thirteenth at seven pm chantry middle school and at this time if i may just take one second the league invite you all to come to a coffee and conversation on tuesday nov fourteen right thank you mary and thank you league and welcome everybody thanks for coming the purpose of the session tonight is for you to ask whatever questions you have about the articles that will appear on the war t for the special town meeting on the member thirteenth so you you're free to ask anything you like i we have a wide range of town employees and elected officials here to help answer your questions and of this anything you ask what we do not have an answer we will get back to you promptly just because there's a good number of people here and i'm very finicky about time i like to end at nine o'clock sharp so to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak i would like each questioner to limit themselves to two minutes into questions and i'll be pretty strict about that if you have additional questions you're welcome to ask them but please let other people put their questions first and he can always come back and have another turn oh and let me repeat what's on the screen the purpose of the session tonight is to ask questions if you have a particular argument is like to make a town meeting save it for a town meeting this is not the night to make arguments or presentations this is just information gathering and if we do start to run up against time constraints i might ask us to  pause on a particular article and move on to the next to make sure we cover all the ground and then we can come back as necessary so that i'm going through the articles roughly in order not exactly in order i'm saving the library article for last just because o and i would ask you to come up with questions as we go along way to the end i will take questions from each article as we go through them article two and i have a slide to summarize what's on the motion for the particular article it's really a housekeeping article to take care of the numbering of the revolving funds the various revolving funds that the town has and this is just to straighten out an administrative detail  the only substantive innovation in article two is to create a new revolving fund which is for maintenance and repair of non school properties but this article is only creating the revolving fund that's not going to add to actually deposit any money into the revolving fund so if it's approved the fund will start off with a zero balance that would have to be funded at a later time so with that  any questions about article two yes actually we come to the microphone please and identify yourself sorry about that marshall is phyllis here ok anybody else prepared to handle that question well we'll come back to that when phyllis comes back into the room justification for the fund is not within the scope of this article this is merely the in a nutshell really the numbering of the revolving account in the bible was at the town maintains that the rationale for the fund is not within the scope of the to the purpose of this article phyllis thanks for coming back there was a question before about why are we creating the new revolving fund for maintenance of non school properties of it's not going to be funded at this time it will be funded consistent with the other evolving funds at the annual tommy the annual town meeting being in the springtime not now that's correct as we do all of them every year we still have to set the limit and the buildings that are rented out and about how much money do we think that might be i don't have that number of what do we get now but i will get you a number for that week going forward if you're interested but it's i don't have a number of the top of my head i thank you very much any of the questions on article two all right article three is the modular classrooms that are proposed lus are actually usable there the amount that you see on the screen may be different from the amount you have seen before the original version of this motion have a lower figure but i gather that the budget  questions for article three borrowing up to the two point seven three four million but it doesn't necessarily committed to borrowing the full amount and if and if and if i throw out the spring budget process we found a way to finance everything that we wanted and that's an important clarification i take it down treasurer agrees with that c of a temporary modular classroom for bonding that's how long are they expected to last will they be permanent permanent permanent meaning forever probably not but i think the superintendent can speak to the expected useful life of the modulus sure the hope of the modulars is to last as long as we need a short term solution for our elementary level we are using this space to get through between now and when the school construction sites if we actually choose a seven through twelve configuration if we don't choose a seven to twelve configuration for icicle project i said they could last up to ten years until we find another solution for her elementary level district in terms of space it is a different definition of temporary i believe the police chief has a certain definition of temporary through his codes in the community planning have a different definition of temporary so the reason why we call them temporary is that we promote them blocks and they can be taken away they will be no actual foundation that draws them to the ground they'll be on blocks but we will have  energy light fire line communication etc coming through the ground thank you to answer the initial question about the breakdown i apologize for the lack of the powerpoint not working i did bring paper copies on page ten of the handout that i gave and i think i brought about thirty five copies so folks could share the cost of the modulars in terms of purchase and set up is one million seventy thousand four hundred dollars the site improvements that will go along with the purchase of the modulus which will create additional parking widening of the driveway repaving the back playground and enhancing a corner play area to the side of the building approximately the same size of the modules that we're putting down in the back that will total about nine hundred sixty eight thousand dollars  total site improvements will be one point two along with funds for design in owner project manager brings you to two million seven hundred and thirty four thousand dollars i will post this on the web if folks want to see these slides tomorrow we do go through the the needs and the enroll meant that we have in the other sources of space that we've tried