we will open and i will call the order the special town meeting of the town of belmont one of them for thirteen two thousand and eighteen if you please rise for the pledge of allegiance thank you glenn do you want to get ready for the testing of the devices are we ready all right so this is the time we test our electronic devices you can press either one or two correct and and then this will scroll and make sure you see your name and if you have a problem please come to the front we all set no one all right let's go back to the beginning and go through them again who warned committee capital budget committee permanent building committee the belmont high school building committee the project manager daedalus projects the architects park perkins  will and the construction teams concer sconce construction superintendent of schools the school committee and staff the planning board the community preservation committee the by law review committee the board of assessors portia thompson and russell any other requests for admission to the floor hearing none will proceed let me give you a brief overview we're going to do this in two nights the first night we'll go through if it works out article  seven and then tomorrow night we'll do the three zoning articles three four and eight there are only there have been only two small amendments filed one under article three and the other under article four and they're both very minor amendments in terms of the rules to remind you it was a five minute limit on speaking to question no more than two questions asked and asked please through the moderator make sure that what you're talking about is within the scope and the relevance of the motion before a town meeting appreciate that hard turn to ellen now first to see whether there are any town meeting members who are elected by caucus or otherwise who have not been sworn in and who could be sworn in ok seeing none i'll ask was there one yes ok go ahead  thank you for your honesty a little scary let's all give them a hand after they left ok do you solemnly affirm that you will uphold the constitution of the united states the constitution of the commonwealth of massachusetts in the by laws of the town of belmont and impartially you will impartially perform the duties as a town meeting member a position to which you have been duly elected keeping uppermost in your mind what is best for belmont  pursuant to the warrant for the special town meeting to be held nov thirteen two thousand and eighteen i l n o brian cushman town clerk due here by certify that i gave notice of said meeting by posting and attested copy of the warrant on the town clerk's official bulletin boards in the town hall and at least five other places in town fourteen days before the date of this meeting in accordance with chapter thirty nine section ten of the general laws and section three zero dash one one zero a of the general bylaws of the town at belmont furthermore i do hereby certify that i gave notice of the special town meeting of nov thirteenth two thousand and eighteen by causing a copy of the warrant to be sent to town meeting members at least fourteen days before the date of this meeting and by causing copies of the warrant to be made available at the public library and the belmont town clerk's office all in accordance with section three zero dash one one zero b of the town's general by dash on the order of the articles  thank you mr moderator adam dash chair of the board of selectmen town meeting member a large move that the articles be taken up in the following order one two six five seven three four works police department building committee miss m member precinct one chair of the d p w belmont police department building committee good evening everyone i'm pretty psyched to be the first one up tonight that doesn't usually happen thank you first from one building committee to another congratulations to the belmont high school building committee for your landslide debt exclusion full speed ahead meanwhile d p w belmont police department building committee has also been full speed ahead since you gave us the green light to proceed with our two projects just a year ago on the screen is listed are talented and pedal to the metal building committee members we thank the moderator mike widmer for assembling such a committed group to accomplish this project since our last reported in june we have accomplished quite a loss this evening i have a very brief overview of our present status and our timetable for the future beginning with the d p w facility what we have approved is a very is very different from the original plan that we suggested to you for a modular is in the front and back of the existing building and interior renovation after mapping the site and probably exploring a dozen different design schemes we arrived at the configuration that you see on the screen the back of the building will be a stick built addition for both male and female locker rooms a combined training and quiet rest space and laundry facilities architect has been able to expand the break room and located it within the existing structure along with expanded office space also inside the building is the proposed contractor check in and lavatories there is no longer an addition potentially obstructing the flow of vehicles around the fuel tanks this design stays clear of the large sewer pipe that we discovered that you see in bright red on this plan it also stays clear of the railroad tracks and the proposed space for the community path every one of the d p w seems very pleased with this particular design moving on to the police department which is a little more complicated we are really quite odd by ted's design creativity is work closely with mike smith from historic district and the members of the police department as you look at the drawings for the three levels of the station you'll notice that we have a new male and female locker room on the ground level the workout area and the firing range are all preserved on this level on the street level you'll know new holding cells rollcall room and interview space all without disturbing the existing dispatch area you also see the new sally port and safe prisoner entering on the second level you see new office and conference space note also that some features that we originally called out as problematic such as secure evidence storage storage in general and the famous elevator have all been accommodated in a logical way as well as the addition of a second stair case finally we have been able to maintain the historic georgian facade of the building and will access c p a funds to complete the work on the exterior of this historic section with the completion of the design work we plan to go out to bid on both projects together in february to maximize both the best price and the best bond market our goal is to have the d p w work completed before the winter of two thousand and twenty the facility will be occupied and functioning while the work is being done the work on the police station however is so extensive that we intend to relocate the police to town hall in much the same way the town officers office says were relocated during the renovation of the home or building their construction calendar will be a little bit longer but our goal is to complete the work on the police station by the summer of two thousand and twenty as we prepare the construction documents for bid i need to highlight the wonderful teamwork that has characterized this project everyone and i have noted the main players on this slide has been so thoughtful so open so creative and so generous with their time and their ideas are building committee could not have accomplished so much so quickly without them as well as the men and women in both facilities who have consistently commented and helped us with the designs throughout every step of the process as we hope for a smooth road ahead the committee embodies henry ford's observation coming together is a beginning staying together is progress and working together is success thank you very much our next report will be roger coleman chair of the energy committee and give a brief energy update thank you mr moderator roger colton chair of the belmont energy committee and town meeting member from precinct six in two thousand and nine town meeting at a special town meeting of two thousand and nine adopted a resolution and that resolution called for belmont to achieve the goal of reducing the communities carbon dioxide emissions by eighty percent by the year two thousand and fifty based on two thousand and seven emissions now a lot  happened since that special town meeting and two thousand and ten the energy committee was