The Select Board will be meeting this evening at 7:00pm in the Select Board meeting room at Town Hall and remotely on Zoom. The first item on the agenda after public comment and the town managers report is a Trash Cart rollout and general DPW update. Town meeting previously approved $900k for the supply and delivery of cart rollout in November 2023. In the presentation, it shows that the town is currently under budget by roughly $23,000 for 16,500 barrels and recycling bins. Cart delivery to households will begin Tuesday April 8, 2025. Disposal of old barrels will be handled in the following 3 ways:

Afterwards, there will be an update on the Downtown Parking/Kiosks. The board voted back in October to pause the Downtown Parking Kiosks until their January 2025 meeting after numerous residents and business owners provided negative feedback.

For the year 2024, there were 758 parking overtime violations, 77 no permit violations, 71 failure to pay violations and 648 “other” violations. For the breakdown between 2hr and 4hr parking, there were 301 2hr violations and 457 4hr violations. There is no indication whether or not the board will be voting on this topic tonight beyond a discussion.

Next, there will be a brief discussion on the MBTA Turnback Track. There is no information in the packet regarding this update, but as we previously reported here, numerous residents voiced their concerns during public comment at the last Select Board meeting. Their main concerns are with pollution, train idling (for roughly 1hr per change, up from 15min) and the bird sanctuary in the proposed new conservation area. Residents also questioned why the MBTA cannot use the additional tracks that already exist in the area by Ash Street to Subaru of Wakefield.

To watch our video that we took via drone showing the overview, you can click here:

Lastly, there are is an executive session related to current town manager Matthew Kraunelis’ contract and then a potential vote immediately afterwards at 10pm during a public session.

The complete agenda is listed below:

• 7:00 Overview of Meeting
• 7:05 Public Comment
• 7:15 Select Board Liaison / Town Manager Reports
• 7:30 Trash Cart rollout and general DPW updates
• 8:00 Downtown Parking/ Kiosk update
• 8:30 Discuss options for the future of the Pleasant Street Center
• 9:00 MBTA Turnback Track brief update
• 9:10 Future Agenda items
• 9:20 Approve meeting minutes
• 9:30 Executive Session: To conduct strategy session in preparation for contract negotiations with nonunion personnel – Town Manager Matthew Kraunelis. (G.L. c. 30A, § 21(a)(2))
• 10:00 Discussion and potential vote to execute a new employment contract with Matthew Kraunelis for Town Manager services

The 7:00PM meeting will take place in the Select Board Room and Zoom. The public can attend virtually or watch via several options:  via a broadcast on RCTV’s YouTube channel at this link or on the RCTV Government Channel (Xfinity ch 22, Verizon ch 33). The Zoom link for this meeting is: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kiFjNYWq5