to create in the internal footprints of our school we have added space at the high school level six modules at the middle school level six modulars and due to the high enrollment which we have seen to be about one hundred five students net new to the district a year over the last five or six years in only getting stronger we do believe that the class size in the high in roman numbers warrant the additional modules at the elementary school instead precinct one hundred two questions one helpful that you have the in room in figures in the presentation i was wondering if you have or if you could provide a town meeting the estimated and this is for k through twelve so the estimated class sizes are key through for over the next five years with and without the modular because i know that the class sizes with the driving factor for before but can you say if this drawing of the modular square is to scale because you know we all know that this is where the kids play usually in the called the black top of the back of burbank so i'm just curious if this is to scale so this is how much space will be lost or if this is just kind of i don't know if it's exactly to scale but it is an architectural drawing so i would say it would be pretty close  paul if you said there's going to last ten years we're going to use them for ten years you project to use them it's if it really depends on the high school project again this is a short term solution to something that we're trying to create a long term solution for the high school project so the example would be that if the high school project was a seven through twelve project and that would be voted in january of the school year that we might only those modules for about five to six years if in fact that's not the case and we do not have a high school that represents grade seven to twelve but maybe it has an eight to twelve or nine to twelve these probably will last longer while we try to find a more permanent solution for elementary and roman which i would say we could could be anywhere up to ten years if you do the former in five years what's the value and what do we do with them so we are buying them so we can resell them and there is a market for reselling modulus i don't know what the market value will be at that time but they are resell a bowl and there is a market for them would you say they're only worth  if you say it's going to turn your lives around so they're only worth have been ten years or i wouldn't bet on it i would imagine to give you a number because i just don't i don't have that figure and i was not told that figure so i don't know what's going on because it's over it will be there will be a they're going to be very very high quality space and i know that the last time we had modules we were able to service our for food pantry in the back of the high school i think that there could be several uses for them if the town wanted to keep them around if there was a use needed and i would add that the school the part that a calculation of where it turns out if if you're going to use the modulus for more than three or four years it's economically advantageous to buy them not to rent them you could lease them on a question about the change in the number from what we were originally sent to the new number he explained the difference like when i can explain why that came sure the original numbers were projected with an estimate from our architectural firm that we're working with but then over the summer and through the early fall they've been actually doing e t l dust image so i've had people on the field testing soil pricing things out with much more detail so this actually represents a ninety percent cost detailed estimate not even one hundred percent cost article of something occurs to you later by all means by all means feel free to come up and ask this is not your only opportunity to ask about the article four is what's been called design of short term options for the department of public works and the d p w facility so let me just summarize the intent of the article it's to appropriate three hundred eighty three thousand two hundred thirty dollars for what's called schematic design of a limited scope of work to be done at each each of these two facilities the d p w building being at the foot of c street and the police headquarters on ave the source for this money would be drawing upon the kendall insurance fund and the third component of this article would be for the town moderator to appoint a building committee who would then be responsible for completing the schematic design and coming before town meeting in the spring with a request for funding to do the actual work this is just design work and i'm going to take a moment just to show you a little bit of what the d p w on the police station look like because unless you've been fortunate enough to take one of the tours that have been offered by those two facilities you probably have no idea what they look like on the inside so i took three pictures inside the police department there is a famous staircase call the twenty one steps in the police department that is the only way to get to the second floor which has the chief's office detectives offices evidence analysis rooms other functional spaces the police department and if you're injured or or simply a voyeur parts are not working very well it's very difficult to get to the second floor so one of the major elements of this work is actually installation of an elevator in the police station second issue and i should say that the police department or the police station has many needs but after analyzing this since last winter the major capital projects working group of which i am a member identified the most pressing needs in an extensive consultation with the police department the elevator being one the second being amenities for female employees right now there are seven female police officers i made a minute inspection of the ladies bathroom  pleased to say there is a working toilet but this is what they have for a shower which the day i was there i think was usable as a shower when i was there last winter the shower area actually was full of cartons and was not really a real deficiency in the building regarding processing of prisoners or arrestees as they're brought in there's a whole protocol which i won't try to describe in detail but it involves  bringing arrestees into the building the officer has to secure his weapon and a locker and then the there's a whole protocol that needs to be followed to so that everybody safe for the preserve as an escape nobody's injured and so forth that is very hard to do in the current