The Town of Concord 2229 Main Street Advisory Task Force moved nearer to finalizing its report, agreeing on a production timeline and a set of next steps to get the document to Select Board members and the public.

At the meeting Chair Paul Domen said the draft is "95% of the way there" and proposed hiring a vendor for final editing and production with a roughly three- to four‑week turnaround so a produced PDF and a small set of printed copies can be available for Select Board review before a January public forum. Domen said the task force will try to complete a vote on the report at its meeting on Nov. 26 so staff can send the report to the Select Board and schedule a public hearing afterwards.

Why it matters: The report consolidates the task force’s findings on reuse, liability, remediation status and communications for the 2229 Main Street Superfund site; the timing will determine when the Select Board and the public can formally comment and whether the town will begin next‑stage planning in early 2025.

Key decisions and open items

- Production and editing: Members asked whether the vendor (referred to as Skio) will handle copy editing and glossary tasks and whether those costs can be covered with uncommitted ARPA funds. The group agreed to confirm funding and vendor scope with staff (Megan) and bring a final recommendation to the next meeting.

- Appendices and links: The task force agreed that appendices and links should remain available online, and discussed whether to include two institutional-control documents as links rather than full printed appendices. Members asked staff to harvest and organize links and to list appendices and figures in the table of contents.

- Schedule: The task force scheduled meetings for Nov. 12 and Nov. 26; the chair said the Nov. 26 meeting would be used to vote on the report for transmission to the Select Board, with a public forum to follow once the Select Board has read the draft.

Votes at a glance

- Acceptance of Oct. 15 meeting minutes: motion made and the membership recorded support (voice vote) to accept the minutes.

- Acceptance of executive session minutes (Oct. 1): motion passed with one recorded abstention (Kurt Herman); the committee agreed not to release the executive session minutes yet and to decide on release before the task force ends.

What’s next: Staff will compile outstanding editorial comments for one more week, the chair will request a sample footnote for an example about responsible parties’ proactive actions, and the group will confirm whether the production vendor will handle final editing and glossary work and whether ARPA funds can be used to cover those costs.

The task force set the next full meetings for Nov. 12 and Nov. 26, with a vote expected at the latter meeting.