Town Meeting - May 6th, 2026

Night four of Arlington Town Meeting. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/town-governance/town-meeting.

Voting results: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/77580.

Announcements

(Greg Christiana, Town Moderator) Mr. Christiana says there will be a change to the way that material is posted to the annotated warrant. It should go into effect sometime this week.

(Linda Hanson) Ms. Hanson would like to provide an update from Arlington EATS. The Greater Boston Food Bank estimates that 20% of Arlington households face food insecurity. Overall, the rate of food insecurity has doubled since 2019 and the federal government is cutting aid for these kinds of programs. Arlington EATS has over seven food-related programs and serves around 550 families per week. The average family they serve gets around $2000/year in food benefits.

Article 3 - Reports of Committees

Town meeting receives the supplemental report of the finance committee.

(Nancy Bloom, Precinct 18, Point of Order) Ms. Bloom would like to see the screens from the test vote.

Article 64 - Town Budgets

(Christine Deshler, Finance Committee Chair) Ms. Deshler requests ten minutes for the budget presentation. Members of the finance committee have been meeting twice per week since January, and also meeting with department heads.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says the long-range financial plan is the most important fiscal document we have. The budget remains balanced through FY29 and we will run a deficit in FY30. In terms of budget changes this year, we've trued up receipts and worked to make more accurate projections. We will lose some interest earnings due to the completion of the Arlington High School. We've consolidated general and special education and these will grow at 4%/year. We've removed the student growth factor due to declining school enrollment. The budget assumes a 3.25%/year growth in operating expenses. Curbside collection is broken out into a separate line item and our waste tonnage is down. We'll make a deposit into the override stabilization fund this year. 75% of Arlington's revenue comes from property taxes and 40% of our expenses are for education. We've introduced a few new offsets to the general fund. Our share of the debt service for the Minuteman High School has gone down, due to contributions from out-of-district communities.

(Greg Christiana, Town Moderator) Mr. Christiana reads through the list of sub-budgets. Town meeting members can hold specific sub-budgets for further discussion. The holds are

• Legal. (Andrew Fischer, Precinct 6)
• Town Clerk. (Frank Ciano, Precinct 15)
• Public Works. (Ed Trembly, Precinct 19)
• Police. (Ezra Fischer, Precinct 4)
• Fire. (Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12)
• Inspectional Services. (Austin Brown, Precinct 6)
• Education. (Carl Wagner, Precinct 15)
• Libraries. (Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12)
• Retirement. (Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12)
• Insurance. (Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12)

(Missed a bit here)

Town Clerk

(Frank Ciano, Precinct 15) Mr. Ciano asks why the clerk's budget went up this year.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says it was due to the increased number of elections and election workers.

Public Works

(Ed Trembly, Precinct 19) Mr. Trembly asks how much salt we used last year.

(Mike Rademacher, DPW Director) Mr. Rademacher says we used approximately 8,100 tons of salt.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly asks if that's typical

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says it was a more extreme winter, which meant more salt. He notes that DPW trucks are equipped with spreaders that adjust the flow of salt based on vehicle speed.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly says there was a lot of salt in the air after one storm in particular.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says that's a function of how much moisture is on the road when the salt is applied.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly asks if there are any efforts to improve the timing of traffic lights.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says there are a few intersections where the timing equipment is not working as it's supposed to. These are some of the signals on Mass Ave. DPW is working on it.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly asks if we're done digging up Pleasant St.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says we're not done with Pleasant St. Half the water mains were replaced last year and the other half will be replaced this year. The gas company is 1/3 done with their line replacement work.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly asks about Park Ave.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says Park Avenue isn't on the repaving plan.

(Ed Trembly) Mr. Trembly suggests looking at Park Ave between the water tower and Route 2.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says DPW does try to prioritize roads that are in poor condition. He can look into that section of roadway.