building so the proposed improvement will actually be the construction of actually a fenced in area of what's now the parking lot and police station little provide a more secure means of getting people into the building officers can secure their weapons and the suspect can be handled more properly there will be a proper interview room right now there is an interview room which has a very poor acoustical installation for example so in certain sensitive  of cases it is simply awkward for say somebody coming into the station to complain to have their every word echoing through the building and the idea would be to have a more suitable environment for that kind of work  i've taken a picture of what is a portion of the prisoner intake area and evidence storage this was i think two weeks ago and you can see there's a case  of i think it's bud light but on the floor but it's there's no other place to put it and when we were there last winter there was a suitcase in somebodies bowling bag it's not only is it kind of a random way to keep evidence adam dash our who was our lawyer on the team pointed out that you know in a significant case there's even a question of control of the evidence and a case could be  a case could be faulted for non secure treatment of the evidence so the proposed short term solution would try to improve all these conditions and that there are there's always more to do with that's about as far as we can get with the money that's being requested for the scope of the design that's being requested and hopefully that'll make a real difference  w you can see there's a big front end loader behind that is the locker area the locker area is actually in this in a former work area and nothing's really done to make it a locker area other than to hang a curtain like a very large shower curtain and it's just not suitable especially in the winter time these trucks can be running in the meantime somebody is trying to change in the back to clean up from a day of work and so forth it's it's it's just a very poor level of amenities in the lower left there is a the dining area  which you can see the size of that table there are six chairs that fit around the table with difficulty on a busy day there could be more than thirty people on there particularly on a busy night of snowplowing when not only are d p w staff there but maybe lots of outside contractors you can have thirty and forty people with who can be on shift for twenty four thirty hours with minimal opportunities to rest wash we're trying to improve that and finally my favorite part of d p w is the ladies toilet there is no ladies shower there but there is a corner of the foreman's office which has a toilet you can see how large it is because it's about the size of the door that opens into that space the foreman is a gentleman he told me that if a woman comes in to use the bathroom it's the wall that marks one side of the toilet i not even really secured to the outside wall there's a big gap so he says he just steps out for a while until until it's free so we're trying to address that as well because it's just not an acceptable level of them in the twenty first century so that's what article four is really aimed at and if they're any questions be happy to get them we were i'm happy to answer that but i'll give anne marie mahoney first  chance there everyone henry mahoney chairman of major capital projects working group it's only taken me about ten months to be able to say that title that fast good question john and because i know you came to our presentations you were paying attention to some of the ideas that we put forward we are hoping to get away with what we're calling these emergency solutions these emergency short term solutions for both the d p w in the police department the solutions we are proposing for the police department we're not sure yet that we can actually implement that will be part of the ongoing study after town meeting we have proposed short term and long term solutions or emergency and permanent solutions because we just don't see how the town can fund the high school along with d p w police and a library all at one time so we're trying to stretch it out however if we cannot solve our problems identified under short term of the police department we will propose moving forward immediately with the permanent solution for the police department which we are proposing is a new building at the d p w yard we will determine that between now an annual town meeting next spring yes we're spending more money on the police department but it's because they have more needs that cost more money to deal with even on the short term the d p w building is just an easier building to work with to do these quick short term solutions the police building is very difficult to work with partly because there's no extra space there the topography of the ground is tough there the easiest way to install an elevator is on exterior of the building that's the cheapest way but we're not sure that we can do it and that question will be answered in the next few months those are just some of the things that are problematic for us if you consider one of the ways to  absolutely we've been talking about that's your bills land on by the town as being available once we move the police department and the electric light building substation is decommissioned we started talking about that back in financial taskforce in two thousand and fourteen and fifteen it certainly could be an opportunity for the town to realize revenue first by the sale and then second to realize ongoing tax revenue based on whatever is placed there a fair point this is an opportunity for questions not for debating the merits of the article ok well i'll ask if you will have them that brought be a breeze for us from pleasant street down the bridge that is the intention the major capital projects working group will continue to work from now until annual town meeting and that is one of the things on i to do list and i know i would point out also that the you like department is probably going to be there using the remain where they are in a renovated structure or possibly even built structure the elevators added in a location and you know way that's compatible with that future  solutions and some ultimate fundamental reconstruction of d p w the police station these in the major capital projects working group we were struggling to strike a balance between  spending enough money that there was a material impact in the conditions of work in both the p w and the police station but not at for a reasonable period of time but not spending so much money that it line we don't know