Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order at 7:15. Um, first item Oh, is the roll call. H, you thought I was going to skip that. Justin present. Colleen here. K. Kristen here. John here. Ken here. Sandy here. Jack here. Um Paul is absent. Jan here. No, I saw you. Okay, thank you. Um the first um item minutes, did everybody have a chance to review them? Any questions, additions, concerns, corrections from March?

I move we approve the minutes from March. Second. Um, any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Oh, I I Okay, sorry. We just got to do the roll call. Justin, I Colleen, hi. Kristen, I John, Ken, I Sandy, I. Jack, I and Jan, I clear the motion carried unanimously. Um the next [clears throat] item is the treasures report which is the same report as last month.

This is the same as last month. And I'll just reiterate that it shows the uh uh the various warrants that the FINCOM appro approved last night. And uh it leaves the u if everything is approved by town meeting, there will be a million144 $145,000 available for a grant in the future. Okay. So, we've still got enough money to do most anything we that comes before us. Okay. Um, do I have a motion? Any any questions?

Uh, I move we accept the treasur report as presented. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Justin I. Colleen. I. Kristen. I. John. I Ken I Sandy I Jack I and Jan I clear the motion carried unanimously um CPTC brochure everybody have a chance to review

so sorry for all of you playing at home you don't get to see the lovely printouts I brought um but it really it was just all of the input you guys gave at the last meeting I I put it in there. Um with the exception of one thing, I'm going to swap out one of the photos for a photo that Paul had sent me. Um I had just had these printed already by the time he sent them to me. So I'm going to do that and then we'll have wonderful handout for our spring town meeting. And I did um I saw the um town moderator and she said that you had already talked to her about whatever we need to do logistically, but she also told me that I don't know if we're going to be on the hallway because they're going to set up the commons for additional overflow seating because they think there might be a huge crowd. So they usually they have all that extra space for checking in. So that may not be where it normally

you would find them just so you know that. Yeah. Yeah. And do you need help with either copying or handing it out or are you just going to leave them on the table? Yeah. So what I do this is how I even get these like the few you guys have. I have Amber print them out because we have a really nice printer at the town hall. Um so I'll just have her print. I don't know. Like you said it's probably going to be a big attendance. But do you think everybody's going to grab one of these? No. So I don't know how many of you guys think I should ask her to print. Mostly the hardest part is just getting them all folded and I'm happy to help you with that. That's fine. I know. Let's see. My guess is 100. Okay. Probably plenty. That's Yeah.

All right. So, I'll get I'll get a hundred. I'll ask Amber if she could make me hundred and then I'll get those all folded in the next week and I'll have them at town meeting. Okay. If you want, just leave some in my box in the box and I'll fold them up. Come by. I mean, I'm happy to help. I can fold them. Um, and then what'sever left over we can give to the treasure. Well, the well that the treasure I always call it the wrong one. I think it's the treasure collectors because they people asked and they wanted new ones. Perfect. So it won't go wasted. We'll have a stock for them. Okay. In that case, do 200. Nope. [laughter] No. No more ideas.

I don't know that they need that many, but All right. Thank you for doing that. That's uh and this will be a great thing to have. It's good for reference and quick reference for people that are interested in what we do and how we've spent our money over the years. Um the next item I just put it on here just in case we wanted if anyone wanted to talk about the word articles. I think um Ken and I went last night to FinCom and it took them 10 minutes at the most 5 to 10 minutes just to say is this the same thing as you know because most of them are housekeeping the 10% reserves for the um um administrative reserve the the transfer you know for the designated fundament are two articles and then um Skip talked about the one for the um Kan Ives and then um we just brief we didn't really talk about the one before the

trail just briefly about the the trails. So yeah, you know was they had no questions or concerns. So that on that front I forgot to between last meeting and now discuss a planning board about the one article the article that Fiona brought before us that was going to tell me that that that's the one and I did I met with William Tuesday and he I said who is there somebody from town or planning that will talk to this because this is planning article

and I think he must have talked to Evan because last time Evan said he kind of took ownership of the article since they don't have the new planner on board yet. So I said I think Donna Williams might be there as well. So there might be somebody else in the audience that has answers if there questions. Um, but it sounded like he would be okay, perfect. Available. I do know the new planner starts on town meeting day, but I don't think they'll be up to speed to answer questions by that night. Let me get back to you on it. Won't work for me. [laughter]

Okay. Um, moving on. Um, Paul's not here, so we don't have an update on the archival project. Some of the documents had been sent over to Green Dragon Bindery in I believe it's in Westboro if not Shbury. Um so I think just waiting on those to be completed and returned. Um the next item Deacon Abner stove historic gravestone reproduction project. Um again I think in the minutes from tonight it's going to be a year before this. It's going to take be slow going through Mass Historical and then getting it um uh that approved, getting things worked out with Evan about the the location here at the um um municipal center and then having the uh stone replicated. So, it's at least we're moving in the right we're moving we're no longer um stuck. We're moving on that. So, that's a good thing. um 95 North Street, which are really trying to call Ainsworth Ingval Farm Memorial Park project.