(Steve Moore, Precinct 18) Mr. Moore asks if DPW's new facility allows them to clean trucks more efficiently.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says it does. DPW plans to extend the vehicle washing station to other kinds of vehicles.

(Steve Moore) Mr. Moore asks about DPW's process for adapting their workload when new parks are added.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says they work with the Parks department. DPW wasn't asked to perform any maintenance on the new pump track at Hill's Hill.

(Steve Moore) Mr. Moore asks if we get into maintenance costs when parks are planned.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says Arlington hasn't any significant additions to its inventory of parks. Maintenance needs are usually a function of age.

(Steve Moore) Mr. Moore thinks there's a need to budget more for maintenance, due to the hole in Hill's Hill park.

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson says that DPW plus water and sewer are the town's second-largest budget item. He thinks they're expertly managed. Mr. Jamieson asks if we could consider a town-wide street sweep during the summer, in addition to spring and fall sweeping.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says that main streets in the town are swept every Thursday during the summer.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson asks if we went over our budget for snow removal.

(Christine Deshler) Ms. Deshler says this budget reflects next year's projected expenditures. There was an overage, and we'll need to figure out how to handle it.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson suggests focusing on main roads, but adding Park Ave, Summer Street behind the DPW, and Scituate St.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says several of those areas are on the road maintenance plan.

(Carl Wagner, Precinct 15) One of Mr. Wagner's friends said that Pleasant St should be called unpleasant Street. He thanks DPW for quickly filling potholes. He asks what people without kids will see from the override. Other towns have bad roads too. He asks if we can do anything about private ways. He asks what we can do with DPW funds.

(Michael Cunningham, Town Counsel) Mr. Cunningham says DPW can't use their funds to repair private ways, absent an emergency.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says the override didn't increase spending, but it allows the town to provide level services.

(Faton Limani, Precinct 15) Mr. Limani asks what driving the increase for the cost of waste handling.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says we're in the first year of a five-year contract and the jump comes from the cost of the previous contract. We switched collection systems in order to save $10M/year.

(Faton Limani) Mr. Limani says his precinct has a lot of private roads. We all pay taxes, but people who live on private roads don't get the same level of service. He asks if we can include private ways in road maintenance.

(Michael Cunningham) Mr. Cunningham says no, due to state and local laws. Private ways reflect how the road was established.

(Jo Babiarz, Precinct 15) Ms. Babiarz says she heard a lot of complaints about the quality of snow plowing. There were gouged roads, open manholes, and big piles of snow. She asks if there's any remedy the town can exert.

(Michael Rademacher) Mr. Rademacher says we do monitor the work of plow operators, and we do post-storm cleanup around schools. But that takes time. We would pursue contracts for negligent damages.

(Al Tosti, Precinct 17) Mr. Tosti moves the question.

Motion to end debate on the DPW budget passes by voice vote.

Police Services

(Ezra Fischer, Precinct 4) Mr. Fischer says the police budget has a steady figure for overtime, which is about 8% of police salaries. He asks if it's possible to reduce what the police department spends on overtime.

(Julianna Flaherty, Police Chief) Ms. Flaherty says the department has been short staffed. There are two open vacancies. Filling them will reduce the amount spent on overtime.

(Ezra Fischer) Mr. Fischer says that 42% of police interactions involve mental health issues. The department only has one social worker. Is there a chance to shift more resources to mental health.

(Julianna Flaherty) Ms. Flaherty says the department has a full-time and a part-time clinician, and a part-time recovery coach. There are no plans to add more.

(Ezra Fischer) Mr. Fischer shifts to ICE activity in Massachusetts. He asks if Arlington collaborates with ICE and shared information with them. He asks if we fingerprint more often than necessary or more often than state law requires. He asks if there are loopholes we can close.

(Julianna Flaherty) Ms. Flaherty says that Arlington's police department are law enforcement officers that do not collaborate with ICE. But APD does fingerprint everyone.

(Ezra Fischer) Ms. Fischer says he'd like to see the police department budget split out in future years.