appointed in two thousand and eleven the town of belmont adopted the stretch energy code from two thousand and eleven through two thousand and thirteen the been audited through the massive program and number two belmont has the highest percentage of audited homes that actually followed through and weatherize their homes after receiving their odd it in two of massachusetts and today is engaging in the dhamma drives electric program as of yesterday now has the highest number of electric vehicles of any single zip code in the commonwealth of massachusetts the point is that belmont is not only doing well but belmont is doing better than any other community that is engaging in similar programming to reduce its emissions now what does all of that accomplish what is all that got math in this slide we see that in two thousand and sixteen the energy committee updated the emissions inventory there's good news and bad  news the good news is the red line the good news is that for the first time ever belmont is reducing its carbon emissions from the community as a whole not from the town as a town but from the community as a whole the bad news is the blue line the blue line tells us that despite the records despite the successes the way we're going we're not going to make it we are not going to achieve our goal so the energy committee decided that we needed a new approach how can we address this what we knew we need to do differently we updated emissions inventory and this slide shows you where emissions and  are coming from there are a few things that used to take away from the slide and you should look at the pictures rather than trying to figure out the numbers number one is that the bulk of the missions in burma comes from the residential sector it doesn't come from  sector it doesn't come from our businesses it comes from the residential sectors whether we achieve our mission schools depends on individual belmont residents making decisions and spending their money in ways to reduce their emissions number two is it shows us where the emissions are coming from if you look at the yellow the yellow represents vehicles and unless we crack the nut of reducing emissions from our automobiles and our other vehicles our s u v s we're not going to meet our carbon emission reduction goals the orange in the grey show gas heating emissions and fuel heating investments that's the second place that we need to work in order to achieve our eighty percent reduction by twenty fifty so number one it's got to be residential decisions number two we need to crack the vehicle nat and number three is we need to address the way we heat our homes both gas heating and fuel your fuel oil heating doing what we've done in the past won't work just simply addressing the fish and sea of gas heating will work simply addressing the fish and sea of oil heating won't work there are four steps the energy committee proposes for the town of dhamma number one by twenty twenty to one hundred percent of belmont lights takes direction from the community it does not give direction to the community and town meeting is the appropriate place to or the appropriate entity to give that direction to light so at the annual town meeting we will be presenting a resolution to you indoor scene that go all one hundred percent emission free electricity generation by the year twenty twenty two by twenty twenty five fifty percent a few oil heating system replacements not fuel heating systems but fuel heating system replacements need to be electric heat pumps rather than carbon  heating systems that is just a little bit better than the direction that the day some as a whole is going by twenty thirty fifty percent of new vehicle purchases in the town of belmont not fifty percent of the vehicles the fifty percent of new vehicle purchases need to be electric vehicles the national trend today would put us at a national level of fifty percent of new vehicle purchases being electric vehicles by twenty thirty three so with the engagement of light and with the work of the energy committee we hope to push that up by a few years and finally by twenty thirty to fifty percent of the new natural gas heating system replacements need to be just need to be electric heat pumps gas even efficient gas heating systems met have emit carbon and we need to move away from that this all depends on that first step however that first step of achieving one hundred percent emission free lector generation by dama light by twenty twenty two you will certainly hear again from the energy committee at the annual town meeting you will hear time and again from the energy committee between now and the county and the annual meeting about how that can be achieved and why that a good thing so i will leave you with i will see you in seven months thank you very much good evening my name is sean failon superintendent of schools massachusetts in special town meeting in october nineteen of two thousand and sixteen town meeting voted to withdraw as a member for minuteman that point in time the superintendent myself commissioned a vocational education working group to explore the options for our students from belmont to access vocational education that working group was made up of school in town administr educators parents community members in our belmont representative to the school committee of minuteman the working group in general looked at where can we look for about a month students to receive this c v the programming and how would belmont contract with such providers the we're that they looked was two minute men first and foremost as our current provider of that service to shah shane vocational technical high school and also to the solved s o l v e d sure occupational learning or in vocational education districts of cambridge all in waltham the presentation that they provided to the school committee was in june of two thousand and eighteen and the group also showed their presentation to the board of selectmen in july of two thousand and eighteen that full presentation is on the school committee's website in the school district's website as well so the first question how should belmont contract with any of these agencies as a municipal town on behalf of our students one way that they identified was to be a nonmember or to have no formal agreement and send students to either minuteman or any of these collaborative organizations the second option was intervene in a simple agreements that could be formed east schools and the last option that they identified was to reinstate the tata belmont as a member district of minuteman what they decided to do was create a selection criteria of the findings and tried to identify rubric that had an academic social emotional and student life factor rubric space availability in a roman factor rubric in a long tame long term sustainability rubric they determined at that time that as they looked at this rubric that minute man was the highest rate winner in this work that they did for option for a b and c of that rubric so then they looked at the financial factors that we all talked about a time eating back in two thousand and sixteen which is as a member of the minutemen district there is a higher cost to pay per student and as a non member of minutemen there is a lower cost to pay but there is a risk involved in terms of the continuity of the relationship the belmont could have with its students in terms of ensuring a prioritization of their being able to attend minute the recommendation of the group was to reinstate belmont or seek to have you know mark reinstated as a member district that's their recommendation to the superintendent to the school committee what we believe has to happen is that over the next few months we have to have a dialogue about whether or not we want to continue with minutemen as a member district as a tom are as a nonmember district we have until june thirtieth of two thousand and twenty that is our time where our member status will expire per our agreement with the minuteman withdrawal back in two thousand and sixteen i would like to thank the committee of community members that took part in this working group their presentation when you look at it on line was thorough thoughtful they organized their thinking in a way that's very very easy for us to find out how they came to their the answers and to work with minuteman and the school committee in the school department of the board of selectmen look forward to working with each other and also it's reacting with the minutemen to find out what about the best path forward is for the belmont students moving forward thank you very much moderator time computer board of selectmen meeting member from precinct two good