where the location is that right now has been ruled out as a possible location right now we're looking at the front of the building but i can't guarantee that that's what's going to happen because we  more work we are really constricted by pleasant street concord avenue the width of the driveway between the electric light substation and the police the underground cables the horizon cables there's a lot going on there and we came to a point maybe the end of september when we realized we didn't have all the information yet and we weren't going to have all the information in time for a town meeting so we stepped back on the elevator problem i should say that i'm actually quite optimistic that it can be solved if it can be solved and i expect the result would be in the spring we would have  stop and as emery indicated we would say that in that event that this kind of rehab of the police department was not feasible and we'd have to go on to the to the big solution right away member for precinct three with a very creative way sitting next to me and she wondered about a possible second possibility such as you find various places in town for example the way up to my dentist's office which is a lift that goes along the stairs and i asked that very question and the short answer is sorry no but we did look at that it was a my idea and if i could just interject and the reason the answer is no is that once we begin work on those buildings because the assessed value of those two buildings is quite low once we begin work we trigger both code and accessibility requirements and therefore at the idea of the lift is immediately negated and we have to go do not pass go but go directly to the full elevator so it's all about the codes now you write stairs are wide enough checkpoints precinct one the scope of work that we're going to ask the architect to look at for the d p w does that include just break room for the employees or when it's not kind of full commercial kitchen design included in that it will be an improved break room that will accommodate the number of people that are there it will be equal and accessible shower and locker room facilities for both males and females and it will be accessible administrative space why precinct or how many employees of female does the highway have i notice you mention the police but not the highway at the moment well jay mark out in the back correct me if i'm wrong i believe there she does she does i'm familiar was one employee and for this we're going to build a whole shallowest all of set up and spend this temporary money when we could spend a few bucks on a bag of mortar and fix the damn bathroom that's there i idea if i may this town is famous since i've been here polack americans you wait to let falls down then you build a new one let's build a new one let's not spend money on temporary there's still no locker shower facility for who these people are supposed to be workin they come to work they go out and they work the streets you give them a shower you're going to give them air conditioning you're going to give them a laundry who's going to man the stuff well i'm going to pay for and i know that one who's going to manage so perhaps j marc i could speak a little bit to the typical shift conditions because i've heard that people can be on duty as much as twenty four hours i know and i used to work that well and i watched the what the better truck that's left warmer than i did some nights and they still do it i don't know why you put on a bunk cause the trucks and you don't put one for employees put the trucks outside all the contractors plant their trucks all year round outside we have to better as down there's something wrong with that method and i'm only bringing not to your attention because i know those people in here that know that i can only tell you that the recommendations that we have developed thus far were developed after extensive consultations with j mark ott and mike santoro so this was not just a speaking this was the w and the chief of the facility down there deciding what were the most important priorities oh you have a temporary hearing system there this is the twenty five fourth century we have space heaters and we have ahead of ourselves if the if the people who specialize in bathroom design come up with a workable concept of a unisex bathroom and d p w i'm sure we'd be happy to consider it we have them on how well listen but that fact that we can't really do design work here you know all of these things are subject to so many eighty a code requirements osha requirements we can't it doesn't make sense to sit here and say we should do it and anything else an article for so that's my hope and expectation you know this the d p w building is easier to work with than the police station but it's not a lot easier that there are engineering challenges to be faced here and our expectation after working with an engineer slash architect for the last couple of months is that we can make something work  p w and hopefully the work that's been done today just has to be fine tuned a bit to finish that stage of the schematic design if it turns out that that does not work then then we have a problem  within the ten years will all temporary because it is all temporary because the goal is new construction for both buildings wouldn't you couldn't you build a shower facilities adjacent rather than in think i'm going to move on to the next article and we can come back to what i really designed questions here that go beyond the scope of the article in my view in any event  o as promised i've taken the slightly out of order the next article is article six which is the citizens position to essentially convert the planning board from an appointed body to an elected body and let me say here let me actually relay a message from mike widmer which is a rule he intends to follow a town meeting so we should follow it here also which is that i will not entertain any question  regarding article six that is really framed in terms of or points to any particular person or particular incident because either he will rule that out of scope at the special town meeting and i would do that here tonight as well with that understanding i'm happy to take questions like i was i was here when i was there i would get it so that people will know where it might be going i believe dislike and voted unanimously unanimously not to approve the article serve roughly to the end of the term and then be replaced with the election in the year during which that term with otherwise expire thank you in the language that i have on the screen here is an excerpt from the revised motion that