(Judith Garber, Precinct 4) Ms. Garber says there's a new position for police records and social media coordinator. She asks what that is.

(Caryn Molloy, Director of Human Resources) Ms. Molloy says it's a new job title for an existing employee who does both social media and police records work.

(Carl Wagner, Precinct 15) Mr. Wagner has a question about the new "Thickly Settled" speed reductions. He asks how much time the police spend enforcing speed reductions.

(Julianna Flaherty) Ms. Flaherty says that officers are assigned to traffic as part of their regular duties.

(Carl Wagner) Mr. Wagner asks what people can do if they feel the speed reductions are inappropriate.

(John Hurd, Select Board Chair) Mr. Hurd says roadway changes are under the jurisdiction of the Select Board.

(Carol Band, Precinct 8) Ms. Band sees a decrease in patrols on the Minuteman Bikeway. She asks if there should be more patrolling.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says that amount was reduced based on historical spending.

(Carol Band) Ms. Band asks what determines whether a bike is classified as a motor vehicle.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says that electric bikes have different classes, based on speed.

(Pi Fisher, Precinct 6) Mr. Fisher asks about body cameras.

(Julianna Flaherty) Ms. Flaherty says the department has an agreement with the police unions. They're working on contracts and plan to roll out body cameras on our around July 1st.

(Pi Fisher) Mr. Fisher asks how much the body camera program will cost.

(Julianna Flaherty) Ms. Flaherty says it will be around $100k/year.

(Peter Gast, Precinct 2) Mr. Gast moves the question.

Motion to end debate on the police budget passes by voice vote.

Inspectional Services

(Austin Brown, Precinct 6) Mr. Brown thinks there's major development going on in town, with complex five-story buildings. He thinks developers will try to cut costs, so inspections are important. He asks if inspectional services has enough of a budget.

(Mike Ciampa, Director of Inspectional Services) Mr. Ciampa says a lot of the bigger projects are construction-controlled with affidavits, which is less work for his department. They still do their own inspections and review the construction inspector's reports.

(Aram Hollman, Precinct 6) Mr. Hollman asks what the responsibility of Inspectional Services is vs. the responsibility of the ARB.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa says that inspectional services does plan review, issues building permits, and does inspections for compliance with building codes.

(Aram Hollman) Mr. Hollman asks who enforces ADA and accessibility issues.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa says that ADA is not under the jurisdiction of Inspectional Services, but compliance with the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board is.

(Aram Hollman) Mr. Hollman asks about fire access and egress.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa says that's under the jurisdiction of inspectional services.

(Andrew Fischer, Precinct 6) Mr. Fischer asks what's doing on with the construction site across from the Capitol Theater.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says that lack of work was not due to a stop work order. The owners needed to revise their plans due to site conditions found during construction.

(Larry Slotnick, Precinct 7) Mr. Slotnick asks if the conditions in ARB decisions are written into a document so that inspectional services can verify them.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says that conditions are written into decision documents and filed with the Town Clerk. They are enforceable.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa says that the town's OpenGov permitting system allows for workflows with multiple reviews, and ARB conditions are reviewed.

(James Fleming, Precinct 4) Mr. Fleming says that town meeting changes the zoning bylaw every year. He asks if there are costs associated with educating town staff about the changes.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says that Inspectional Services is notified when the Attorney General's office formally notifies the town of their bylaw reviews. At that point, staff, legal, and the town manager work on implementing changes to the bylaws.

(James Fleming) Mr. Fleming asks if there's a financial cost to changing the bylaws.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says we have not needed to increase spending for that.

Education

(Liz Homan, School Superintendent) Ms. Homan says the school's budget priorities were to ensure that difficult decisions would be based on values. She expects a decrease in school enrollment, but some expenses will continue to increase at more than 4%/year. Arlington has good levels of achievement relative to comparable districts. We offer good education and spend less per pupil than other communities. Enrollments are starting to level off this year, and the district is shifting resources from elementary to secondary levels. 94% of Arlington parents with school-aged children send them to Arlington public schools. The schools have more high-needs students, and students with low incomes.