evening the objective of this update is to provide some visibility for town meeting members on the current efforts and plans to explore a potential public private partnership to rebuild the ice skating rink in just a minute i will be joined by bob all roy from the belmont youth hockey association who can provide a bit more context on the current state of that facility and some interesting examples of other towns that have done something similar but first i tried a lot of contacts on the process so anyone who sat in these seats for the last couple years knows that we have some challenges with aging infrastructure in belmont and the ice skating rink is no exception and the building was first constructed in one thousand nine hundred seventy one and has reached the end of its useful life just as that building is is failing we're also seeing greater demand from our various different community members for more ice time and more recreational space while the need is very real this is never been a capital project priority for the town so to the credit of a few members of the community a number of years  ago a proposal was put forth that perhaps there's a public private partnership that could be worked out that would provide benefit to the town and the basic concept was the partner could to fund the construction operation of an ice rink the town would grant a lease over an extended period of time and in four that the town would have priority access to ice time for our schools and our recreational needs it was a compelling idea it was however put on ice for a couple of years bad pun while we worked on the high school project the thought was with the belmont seven to twelve project underway it would be imprudent to contemplate the rebuild of an ice rink on this site now that that project in that design is complete we can restart the conversation and the current plan of the in the school committee is that in the coming months with a to engage the community community around what this partnership could look like so we want input on what you want in a new facility we want input on what this partnership structure could look like it should look like and then finally we need to put on the location certainly there's an existing location that we can contemplate there also may be potential to look to the incinerator site as an alternative location in an effort to move this process forward transparently we will be initiating a r f p process in the coming months based upon this community input the goal of that point is to hopefully find a partner who is in may a recommendation for how we might proceed so i encourage anyone who is interested to participate in the coming months on the community engagement and to help shape the future of this project with that i would like to introduce bob all right who will take just a couple minutes give you some context as one of the primary users of the facility of what the status of that silly is what they're experiencing as well as some concepts that were originally created a few years ago that could help illustrate what we may have in mind so with that over to you ice from all right  thank you tom my name is bob mulroy and i'm on the board of directors for belmont youth hockey we're a forty year old or forty year young nonprofit in belmont that has about three hundred families to shi'a four hundred kids between the ages of four and eighteen where we run ten development programs to learn how to skate learn how to play hockey and then twenty two travel teams that compete all around greater boston and new england so our interest really is just a safe functional place for kids to continue play hockey learn to develop recreation but in doing so we're also really representing the four high school teams the groups that run figure skating classes in figure skating exercises in the in the group there are community activities at the rink as well so as tom mentioned the current facility is obsolete so an engineering assessment to terminate the rink is well past its useful life that the utilities in the facility are in danger of catastrophic failure on any even day and the current facility is not strictly up to code so any modifications would require a complete rebuild so the answer is you need a new facility the situation in the town is also that with the growth that's driven the high school demands we also have the same growth in terms of our recreational needs for fields or recreational space and indoor space as well as well as community space and so the concept we want to put forward is something that solves not just the need for a race for ice and time but something that meets a wide variety of recreational group needs in the town and then lastly with the new high school project approved which is fantastic a project with the new high school in terms of providing locker room space to reviving the meeting space as well as flexible space for sports year round is something we think we benefit the town as well so the concept that came forward we brought forward years ago was the idea of a public private partnership and a couple examples i want to walk through one in concord and one down in wellesley once complete and what is under way is simply the idea that for a recreational facility the user fees can actually pay for the cost of can strike that's what we're proposing here right and so in the case of the town of concord they provided a lease to some land to a nonprofit a swimming organization that used to lease to go raise money to build a pool and now the user fees for both pool and what's a health club or gym th pay back the debt on the facility in the town of wellesley they went for a more private for profit approach they leased land to a for profit operator who is building a two rink indoor field complex and a pool they all operate the rink for profit and use that to pay down the debt on the lease the land and building the facility but infos cases the town contributed land to different approaches that got to enhance to provide town facilities and so that's what we're proposing here for the town of belmont it's one that makes use of private capital to meet a public so the concept here is relatively simple that we would attempt to execute a lease with the developer for thirty years  that lease would come with it use of the town the high school its recreational facilities ice time and recreational space and meeting time in the facility essentially trading a lease for time today currently our high school teams don't pay for ice our recreational programs don't pay for ice it would cost somewhere in the order of three to four thousand dollars a year to replace that so effectively what we're doing is trading the land for continue to have free access to that time and that recreational space but hopefully doing with more programming and so that's the concept with the private partner we would essentially do is is used to lease design construct the building operate the building and in this case we're proposing that the end of the term of the debt tam have the option to take back the building and operate it and so that's how a public private partnership we work in this case just conceptually to give you an idea of a rough idea and there's a lot of work to be done on this idea the facility again would be to molt m multiprogramming needs so in this design schematic there's one full scale rank there is a small rink that service for just winter period as an additional flex base given the multiple teams that use it and then went in in the winter for ice time but during the other three seasons it actually comes down into just a field house space which can be used for indoor sports the crosser baseball community art of answer blood drives or concerts so that's the idea the space that it will provide meeting them space as well as opportunity for other health  wellness related services around it but most importantly with the new high school provides a series of eight new locker rooms that can actually synergize with the fields that are right outside unconquered have as well as access to meeting space for those teams as they go through their seasons forward with working to with them in the months and years ahead to hopefully make this a reality for the town thank you mr moderator patricia birch town meeting member precinct two and vice chair of the belmont high school building committee with thanks and gratitude to the belmont voters article two and appropriation for the belmont high school construction project moved that the town appropriate the amount of two hundred ninety three million four hundred nine thousand one hundred eighty nine dollars in addition to the one million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars previously appropriated under article two of the may fourth two thousand and sixteen special town meeting for the purpose of paying costs of designing demolishing originally equipping and furnishing the belmont high school located at two twenty one con ave in belmont relocating in reconstructing the playing fields and renovating the current pool in field to accommodate grades seven through twelve including constructing an addition and all costs incidental or related there to the project which school fish facilities shall have it into supported useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children for at least fifty years and for which the town may be eligible for a grant from the massachusetts school building authority m s p a set amount to be expended under the direction of the belmont high school building committee to meet this appropriation the treasurer with the approval of the board of selectmen is authorized to bar or set  amount under mass general law chapter forty four or pursuant to any other enabling authority the town acknowledges that the m s p grant program is a non entitlement discretionary program based on need as determined by the m s p in any project cost the town incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the m s p a shall be the sole responsibility of the town provided further that any grant that the town may receive from the  for the price shall not exceed the lesser of one forty and sixty six one hundred percent of eligible approved project cost as determined by the way or to the total maximum grant amount to term and by the m s p i provided that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the town and the m s any premium received upon the sale of any bonds or notes approved by this vote less any such premium up plied to the payment of the cost of issuance of such bonds or notes may be applied to the payment of costs approved by this vote  favorable action and the school committee has purchased co burgess cox chair of the school committee with great gratitude to the voters and the work of the building committee we the school committee unanimously recommends favorable action thank you now i like to know who is mr love alo always chair of the building committee who give a presentation you mr moderator members of town meeting as i said my name is bill of oslo and i chair the belmont high school building i'm here to provide you with a brief background article to appropriating the funds for the design and construction  new belmont seven through twelve high school last tuesday belmont voted in favor of a debt exclusion to fund a design and construction of the new belmont seven hundred twelve high school this was by no means a simple reaction to the work of the building committee but rather a response to belmont voters to the incredible effort achieved by the us for belmont campaign led by ellen schreiber and sarah machinery to get the vote the facts out clearly and to every corner  belmont thank you alan sarah and a tremendous team you organized to inform belmont let's step back and do a quick recap on how we got here and we're planning to go the process like you see in front of you has has a company the building committee since we started here at town meeting in early two thousand and sixteen you voted in favor of establishing a building committee to study the feasibility of a new high school following notice from the state the belmont was being considered in their school grant program a special moderator for doing a thorough job and assembling a hardworking talented and well rounded building committee in two thousand and sixteen you made it much easier for the building committee to perform our work as i suspect you do with other committees you assemble in belmont thank you mike so this slide shows how the building committee formed the project team in early two thousand and seventeen working on the feasibility study last year and this past summer finishing the schematic design so that this fall we can secure the funding for the project with funding approved we will spend most of next year preparing the detailed design for the project construction is planned to start next year and finish and two thousand and twenty three we can then complete the project close out the financial  reconciliation with m s p a the following year belmont is not alone in this and along the way we picked up our team members this next slide shows a few of the project team members while we are the owner the state acts as co owners they review submittals ensuring value quality and proper education salute all while following their guidelines to ensure that the project is funded equitably when considering the other three hundred fifty cities and towns they provide assistance to in the commonwealth the state agency is the massachusetts school building authority referred to as m s p and they provide financial assistance to cities and towns in the commonwealth soley for the design renovation and construction of schools and the m s p a is financed by state tax income the building committee hired  thereafter the building committee hired the national architectural firm of perkins and will with an office in boston of more than one hundred fifty hp plenty of resources on hand for this project tonight we have and detail albuquerque here with us and i can tell you they are fully invested in this project working with belmont daily now for over a year this hash this past year the building committee hired the international construction was well versed in building complex projects adjacent to occupied buildings with challenging schedules tonight we are joined by jim craft and mike morrison who are constantly looking at different ways to reduce costs and schedule but that is not the only list of team members engaged the building continued to continue continues to work with department heads from the school department key role in getting the project developed including planning board traffic working group conservation commission recreation commission historic district commission community path implementation committee  hockey association and branding grant foundation just to name a few the building committee extends our thanks to these town departments committees and groups for the information that are provided and will provide moving forward and for being a partner on this project what is the project this next slide list the three main issues affecting the need for this new project enrollment growth which is unprecedented in the district and continues to grow significantly per year currently leaving belmont with no available space for our school district to accommodate the growing and roll physical plant the fifty three year old high school is well maintained however the systems infrastructure has reached the end of its useful life compelling the need for major plant improvement and teaching and learning with the changing needs for twenty first century learning requires a different type of learning environment one that is flex in ample in space and technology these three issues define this project and they were discussed regularly a feasibility study phase last year leading to the solution we have today these discussions just didn't happen with the building committee but at our combined meetings with the board of selectmen and school committee a special not thanks goes out to the selectmen and the school committee for their participation in these discussions and selections made not just for the building layout but also for the solution to make this project a seven through twelve combine middle school and high school one that will serve our tarn town for at least fifty years to come the solution is brilliant a new combined school really two schools under one roof serving nearly half of our  district students the existing school being approximately two hundred sixty four thousand square feet two floors with serving over thirteen hundred students the new school be approximately four hundred forty five thousand square feet on floor floors serving over two thousand two hundred students as part of the project we will retain a quarter of the existing school integrating the existing field house little jim pool and associated locker space into the new school building with the approval to proceed the project timeline shown on this next slide in the case that we will spend the next year preparing the detailed design documents major construction will start at the end of the school year on the nine through twelve high school portion of the project it will be completed in two years high school students were start class in the high school in september two thousand and twenty one and that will allow the