Um Adam gave me an update. They're working on the pavilion now. Um so once they wrap that up, then they would schedule the ribbon cutting or whatever we're going to call it. Um so I will let everybody know as soon as they tell us they're done. Do you have any other updates, Sandy? um from conservation.

Yeah, I've just been um the one reviewing and approving the bills and invoices and so forth. So, we're getting down to the end as specifically on kind of the punch list items. So, it's it's majority of it is is been completed. Um there's still some things that need to be finished up. And I don't know if we talked about this at the last meeting or if I talked to some again. It's like I can't remember where I get information, but it's amazing. I can't I can't remember it that the we had we did talk about it and the the concern was the outer loop was not going to be included. Maybe it was Evan that I talked to. It was Evan because I saw him at the insurance town insurance meeting

and he said that is complete. They only they have to go back and I guess they're little baby trees that that they cut they do something that are in the trail and then put more of the um whatever the surface is. Okay. Down. But there will be yeah the crush that there will be an outer loop as well. So they were both to get they were able to get both of them in. It just it was not whereas the handicap pack was pretty much finished. That one still had to do one more cut of the little baby saplings that were coming up. So, okay, that's good.

So, that I I was waiting I was to tell Paul because I knew Paul was really eager to know that it would be included. Then we wouldn't have to wait another um round of funding for that. So, so that's good. I think people I I was very pleased, very impressed with with it. What I saw which you went over there probably month or six weeks ago. It was, you know, the snow had melted and you could get in. I couldn't get in there. That was I brought walked around, but it it was nice. It looks good.

Um the housing authority, the Gallagher Rental Assistance, Jack, any new any new funding requests? Nope, we're still pretty healthy in the account and I've been pretty focused on it's budget year, so we're trying to do some other more procedural things, maintenance allocations, stuff like that. But no updates on the rental assistance program except I guess EOHLC has a new chair now. It has for a little bit. So maybe we'll take another stab at getting the state to recognize the program and maybe that could go into spreading it a little bit. Other than that, no update.

Okay. Oh, that's good. Thank you. Um Justin, uh any new information on Cisco Homestead? I haven't seen anything from Ray yet and Okay. I'm guessing you also would have seen.

Okay. No, I didn't see anything other than they wanted to know how much money was left because I think they were kind of getting to probably at the end if they're if they're worried about how much money is left. um congregational church. I did see um Andy Duchaine the parking lot somewhere and asked him about that and he said that he is working with the contractors that to the contractors that did the work at the UYU society to do this the steeple was the the big question and so they're trying to coordinate schedules on when it's going to start and the hope is that it will start soon within the next month or So, um,

is that like year two on that one that we did a sunset extension? So, that's good.

The first grant would have expired in June. And, you know, the hope is it'll be done July, you know, August at the latest. So, that way it's covered and protected. um estimates at Woodsbridge project. They were going to be working this spring on a second bridge and I don't have an update from them on that in terms of when they plan to do that. So I don't know a timeline that but that will finish um close out. Um any questions about any of the projects? Not moving on. Affordable housing trust update. Um so we did meet with um our new council. So there's a transition period happening right now between our old council and our new council. Um [snorts] that seems to be going well. And you know we're waiting to on board with the new town planner when they start. Um trying to think if there was anything else. We're trying to um meet with the person [snorts] helping us with 25 street. We we're trying to get them on the books and that's about it.

Okay. Um [snorts] because I know there was a big flurry and I can't remember if this was before our last meeting because the there were bulldozers and they were setting up. You took 25 or 27 17. Um that I went over there and I didn't see anything like this was Friday then Saturday morning somebody said the bulldozers are moving. So, I ran over there early Saturday morning and talked to the guys and they were really nice and they said, "Oh, no, no, no. We're not touching the barn. We're just clearing the land." But they literally cut down every tree. The bigger problem was they still did not own the property. They do now, though. It's all They didn't when they were doing all this.

Yep. It was definitely a mistake on their end, but it's all completely buttoned up, closed. Everything is theirs now. And there was also a concern about because they cut every tree down so you can see up north street now and some of those I don't know if if that got resolved in terms of were they supposed to leave some trees? Did they take more trees than they were supposed to? But it was I do have one more project date that wasn't on the list. Yeah. The um um the Providence Road purchase.

Oh, okay. The purchase is complete and the uh land trust hosted Evan Leah and that representative of the trails group, the Blackstone trails group on a tour of that property about two weeks ago and uh it went very well. It was a beautiful day and it was it's a beautiful property. Great. And so uh the one more thing there's two more things. One is that uh the conservation restriction and baseline reports uh work has not yet been initiated. Uh it's up to Leah to do that. Sandy, we should probably add that.

And up until recently, she wasn't aware that it was required, but uh in the course of that tour, uh Evan and uh mentioned, you know, cleared her up that it was required. And so, uh, she needs to do something to get going on that. And I can also report separately that the land trust has agreed to hold the CR if asked and could readily create that CR and the baseline report and get the show on the road there. I know we approve funding for it. Yes, it's the funding for it's approved.