(Chris Schweitzer, School CFO) Mr. Schweitzer says the override provided $4M to the schools in FY27. $2.19M of that went for salaries and $1.95M for operations.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says we had a reorganization of district-level office roles and eliminated positions that were vacant. We also got $500k from retiring staff.

(Carl Wagner, Precinct 15) Mr. Wagner says that a lot of people said no to the override, but it still won. He asks if the school system can avoid being part of the override again.

(Kirsi Allison-Ampe, School Committee) Ms. Allison-Ampe says we'll continue to do what we can. The state's foundational budget increases at 4%/year. The decreased enrollment will help but people continue to move here.

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson has a question about page 14. Does the grant money have offsets for benefits.

(Chris Schweitzer) Mr. Schweitzer says yes.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson asks what "other" on page 18 includes.

(Chris Schweitzer) Mr. Schweitzer says that's non-special education transport and facilities.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson asks if there's an offset for nutritional services on page 56.

(Chris Schweitzer) Mr. Schweitzer says yes.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson asks about the zeros on page 74.

(Chris Schweitzer) Mr. Schweitzer says those adjustments come from restructuring.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson notes there are a lot of abbreviations on page 85. He says a key would help. He asks what budget considerations keep the Superintendent up at night.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says the state has instituted regulations that require more services but they have not provided funding for them.

(Elizabeth Dray, Precinct 10) Ms. Dray sees an increase in non-native English-speaking students, but a cut in positions to serve them.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says there were staffing increases after the pandemic. The reduction was realized by current vacancies.

(Elizabeth Dray) Ms. Dray asks if school enrollment is leveling off.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says enrollment is declining.

(Michelle Durocher, Precinct 19) Ms. Durocher asks if there are regional services we can use in order to get cost reductions.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says yes. We do this in special education by being part of the LABBB collaborative. We've also been looking for ways to partner with other communities on transport.

(Michelle Durocher) Ms. Durocher asks if remote learning is ever a component.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says no. We are required to provide learning in person.

(Christian Klein, Precinct 10) Mr. Klein asks if we're losing Title I funding.

(Liz Homan) Ms. Homan says it looks like we won't lose Title I funding. But the funding was delayed last year.

(Pi Fisher, Precinct 6) Mr. Fisher moves the question.

Motion to end debate on the education budget passes by voice vote.

Libraries

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson notes that all town departments had their budgets cut by 10%. He asks if our library accreditation will be maintained.

(Anna Litten, Director of Libraries) Ms. Litten says the library's appropriation exceeded the amount required for accreditation by 1.7%.

Retirement

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson would like to say a few words about offsets. If enterprise funds are not fully paid, the difference has to be made up from the general fund. B-14 only shows one offset from enterprise funds. Other budgets, like insurance, have additional offsets. He'd like to see more offsets in the future.

Insurance

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson says it's important to look at offsets. He hopes to see categories for school non-professional health care.

(David Brecht, Precinct 10) Mr. Brecht says that Arlington is part of the state's GIC program. He asks if anyone has priced other sources of insurance.

(Caryn Molloy, Director of Human Resources) Ms. Molloy says the GIC covers 500,000 people, so it's a large pool. We do shop around every other year but have not found a provider that beats the price. The town uses a broker to approach health insurance companies.

(David Brecht) Mr. Brecht understands that some communities don't participate in the GIC program. He asks why those towns are successful.

(Caryn Molloy) Ms. Molloy acknowledges that some towns get health insurance from other providers. She says it's something to watch.

(Andrew Fischer, Precinct 6) Mr. Fischer asks if there are trends in the cost of self-insured workers compensation.

(Michael Cunningham, Town Counsel) Mr. Cunningham says he's noticed an increase in some areas and we do our best to provide benefits. The money comes out of the insurance budget.