middle school portion of the project to commence with the demolition demolition of the remaining portion of the existing high school two years later the middle school seven an eighth grade proportion of the project will be completed with the new belmont seven through twelve high school being fully completed open for all students in september two thousand and twenty three the project costs outlined on the next slide are commensurate with similar large high school projects in the commonwealth the construction costs including escalation and the project costs include a construction contingency for unplanned conditions all professional service furniture fixtures and equipment for the entire school moving expenses and it owners contingent all project costs total two hundred ninety five thousand one hundred fifty nine thousand one hundred ninety five million one hundred fifty nine thousand one hundred eighty nine dollars and this cost cannot be exceeded because of our agreement with the m p there are no bells and whistles in this costs no excessive areas in the program and an aggressive timeline that reduces belmont's exposure to continued construction first they have committed to provide a maximum grant of eighty million dollars if we spend the two hundred ninety five million the reimbursement comes in monthly as the invoices are submitted only after the m s p a has confirmed that the costs are  reimbursement a special thanks goes out to our state senator will brownsburg or in state representative de rodgers for their continued support at the m s b offices to ensure full support of the belmont high school project at the state level the second m s p a piece is that the full amount of the project must be appropriated for the project now understanding that there will be reimbursement coming back to belmont to offset the net project cost third the m s p requires that we provide funding for the feasibility and schematic design portion of the project over the prior two and a half years thus town meeting and may fourth two thousand and sixteen appropriated one point seven five million which is part of the overall project cost and this amount must be subtracted from the total project cost for the net appropriation this is the basis of article two is shown in the next slide to appropriate two hundred and ninety three million four hundred nine thousand one hundred eighty nine dollars for the new belmont seven through twelve high school recognizing that belmont is scheduled to receive a total maximum grant of eighty million six hundred forty four thousand two hundred seventy eight dollars or forty point six six percent of project eligible costs as a term and by the i must be mr moderator thank you for this time tonight to speak about article two and members of town meeting thank you for listening we move the question i'm really surprised but all right the question has been moved this requires a two thirds vote  electronic if you are supporting terminations of the debate nonexistent debate then vote yes and if you would like to have a debate continue and motion pass debate is terminated for the record one ninety nine in favor thirty eight opposed obviously more than two thirds but with the debate terminated we now turn right on display the total exe miles thank you tom meeting for the appropriation tonight we move forward on a tremendous project for bulma one that clearly demonstrates our high regard we hold for our students from the beginning our building committee focused on two goals as we worked on the solution one was to engage all of them on this project and the other was to do it transparently i  confident that we achieve these goals and we will continue with this approach as we finish the design and bring the project to completion on budget and on time i would like to thank my fellow members of michael mcallister thank you very much to people i need to mention with a big th is always there covering nearly every meeting and there when i can't be there because of my work your commitment to belmont pat is incredible and i can't thank you enough for all that you do thank you failed our superintendent has helped lead this project build a vision and form the church your job john but the commitment i see goes well beyond the work and i surely fortunate to have you as our superintendent will close tonight by saying that i am humbled by the gauge meant that the belmont community has provided on this project you have reached out to the committee with your comments supports and recommendations and have done so with a tremendous amount of respect the new belmont seven through twelve high school be excessed because of the greater belmont community contribution to all of you out there i say thank you thank you again to the committee for the extraordinary work we now move to article six mr dash graduation of the building committee tell me a time any member a large share of the board of selectmen article six moved at the town vote to authorize the department of public works and police station building committee appointed by the moderator oversee the designs of said buildings and authorize the building committee to enter into contracts and take all actions necessary to carry out the final design and construction of the projects this sounds like we're creating something but in fact this is just a  so because it was desired that the same committee actually complete the project and supervise the construction this is essentially amendment an amendment to the or rather than having the authority default back to the apartment building committee this my name is margaret vili i'm the chair of the community preservation committee so our committee is recommending that town meeting a proof funding for the design of the community path phase one and that's the alexander avenue underpass and this connecting it to concord avenue the project came before the committee as an off cycle special application over the summer when the town was notified that it was eligible for state and federal funding for the construction of the entire phase one of the community path so to be eligible for the construction funding the town must first fund the design so a little background on c p a it's a massachusetts law that allows towns to acquire creat preserve open space and that includes outdoor recreational facilities and that's how this project is eligible for c p a funding c p a also can be used to preserve historic resources and create affordable housing delmon adopted the c p a in two thousand and ten and both local and state money go into our fund and locally we have a surcharge of one point five percent on our property taxes and for this fiscal year fiscal year nineteen it's estimate it will generate about one point one million locally we also receive a partial match from the state we've received on average about three hundred thousand dollars a year from the state although the last few years it's been closer to two hundred thousand and it looks like we'll receive about two hundred thousand this year which will get in the next within the next month or so it's based on what we collected in fifty two thousand and eighteen so we have just over one point one million in our in our local fund right now so if the motion passes we'll have about seven hundred thousand remaining in fiscal year one thousand town meeting has the final vote on funding this project and at this time town meeting can burger and to represent rogers for moving this forward and getting us to this point on what's been a very very very long road indeed so i should note that this is an off cycle request the reason why we're calling that is that you may realize we usually come before you for c p a funding in the spring town meeting and there's a process for that however we chose to take this off the usual cycle simply because the state is moving forward and there are deadlines we need to meet and we do not want to miss them because the way this goes forward is that through the metropolitan area planning council they would fund all of the construction and we fund the design the design is way less so  want the construction money so we're not seeking that sort of money i can tell you that we are we have a timeline and i'll get to that in a minute mr castro if you please so this is the seeking there for four hundred thousand dollars for the design work only not for construction that would be a little you can see here some examples of have here's a sort of an underpass going under some train tracks that sort of the idea of what we're looking at as you know it's been a bit of a concern with students and others crossing over the tracks currently to get to the high school they cut the fence they go over the