was distributed today joelson mules the precinct six my question is are any nearby towns utilizing the elected members as opposed to appointed and has there been any kind of study or research as to which is more effective paul would you like to respond to that paul roberts town meeting member precinct eight and we miss our time remember precinct three the short answer is yes we did do some what i would consider open source research on our neighboring communities within middlesex county we didn't do the entire state because of seemed excessive so within middlesex county a majority of the communities overall have elected planning boards but there are many communities within middlesex counties that do not have governments that resemble belmont so there are cities like somerville or cambridge they have mayors they have city councils or maybe they have a town executive instead of a a board of selectmen when you look at communities that are like belmont in other words run by board of selectmen and town meeting more last week counted thirty nine of those and thirty five of those had elected rather than appointed planning boards we are in the small minority around ten percent of communities that continue to have the board of selectmen appoint their planning boards most others have elected and in terms of the effectiveness question that's a complicated question what i would say is these are all towns that are democracies just like ours and i think we can presume that if they're planning board was not serving the community well that the town would take steps to change that and obviously we don't see that so i think we can assume if they continue to enjoy the services of an elected board then they stick with it and if not like i'm proposing and wayne and and man are in our community they would change is there anybody from the town side who would like to respond to the question ok any other questions on article s but the problem john thanks for your question is that currently in belmont the community really has no ability to express its desires or preferences for planning board planning board is st with political appointments made by the board of selectmen and voters don't get to choose or express a desire around what they want and planning board now there are many advisory boards and towns that are also staffy zero point men on the chair of one the i t advisory committee that word advisory is in the name of the committee planning board is a wholly different body it's an administrative body for for the community whose purview touches every commercial district every commercial property every private property both land and buildings it's an incredibly important body within this community and this amendment this is this motion is really designed to allow the community to its express its preference for that body so the body should respect and and follow the will of the community broadly we just feel like as with our school board as with our library board of trustees and with the selectmen them selves and in fact the town meeting itself that the best mechanism for doing that is elections i would just take issue i suppose with one part of the answer which was to describe the members of the planning board as political appointees and i think that has a connotation that is not exactly fair one well it's a it's a it's a power vested in the board of selectmen as a result of their elected office and that's they they exercise that power they certainly have the right under current bylaws to make appointments i just well make it clear that another way  of presenting it is that the selectmen can make appointees to make appointments in their best judgment and to say something as a political appointments may suggest that the process was somehow a little tainted and i don't unless you have some evidence to support that i think you showed i devised that answer i think that one thing that we want on planning board is to get the most qualified best suited professionals and my feeling is the best mechanism to do that is allow the three thousand to eight or nine thousand voters who show up in an april election to look at the full field of candidates and make their decision about who the best qualified individuals are the current process is completely obscure to all of us there were six candidates for the two slots that opened up this fall how many of you can name who the six candidates are how many of you know what criteria was used to choose the eventual two individuals who got chosen for the board or to eliminate the four who did not none of us no we're not privy to that because it's not a open and transparent process by design again there are many appointed boards in this community i chair one of them i recognize and appreciate the important work that appointees do and appointed boards do in this community i just consider planning board of a totally wholly different quality than those appointed boards and i feel like because it's a purview touches every commercial residential private property in this community that the community should have a say in choosing the board fred the fred paused in precinct one my question committed staff that report to the library trustees and the school department where the school committee has a staff that is making recommendations to the school committee  planning boys and when we look at the question of the staffing and planning issues we have a small planning section and that planning section is quite six member when necessary so aside from how the how the members get seated on the board we don't expect any change whatsoever and nothing in this changes anything about the purview of the planning board how it operates it only changes committee that is now in we basically referenced a mass general was that leaves the appointment of somebody on an interim basis to the room to the planning board and the selectmen together so it would be the the four voting members of the planning board and the three select men together would choose the person on an interim basis until the next  amended article today yes it well references  a study period of this and we have lots of committees so i sort of have to suggest that's what i'm wondering whether maybe a temporary one to study things like fred had the question i worry about elections in this regard being influenced by a lot of campaign contributions and campaign contributions we don't have very good laws about transparency on those and often you find out well after the fact of an election he was actually donating so i'm wondering whether some of these things might be studied and then maybe this could be readdressed with that information