(Paul Schlichtman, Precinct 9) Mr. Schlichtman says the schools moved from a contracted program to the GIC about 14 years ago. There was a considerable cost savings from doing so.

Budget passes, 188--0--2.

Article 65 - Capital Budget

(Christopher Moore, Capital Planning Committee) Mr. Moore says the capital budgeting process is about taking a bunch of good requests and shoehorning them into the budget that we have. The Capital Planning Committee's report covers acquisition and debt service. It's the first year of our five-year capital plan. This year's budget has $19.6M in acquisitions which will be paid for by cash, bonds, and a category called "other" which includes money from grants. There will be $6.9M in bonding which will incur future debt service. We use bonding for expenses over $100,000. 59% of our debt repayments are for exempt debt. The capital budget is set a 5% of the operating budget, and we have to make tradeoffs since the size is capped. The costs for the Ottoson and Hardy schools are not included in the capital budget for FY28.

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson suggests that other departments might be able to use the DPW's wash shed to extend vehicle lives. Getting six years out of a five-year entity is a 20% savings.

(Christopher Moore) Mr. Moore says we do look at what we can stretch.

(Gordon Jamieson) Mr. Jamieson asks about the antenna offset.

(Christopher Moore) Mr. Moore says he hasn't researched that item.

(Ed Trembly, Precinct 19) Mr. Trembly notes the budget has $250k for envelope restoration of the police building. He asks if we just did that a few years ago.

(Christopher Moore) Mr. Moore says the police station was renovated a few years ago, but not everything was done. There are leaks which need to be fixed.

(Jay McNeil, Director of Facilities) Mr. McNeil says the building's roof is more than 20 years old and needs to be recoated before new HVAC equipment is installed. There's also a deteriorating fiberglass skylight and cracks in the concrete to repair.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney say there was a renovation some years ago. The roof and skylight were not done at that time.

Capital budget passes, 181--0--1.

Article 66 - Ottoson Middle School Feasibility Study

(Liz Homan, School Superintendent) Ms. Homan says the Ottoson is at the first stage in the MSBA process, which involves information gathering. For the Ottoson, the preferred priority is replacement. There are a number of concerns with the building, including HVAC, roof leaks, the design of the building, envelope deterioration, and lack of accessibility. We performed a capital needs assessment for the Ottoson in 2022, and the needs were beyond what our capital budget could support. The MSBA's engineers and architects determined that the school needed rebuilding.

(Julie Wayman, Deputy Town Manager) Ms. Wayman says Arlington submitted two statements of interest in 2025 and this article is about securing funding for a feasibility study. The study will determine the final site and cost of the project. The Arlington High School took ten years from statement of interest to completion, and the Ottoson school may take a similar amount of time. Both the project and borrowing would be phased.

(Wynelle Evans, Precinct 14) Ms. Evans asks why the cost of the Ottoson Feasibility Study is twice that of the high school feasibility study.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says the High School feasibility study cost $2M. The Ottoson feasibility study would cost $2.5M.

(Faton Limani, Precinct 15) Mr. Limani asks how the budget payments will work.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says we have to meet the eligibility requirements first. If we do, then we'll be invited to do a feasibility study and would proceed from there.

(Faton Limani) Mr. Limani strongly supports this as a way to plan for an aging facility.

(Metin Kilic, Precinct 11) Mr. Kilic asks how much money we got for the high school, and what was the percentage offset.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says the high school cost $284M and $200M of that was borrowed.

(Andy Greenspon, Precinct 5, Point of Order) Mr. Greenspon asks if town staff will be here Monday night to answer questions.

(Greg Christiana, Town Moderator) Mr. Christiana says that school staff have indicated that they'll be here.

(Christine Deshler, Finance Committee Chair) Ms. Deshler moves reconsideration on articles 64 and 65.

Meeting adjourns at 23:00.