train tracks and that is not safe we would like to provide  precinct eight for those of you in the audience and the windbreak neighborhood the ability to access the rest of the town we think that would be fair if you make so this is sort of don't pay attention to the details of the route this is just to show you generally what's going on so here's brighton st in cambridge the idea is to run the track centrally along the rail line there's belmont center here is the clark street bridge here is waverly square and on into waltham currently the path is you know if you've been over to what brian street comes down on the north side of the tracks in cambridge and just ends and waltham is on their end and they're building their part of the track and it's going to end of the path and where this missing link in between it makes sense that where the missing link we have the topography challenges we've got the density we've got the tracks and and encroachments and such that we're probably maybe the more difficult policeman which says you here is the underpass this is the underpass from alexander avenue under the tracks with a path that goes down through the high school campus and connecting up with the existing bike lane on concord ave is one day that's what we're talking about tonight but to avoid getting the questions later but what comes next i will explain that one b is the part of the path that goes from brighton street to about the clark street bridge and then two goes from the  over through waverly square to waltham the intention is in springtown meeting in the regular c p a cycle to come before you for one b which is from brighton street through the clark street bridge again design money only  that's not what we're on for tonight and we will be having discussions in the meantime about what happens between here and here but for tonight we're just talking about what happens right here so if you could flash it please this is a detail of what i was just talking about this is the underpass and then it would be building the path here originally we had been under the assumption because we've pretty much been told that at this point that this underpass would not be part of the community path project what's happened which has been great is that through the work of our legislative team that the state and the state that the state has decided that in fact this can be part of the path because if you remember before we had this thing where the pa on the north side and threaded through underneath on to the south side in order to be able to get that underpass as part of the project as it turns out we do not have to do that anymore we're told that actually this because it connects precinct dat when britain aber hood to an existing red bike path along concord avenue that that would be a product that could be a project in and of itself that would be funded first without having to do the rest of it second now we want to do the rest of it of course but this being a safety issue and this being sort of the easiest most discrete piece it makes sense that we come before you with that first at this time so we obviously have a design to yet that's what we're asking you for the money for but this is sort of the idea of what it would look like coming down along through the high school campus and then on their glenn so it's been a long and torturous road indeed i'll be it slowly to a point where we can have a path for a whole host of reasons for the town and i want to thank you the next think in addition to the residents about all these people who have been working on it very hard and who have been really behind us both state and local level and this is a federal funding coming through the n p o so it's basically almost all levels of government that have been very much in favor of getting something like this done when w so the question is why would we do a path i think it may be obvious to many i would state that first of all it creates a new linear park which can be a recreational asset and that everyone could utilize provides the north south connection from precinct date to the rest of the town access for the whole wynberg neighborhood to the high school harris field the underwood pool the skating rink the library the concord up by sled bike lane the bus stop to the post office it's quite a lot  reducing traffic congestion by offering alternative modes of transportation you may have heard or read that we are in the process of doing a traffic study to try to find the root causes and come up with solutions to our traffic problems and we've just got the raw data on that recently and we're going to be working on that over the next couple months to come up with recommendations but to fix our traffic problem there's no one answer you've seen we've got the line by bike share program we've got this we're doing things with  the traffic study that we commissioned and this could be another one of those things because if you think about it everybody over and went broke instead of having to go all the way around through beaumont center all the way around their bright street and that means a lot of people their drive to the high school and other places  they could just walk into the tunnel and get there and that could take a lot of cars off the road you're going to plot for that and that's a quality of life issue for everybody in improves public safety as we saw unfortunately with the tragedy a few months ago the tester in who was killed by the car that pedestrian crossings and car crossings are not good things this allows people to be able to get through the town entirely with minimal interactions with vehicles so it's a safety issue and also as we've said for the tunnel in and of itself that the kids are going over the tracks through the hole in the fence that gets repaired and then the kids cut it open again and they cross over the tracks but this would put an end to that so it's a major safety issue and then allowing ongoing discussion on the north south alignment for phase one being a from brighton street to the clark street bridge which we are going to be doing between now and the spring town meeting at the board of selectmen  also note the that's not on the slide but the environmental piece you heard mr colton speaker earlier about the climate action plan that providing people an ability to walk and bike instead of drive will help us hopefully get to that part as well and then i would say there's a health benefit as well of fighting obesity and providing a safe place to exercise so breaking up the path into these smaller achievable pieces like the underpass gets us the goal of achieving the entire path in a rational way so i hope you would encourage i encourage you to vote in favor of the design funds for the underpass and we'll talk about the rest of it in may thank you thank you thank you mr dash discussion under article five support a roll call vote we can do electronic first but with that you still want to roll call vote yes so let's do the electronic vote first and ok we're back thank you and we're back on the motion itself all those in favor vote yes pose no glenn do you want to display the result so the this the motion passes to twenty nine in favor seven  e is there a request for the of the board of selectmen town meeting member at large moved under article seven that the town reduce the rate of interest to the cruise on property taxes deferred by eligible seniors under chapter fifty nine section five cla forty one a of the massachusetts general laws from eight percent per year to four and one half percent per year set rate to be effective for all tax deferral agreements for the fiscal year beginning on july first two thousand  committee of the warrant committee unanimously recommends favorable action as to dash one briefly plainness thank you mr mutter yes this is another one of the this is another article that's being sponsored by the board of selectmen and jointly with the board of assessors this is come up because we have heard from constituents particularly seniors low income seniors that things such as we just voted on the high school can be a burden and we do not the goal is not to do these things to force people out of town this program exists currently it's a state statute that allows it and don has it where it will seniors can defer all or a portion of their property taxes until the others sell their property or pass away and then that gets paid back to the town with interest so the town doesn't get isn't out money it's a deferral we're not out the money we always get the tax but the and the interest rate currently is eight percent we've heard from some people that that is a lot of percent and that it's not something that