have foodies come here i don't know your product but i do spend over four hundred dollars a week at whole foods so as you can imagine when i go in the door they love to see me coming they do not sell alcohol wait to take her picture so they don't sell alcohol it's the store next door that sells alcohol and i take a little bit of umbrage with the fact that you said that because shaw's does not either so we don't sell alcohol in our grocery stores and belmont and carolyn is somebody as you all will remember because i know you all live here and i do too that we did not allow alcohol selling stores in this town for ever this is the home of the john birch society this is a very conservative town and i would encourage you sir to remember what you learned when you went to the burbs because it's a small town and people talk carolyn is a well respected member of this community as are the people in spirit a gourmet they came in when this town said no alcohol they did a great job carolyn stand a great job she has another store in west concord she does much more business and west con and because i have two teenagers you can imagine i'm a steady customer of hers so carolyn works really hard and she's worked really hard with the women who own craft beer to make sure that they stay out of each other's way and it appears have not visited her company or her store is because you do you're not aware that carolyn sells many wines for between the ten and thirteen dollars range because she's listened to the belmont customer and it into which she has recently changed her pricing so that any six dollars six bottles are more a ten percent off and fifteen percent off now she did that to compete with cambridge because that's what they do so i'm just strongly recommending two things one is get to know carol please work with her because putting her out of business when she took a chance on this town five years ago and really thought seriously about quitting this town because we didn't support her she supported the churches she supported the auction i do a lot of fund raising she's been very generous to us and we will expect you to be as well but in addition to that there's a farmer's market and they also sell wine as you know so we just expect you to be a good neighbor and i'm encouraging you to speak to all of the businesses to make sure that we're really excited to have you and give you a portion of that four hundred dollars a week we want you here and also as you may recall macy's was i believe the largest taxpayer in the town for profit and we want you back but i also think it's important to make sure that you understand who the neighbors are you'll be impacting and to be sure we do this together as a community and not to alienate anybody who took a chance on us five years certainly having a i think an establishment like foodies and belmont center can be valuable and help for juvenile you know the center and you know you kind of serve as a magnet to that and of the center which is currently you know not not as robust as it could be i would recommend that we impose certain conditions and your license which i can go through certainly no lottery sales no tobacco product sales which you offered also no singles so no single cans of beer you know for example proper tips training  getting your performing the improvements that you've represented to us performing in accordance with your business plan as you have described it to us and your attaining a certificate of occupancy for the restaurant from our community we have two more things on our agenda we have executive session and discussion on whether we want to take a position on the special town meeting article what i propose is why don't we talk about that for a few executive session discussion and i mean they were there for the i o c is taking the vote tonight that's my recommendation is going to be not to take a vote on transfer because we're waiting for additional documentation can we hear comments that well i mean that kind of i think it through which we're talking about documents that are being presented to the moneymen familiar with that i will learn now in the secular section as to why we can't take a vote tonight and until we do that no i don't think it makes sense to talk publicly about people are here and have comments on pushing village to three of you community we are not ok let me let me just give a summary you know that one of the conditions of our selling book parking lot is that we review the financing and the conditions of the developers financing to make sure that the funds are in place for him to develop the project the entire project not just our parking lot we don't we do not want to convey the parking lot to him and then find out that his financing is is in place or his financing is not sufficient to construct the entire project tell him counsel has been working with with with the developers council in order to get that information and he is going to give us that report in executive session because it includes a lot of confidential information and advice it involves the conveyance of real estate house interest interest and real estate now with that there are certain other agreements tha t are being negotiated the sale of the parking lot will be subject to namely a land development agreement we want to know that when we sell him the parking lot he is in fact going to develop it in accordance with the special permit approvals that he got from the planning board a second under the purchase and sale agreement that was signed he is to convey to us fifty parking spaces the parking lot currently has fifty municipal spaces and our deal was we would sell it to him for eight hundred fifty thousand baht we would get fifty municipal parking spaces in the underground garage that he will be constructing on the site form for us to consider yet and when they do become in final form i do want i've been actively pretty actively involved in the negotiations so you're right i know more than you do but when those documents become in satisfactory form i would like my two colleagues to have time to review them so that it's part of a comprehensive decision of of when we can by the parking lot the other the other  frustration i've heard is the lack of information regarding the partnering of the project ok conveyance of the parking lot is one thing and that volves the financial review but equally concerning to the town and to residents is transparency on what the status of the permitting is and what i mean specifically as the special permit was granted subject to a host of conditions that the developer have to satisfy before he could get his building permit and what i will do is i will ask glenn who is our director of community development whether he wants to comment on that on what's being posted on the website and can you give us an update and what is the status of the permitting he does have demolition progress now that's correct just a chair there are certain of milestones along the way in this project the first one we got in permanent is the demolition permit the demolition permit has been issued if if the community goes to the website that we have set up for the project the will be a section that is specific to the demolition permit in fact it's there it's up there now we we made sure that those documents were available soon as we could get them up there up there as of today it's all the supporting documentation that was required in the special permit approval for the cushing village project relating to demolition our intention is as we move forward in these milestones site work foundation permitting full building permit and as we reach those milestones we will post all of the supporting information that was required that allowed us to give the approvals for that particular item yes i mean i found that i was on the planning board and we were going through the permit process that you know a sometime in the month of july something will be happening but that's not really reassuring considering that we have no idea what we're going to face as a direct a barge in this project we have come to the town we've been told t face it's a huge project we've made in our feelings about a very clear i know that we've gone past the point now where we can point of no return i guess is the correct phrase but the parking lot has still not been sold and that is something that belongs to the town and just a request is well for you this one last piece of land to this developer please consider potential other purposes it can be used it's not too late to not sell it to this he entered with the it was before i was selected for jam was you might have been on here i think ralph was the chair at the time and based on a contract that that he negotiated with the town that gave him the right to buy the property he invested a lot of money in the permit and in the drawings and then you know so so if we were to turn around and try to put it back on the market or get new beds for that parking lot yes exactly the same as com but that doesn't mean you know that i agree with the information concerns and that's something we're working on with community development to make sure there's up to date information on the website and you know what's going on and like i said i found it very helpful when i was on the planning board having that second oversight to make sure that conditions are all of the complied with and we don't want damage to your home little that's not the intent delighted to hear that information supporting the demolition permit is now there i think that one challenge about this whole process has been that the information has been posted extremely late and often either after a decision was taken by the town or hours before the town was going to vote on something and whatever you can do to x but i thought process of there's actually lead time after the information is up there so we can look at it and actually have useful input would be greatly appreciate to that i have not to impose further on mr clear time is i know during the process you know i was a member of the board and we worked really closely with the neighborhood on the issues surrounding the development if you remember d in this bourse like meeting room where during the day or like office hours we're going to be here any of the questions that we can answer about the status of the project that would be helpful so the community and the the residents in particular there are impacted by it the could have you know free information flow rather than trying to talk through the the website because i know as a member the board and he would share the boards with time we met often with the neighborhood in the abiders as they continue concerns about this development were unfolding you know i think i think that was which i felt that they were productive probably need me more than we did at least we did reach out to the voters and sort of the so to some of those and i think i took off to work through a process that sufficient in effect if perhaps someone else joined them we consider ok i think you know we will look for better ways to communicate ok any other comments from residents if not you want to go into executive session tell council is here i think we've had george hours ok so i hope that's a helpful update for residents then that said why don't i hear  just to tell you then we'll go into executive session we can talk with town council about where we stand ok on the parking lot review and then that will leave