i think this is a pretty straightforward change and i think the planning board is uniquely qualified uniquely amenable to elections because unlike say board of ed or libraries where the qualifications can be more nebulous like this is a there's certain professional skills and training architect urban planner that that would show up really well in your seventy words in a league of women voters voting guide i think that i think i would trust the voters on this i don't think we know what i would say to you as well as is this is going to be a board just like our school committee just like our library board of trustees just like our selectmen these are volunteer well with the exception of selectmen these are volunteer unpaid positions people do it because they want to contribute to their community i think if you look at the people who have put in applications for planning board over the last few years it's highly qualified individuals in this community who want to give back to the community they're on paid you know the consequence for a vote that cost you office again is that you are forced to volunteer less and so it's not the type of you know it's not the type of position i mean we draw the lines between the behavior of political we see in washington d c or even beacon hill in our local community but we can look at library board of trustees school committee and see that we don't see those types of dynamics in this community i mean people serve because they they want to get back to the community we take one sorry one more question on this the town to appropriate one hundred fifty thousand dollars toward schematic design from the library of the source for that one hundred fifty thousand dollars would be the candle insurance account and the third prong would be that the town moderator appoints a building committee to proceed with the design and just as a footnote the total design cost is anticipated to be three hundred thousand dollars but the town is putting up half and the library foundation is putting up the other half  did the same thing for a library trying to put it on the school and a note didn't come to fruition do we have those committed designs on out there relative to i guess w my it's on can folks hear me all right and so kathy campaign chair the library trustees there have been any number of studies done over the last twenty years for the library the one that you're referencing was for a library for of forty five thousand square feet and said there are reasons why that the current site was not suitable it can't hold a library and that science we are looking to go to a smaller library one because there was very strong feedback from the community that the one proposed across the street was too large so we've rightsized the library to meet the needs of our programs and services and that that science can be built on the current serves the school and is a sure explain it so we had some early conversation with the superintendent when you think about a library we want the public to come in we want everybody to come in we serve the public when you think about a school you want to protect your students and you don't want that same flow of individuals coming and you want to protect it so i think that's one thing you know first first blush it seems like a great idea i think what we have feedback we've done is people like the site for the library it works it's in the right proximity to the school also the high school students could use it until we think requirements are printers schools when we applied for the high school we had to go through the state agency of the massachusetts school building authority and partnering with the library and having a library be on site connected to the new high school would not twice been awarded money from that program there is no money left in that program they have allocated all of the money from that grant around so there is there is you know there is there is no state aid for us to apply to that grant program there might be one in the future so if there was one in the future if we applied if we were selected there there could be a possibility i'd buy a lottery on that one i think the other the other consideration is is that the designs for a forty five thousand square foot building in the past as folks you know who have been part of this it's a formulaic process that they are looking for likely the library that they would wish for us to build and that they would support would be larger than the one that we're proposing the cost of building the library goes out almost a million dollars   on what we have sketched out starting in two thousand and nineteen the cost goes up a million dollars at a certain point when you look at what we could potentially get in state aid if there was a grant if there was the funding was granted if we applied if we were awarded if we were given the funds it would be a wash by that time it could be two thousand and twenty six costs are going up at a million dollars a year the reason why back to the article and the reason why we're asking for this article is because we want to to do fund raising represents the library foundation which has gotten reenergized and we think there's a real opportunity for us to year and we looked at three options we looked at renovation of the existing building to building that since one nine hundred ninety nine folks have been at this longer than i and we've been trying to do something substantial so i think the issue separate from the police and the d p w there is no short term investment that really makes sense if you know that the building is not viable in the long term than then why are we going to put good money after bad or whatever the expression  so good question so couple things if i can so the belmont library foundation has agreed and won't pay for that other hundred fifty thousand so they have that money and they've committed to to fund that up to that amount anything else beyond about building exclusion all that are fair questions but not you know the one that we would need to come back and ask the community in partnership with major capital works to outline that and one of the things that we do need to consider where we would go if we were in a field and when i just turn it is we might have an option to use the modules from the burbank and any other questions an article five displaced i think that's a question for our town treasurer i various building projects have come up we've used the chemical fund money to fund those schematic designs studies currently the kendall fund has i think around three million fifty thousand dollars that's been the tradition i'm going to sell