they were interested in getting involved with that program at that rate we felt that the percentage interest rate was high and the goal was to try to get people to take advantage of the program if they so income qualified and not to have it such that they would not take advantage of the program because otherwise one of the program so we had some discussions with the board of assessors they went back and studied that they came back we had some debate and we arrived at four point five percent as the recommendation we looked at other towns we felt that eight compared to the other towns was actually higher as well and that this seemed like something we could do for low income seniors it doesn't really hurt the town as i said we get the money with interest it doesn't hurt this it helps the seniors stay in their home and it seemed like a win win for everybody to do it's a town meeting matter in order to adopt this but we felt it was something to bring to you since we were having town meeting in the fall anyway and the high school is on the same on the same warrant that this would be an appropriate time to bring this particular  article as well just as an aside earlier this year the selectmen also increased the amount of the senior tax work off which allow seniors to volunteer their services to the town and work off up to what's now one thousand five hundred dollars on their taxes had previously been one thousand but the board of selectmen earlier this year raised it to one thousand five hundred that did not need town meeting town meeting action this article does so we're interested in doing what we can to help  the low income seniors stay in their homes and stay in town and contribute so thank you thank you mr dash discussion under article seven this that most of the true up when you settle these states the money goes to people for the most part the live outside of the town about what we are not cutting a check to give the seniors we had to fern that taxes they insist this stay in the houses but i still don't understand the pure economics where the benefit is i see a huge benefit as someone that lives outside of the town not there rather those occasional situations where there might be a child or two that's taking care of a senior that lives in the community but for the most part it doesn't work that way what we're talking about here is currently trying to clear up all of the loose and for electric bills water and sewer taxes and most of the people i deal deal with live outside of the town of belmont so that's one of the reasons why i am opposing this particular mr mer precinct i've been looking at this program for quite a while one of the things is not brought up is what the program really is you have to be over sixty five your income presently has to be sixty thousand dollars a less some of these seniors or anybody you can have two three four five million dollars in the bank but if the income from that asset does not come up to sixty thousand dollars you're allowed to defer your taxes and i think this is what some people think oh i'm going to million dollars in the back of that i'm not qualified what i'm finding out is the people these people do not understand the program as is the  year bill in ten years you will obviously ten times ten is one hundred thousand dollars now the interest on that and what the eight percent rate is probably around fifty thousand dollars it's cumulat doing what you would ask him to do now is to lower the rate to four and a half percent which i don't want twenty thousand dollars out of an eight or nine hundred thousand dollars sale of a house it is not anything and i think you know we're talking about lowering the rate now what is happening at the banks now the interest rates are going up pretty soon where going to be we're going to be in the wrong side of the of the ledger on this item we want this money if they're going to use it not in in preferential to borrowing someplace else we want this money paid for us now the advantage of a deferring the income for these people is like it's a lot better than a reverse mortgage reverse mortgage isn't out of the and leaving it the way it is business is going to be some day you're going to wish it was eight percent we don't want that that the first place to borrow the money because it's the cheapest i have seen mortgage rates go up in myself i've had a mortgage at one time a thirteen thousand dollars i've signed p and s agreements and eighteen i don't know if we'll ever see that again i hope not but it can creep up the so long talking about a few thousand dollars difference and i think to motivate the people in the children if the children outside of the community knows what their parents of doing then they'll look at it and say gee maybe we should pay the taxes if we can afford it it's like paying eight percent on our money so no the bill gets paid i think in the biggest thing a reason why we only have thirteen people is because eighty percent of the people in is probably in this office in this audience here also does not know the qualifications for that program in the simple arithmetic that goes with it  i'm going to lean towards the town treasure to vote no for that reason when i want to talk and want twenty or thirty thousand dollars over a ten year period couple of thousand dollars a year let's keep the motivation to get the taxes paid michael michael mcnamara town meeting member precinct seven i had two questions i'm not sure if the town treasurer news discuss it or that sports like to let you guys decide but i know they were talking about lowering it from eight to four is that  won't jump because i think mr mercer mr moderate i think mr mercier timing member talking about the worry about it would it would change like there would be a potential for it to rise or fall so as worrying what the deal is with this lowering is it percent and it would be fixed i should note it's not retroactive we were very clear about that that it's going to go i believe it's in the motion here from try first twenty one thousand forward people who've been paying in the program up to that point at eight percent are going to state eight percent till twenty one thousand it's from that point forward when it becomes four point five percent so it can always be adjusted later i mean if as mr mercer said if interest rates went to fourteen percent we could certainly come back town meeting and say four point five and appropriate we felt that it was important to be able to tell people a number rather than say it's prime plus x tuesday i had to pull out a calculator and figure out what it is i don't think people's eyes glaze over it's important to would more belmont seniors want to do it if the rate was lower that's why i wonder i wonder if maybe it's more like well i don't want to get my grandkids and basically have been paying roughly not quite ten percent interest but if we lowered to the will be more families in belmont who gap would apply interest it's not about trying to benefit children or who pays the taxes is about keeping people in the house we're going to get our money we're going to get it with interest the question is how much interest are we going to get it's not whether we're going to get the money or not it's not about it really  benefits the senior to stay in the home i don't really care where the tax bills get mail that's not as important to me as keeping the people in the house and that's what we've been hearing from people when we go to the senior center i was mark was saying this that you know that they don't want to paid out of town this is a very simple thing and the optics on it very good if we can take anybody and help them stay in their home in belmont and they don't sell it to somebody with five it's it came in the filler empty bedrooms it's a pretty good idea and it also just makes sense and it's the thing to do i'm going to vote for so mark earthly town meeting member of precinct one i'm also in favor of this for the similar reasons as the previous speaker that it keeps our seniors in their homes wherever of a couple of questions again that goes back to the residency do do we require the senior to be living in the town in the town itself have to have resided in for fun and it does that mean that they any five years are only around the time i mean because they could have left twenty years and well to live and still own the they have to be clearly have been there for at least five years and again there are income requirements on this that we've been doing this for a number of years it's been eight percent it's this request to simply drop out of the four point five to make it competitive with it's doing the biggest thing with this is that we see