the last twelve to fifteen years at the kendall insurance fund is used for these types of  very much at the early stages at this point we're trying to figure that out we've done a little bit of benchmarking to see what other towns have done lexington when they did their large renovation of their libraries actually in addition that they built on their library they raised four and a half million for that concord is has raised there the largest one i've seen which is a little over eight million card is in a unique situation though their building is entirely privately owned so the way their structure works is the building is own by a private nonprofit organization the library function is run by the town so they have a long history of funding all hundred percent of what they do is a town privately but again eight million was the last one that they did most of the ones that we've seen fall kind of like lexington in the four and a half range we're looking at to see what we think we can do so we're putting together on strategy trying to figure out you know what we have available in this community for people to make significant contributions when you're raising multiple millions of dollars it is a big project and it requires a lot of people feeling very passionate about it and making big contribution right we're definitely going for multiple millions but i can't give you a sense of shorten the time that we're going to use the time meeting or if some information no as i stated at the outset there are people in the audience with questions and they have the right to have them answered white person one i would look to ask paul and wayne a question on article six appreciate the research that you've done about other towns and this may be an unfair question you may not have had the ability to do it but by going to a place and elected board now perspective volunteers have to not only be willing to serve but willing to put themselves out through a town w campaign and do you have any sense of past or current members how how one running for an office might have impacted their willing to serve as opposed to being appointed to the position there's a scare way qualified capable candidates i guess is that the question is concerned to people who were interested with their name in previously and i don't think we can give their names here but i was i was reassured that people that are interested in this position are interested in serving the town and so again let's we have elected boards in this community they have operated for years as elected board actually planning board itself was elected up until ninety from one nine hundred twenty one up to one nine hundred seventy two in belmont you were elected to one year terms in one thousand nine hundred two it changed to an appointed board so for most of this town's history we had an elective planning board and we have other elected boards in town that where we find good people john breaux myself others who have served on boards like school committee they want to serve the town they want to do more they have a relevant skill set or an interest and they step forward and they run and i think the great thing is that elections in themselves are advertisements for the town's needs the fact that there's an april election and that there are open slots on the on a board a critical board like planning becomes a topic of conversation within the town that allows belmont to tap into the full brett of talent and ability within town people who are interested and want to do and serve more can step forward and know that their qualifications their professional experience their ideas are going to appeal to voters and hopefully get them elected to office right now and it is an opaque process in which it's not totally clear that that is the case so i think it's going to be an encouragement for people in town who have that qualification who have that work history who have those skills and experience to say you've got a green light if you want to be on this board to step forward and again i think the voters in this town have shown that they can sort out a qualified candidate from an unqualified one pretty well yes lower right most of the people in this room are popularly elected we know the routine we get signatures we mount a campaign and we hopefully get elected to office it some it's a process that we're all familiar with there won't be sea well again you in running for planning board will need to convince a population of between three thousand and eight thousand dollars antone ends that you have good ideas that you have qualifications and that you have a vision for the town that they agree with then again i think we have a good track record in this community of doing that i think the fact that again ninety percent of the communities like belmont in middlesex county in other words communities governed by a board of selectmen town meeting have election boards when you look at those boards and i've done some open source research on that the make up in terms of backgrounds is about what you would expect and you know you have attorneys you have people with backgrounds in urban planning in architecture and design so it i think you get a similar mix and milieu of people who stepped up but i don't think it's going i don't think elections are going to create an environment of of rampant self dealing and self interest because you can have to convince again a majority of you know three thousand eight thousand people that you have the communities best interests at heart a situation in which you only have to convince two of three people of that is one frankly that's a lot more prone to abuse that way i mean it just it so whether that relationship is a friendship whether it's a or something else i mean it's so it's going to be a lot harder to pull that off in an election scenario not think that's one of the things that speaks for this amendment you know we have time for one more question yes better planning board isn't an operational part of the government it doesn't write a report make recommendations and form studies subcommittee this is the day to day workings of government and and democracy is the best way to have a representative to represent the will of the community ideally what you have over time is a planning you know ideally what you want is a planning board reflects the broad will of this community about how  that and again i think if we look at our peer districts winchester lexington wellesley natick and so on this is how they operate and i think that those communities are well served by the look forward to hearing all the debates set town meeting on november thirteenth