people coming in all the time again you know maybe the heirs are going to benefit at some point in the town treasurer said but during the period when they own the home a lot of their children may not be aware of the financial situation there and they're not doing it so this would allow them to apply and do this in a way that that when they came in to see us and apply for it we look at their income requirements be get the tax returns everything is justified in making this determination of their title thank you mr moderator david paul stock town meeting member precinct for rise in favor of this article i honestly don't understand the objections to it i entirely agree with mr mahoney statement but i'd also like to point out that inflation is currently under two percent and so we're basically loaning people money in an inflation environment that is under two percent we're getting four point five percent with no risk whatsoever because it has to be repaid and at this you know that's more than two point five percent over inflation apply far right you must be the certain age qualifications you have to meet certain income qualifications so it's very clear who is eligible for it it's only eligible to senior citizens sixty five and older again so again it's a very finite pull that stunt lean is put on the property to make sure the collection of anything that has deferred is collected if there is a first mortgage on the property the moggy has to agree to allow the  the lien to go in first position so it's very very clear the requirements that are done and again the board of assesses publishes the requirements e g it based on state law and the income requirements are adjusted accordingly  income threshold it comes fresh owes about sixty thousand dollars increases each year based on the amount that the department of revenue determines is the rate of inflation percent but i want to speak to another issue and i'm not speaking for the council on aging which i do serve on but we talk about having diversity in our community i want to speak about the notion that we want to keep people in their homes people do not seniors do not leave their homes if they really love belmont they stay here they vote for the schools and they're a part of the community and if someone's making sixty thousand dollars with our new tax costs on the schools you know if you live in a you live in a house and you want to stay there yeah you could take in people but you know if you're an older person you want to stay in your own house twelve thousand dollars is a lot of money on a sixty thousand dollar income so i think we really need to be reducing this to four point five percent do the kids bet make out yeah maybe they do but to ask grown kids who probably have costs of their own they're sending their kids to school they're going to they're paying their taxes and as precinct six as i mentioned earlier the warrant committee did vote unanimously in favor of this but with some reservations i have to say one of the previous speakers said this is such a good deal for the town we should extend it to everybody but i think that reveals a potential misconception about the implications of this program the work committee or at least a good number of the members of the committee supported this proposal in part because the expected effect is is pretty small there are only thirteen people taking advantage of this program now and it would be surprising of that number increased a great deal but if it did for example suppose one hundred additional people took advantage of it and they deferred their taxes for what could be quite a few years one hundred one hundred households deferring their taxes would suddenly open up a cash flow issue for the town of over a million dollars so you know if that happened we would have to consider how that shortfall would be covered so in all likelihood the effect of this program will be pretty modest because the the number of households participat is small and the change in the interest rate is not going to be that big a deal but if circumstances change significantly in the future significantly in the future i think we will have to relook at th was about or a steven b rose i was precinct eight i rise to support this article as many of you may know i practiced law in this area and i do a lot dealing with our seniors been around the town fifty eight years and seen a lot of things seen a lot of people age in their homes they have dignity they love the town many of them alone and small social security or meager pension every year heat goes up deferred maintenance to their homes some are housebound need some care and it's programs like this  because they can't go to the bank and get a mortgage or as previous speaker noted reverse mortgages are extremely hard to get and not good deals but this allows them to have respect and dignity and the average home is probably a twelve thousand dollars call a thousand dollars a month or real estate tax and these are the same seniors that probably went to the polls if you look at the numbers in past for a school with numbers knowing that their taxes would go up but they fulfilled their end of the social contract or bargain if you will with the older pay for the younger just like their elders paid for them there are times where a thousand dollars a month or whatever it is bice food gives them comfort gives the medicine allows them transportation and the dignity to stay in their home without being charity cases or being as what some people say a burden on their children but the town to be concerned about making money off of these people i'm embarrassed for the town and for myself not everything is economic sometimes things are for respect and dignity and for doing the right thing  older belmonte ns which is big judge said time waits for no one all of us here could be those people and many times these people just could not stay in their home any more have to sell their home while they're alive and it does come out of their pocket and for the town to be concerned about budget gaps when we're talking about three hundred million dollars schools where they making risk free money at four and a half percent i just don't see it not the poem i know and love so that being said i urge you to support this article and support i've seen is as we go forward thank mr weiss jack weiss precinct one i just want to offer kind of my people have hinted around this but my way of looking at this is in many ways this is a marginal analysis we just talked about or we just voted tonight we had an election in our town about the debt exclusion we've had overwrite votes in the past to me one of the concerns and we in this proposition two and a half environment that we live in where we have to go back to the voters any time there is a significant increase in operating budgets or capital budget and ask for their approval to raise their taxes we are always worried that some people are just going to vote no on those issues regardless of the merits of the question simply because they can't afford personally the increase in their taxes to me this is a pressure valve that allows us to say to those folks no don't worry about it if the service or the capital project is important here's a way for you to vote yes and if we have people who are not taking advantage of that program because they think that the interest rate on it is roughly double what today's going mortgage rates are this is an opportunity for us to make people more aware and more inclined to take advantage of a program that can help not only them but the intaglio the entire town when we go to the voters and ask for money to fund necessary services  second all right motion to target this is the motion to terminate debate requires two thirds go ahead and if you want to terminate vote yes if not oh no motion is approved two fifteen in favor fifteen oppose debate is terminated we now turn to the motion itself under article seven  all right go ahead yes if you support the motion no if you're opposed there'd be more discussion frankly on the high school and other things and so we would adjourn tonight and then do this zoning articles tomorrow we could push through but it would be  to do the zoning tonight i don't including marijuana which has been controversial so i don't know if it is still it certainly was in the spring we could push through tonight and have a late night and then complete our business or we adjourn now and come back tomorrow have the two zoning articles plus a citizens protests and then have a probably not a very long night tomorrow so i guess if those or i'm go  so let's let's take a five minute break and then we're going to come back and do article three and then fo