Yeah. And so Leah was just unaware that she was supposed to do that until recently. Okay. So it's not that she is having to do it. She just needs to coordinate. She need she needs to, you know, ask the land trust if they want to do it and if they will say okay. And the last thing I would like to offer is that u members of this committee might be interested in taking a tour of that property as well. Yeah. Yep. And I'd be happy to uh show you show everybody around if we can uh come up with a date that we'd like to do that. Yeah. When now that you've you've tooured it. So yeah, I'm pretty familiar with it.

Is there a [clears throat] better time of year like before it gets too overgrown or This time of year would be perfect. Okay. And the best time of day is, you know, you know, in the early afternoon. And to do a full tour takes two hours. It can we can do it a little shorter if you want, but you know, to see the whole 40 acres. I think Leah and Evan wanted the full tour, but we could do one that's sort of an hour to an hour and a half. Okay. And uh I know for this group weekends might be better.

Yeah. For for me. And so, uh, if anybody can, you know, well, let me rephrase it as a question. How would we go about scheduling that? Um, either I can I can send an email out and say, you know, throw out you can tell me. I'm pretty flexible. I'm pretty flexible. and what times. Then I could put, you know, a couple out and have people respond to me saying, "Yeah, starting starting between say 1:00 and 2 o'clock and going for about an hour and a half would be ideal." And of course, good weather is always nice. I think if there's going to be a quorum that attends it, we probably

So if there if there's five people, we've got to post it. It just says attend a tour of this property, you know, no other business. You something like that. Okay. So, if you want to put put out a request for that, John, that would be great because I, you know, it's beautiful. You guys would like to see it, I'm sure. Yeah. When you said that you had done the tour, I was like, "Oh, um, so yeah, that would thank you for offering that." Okay. So, um, that's it. like the phone and not not this weekend but next weekend. I'll say, you know, Saturday at 1, Sunday at 1. Yeah, something like that. And see if people either time works better.

Yeah, there are uh there there there are apps, online apps for doing this kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know how to use them. I I've participated in them in them. I've never initiated one. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. um CPA science project. I don't know if you can share I sent it to you so you could share it or you can share it on the screen so people can see I sent an email. Yeah, I have that. Let me see if I can come up with

um and there's there's one with the price and one um with the um the design that they did. And they did do uh a little beaver which looked okay. We were that's what we wanted and at first it was not coming back really good. So, Okay, this is the estimate and

it's like blow that up because I don't have that number printed in my head. It was like six 6,69241 I think we're reading. Yeah. Yeah. 6700 for the sign. That's in line to the prices that what we can we paid that I can recall in the past and there is a discount up above that they I guess the town gets a discount um which kind of covered I can't remember like if you can scroll up it roughly covers the installation price maybe that's what yeah it seems like that kind of covered assuming there's no need for police detail etc.

Yep. and at home. Can they see this? Yes, they should be able to. So, this is the the sign which is the the granite posts.

Yeah, this is the standard sign and even the town is using these signs now. I couldn't go ahead. The town is using the signs with the granite post. Yeah, I like it. Everybody's good with that. Double checking when we Is this coming out of the pro admin because they didn't put for the sign? This comes out of the admin, right?

Do you need a Do we need to do a vote? Um, we've talked about it before, but it's like I would be happy to entertain a motion um to uh move forward with this fabrication of this sign. So moved. Second. Well, that's easy. CJ CJCJ. Any discussion? None. Hearing none. Where is the sign going? Kim's going to decide. [laughter] It'll be it'll be along along along the highway that's at a wide spot. There's a wide enough spot for that.

Well, we could do that where people kind of park and like you know where those apartments are. Unfortunately, that it's not part of that on the curb across the street right there anyway. See what happened? Kind of in that general area. It It's Do you know where those apartments are? Yes. Across the street in kind of in that whatever direction that is southish. It's it's kind of where the no trespassing sign used to be. So where it may still be there. Is that where the sale sign was for a long time? Probably. Right. Because that's where there there was at least one. You don't have to take any trees down for it though. Okay. Go ahead.

No, because there's plenty of land on the road between the road and the trees. So the kids volunteered to site the sign. And are they going to cuz one of the signs that it's well two of them the way they have them it's almost like so you can see it going either way rather than if you're coming from Grafton like you're about to grab I would rather have it be tilted a little bit. This one is you could set back where it doesn't affect it so much but the um park on 122 the the field river view right that that sign is just to me on kind of a corner.

It should be cocked to to where you can see it if you're coming from the center of town to me. And what's the other one? And even for the um Silver Lake Beach, I would have put it on the other side of where the gates are so that you're coming from town and you see it there because it's like you've almost passed it before you see it. Um so, you know, this one's going to be tricky because the road is kind of straight there. Yeah. And it can be set back up, but you have more setback. Those did not have real good setback to be able to give you some room so you can see it better from the road.

And just before we go to say as well, I'm not sure offhand if this needs to come before like planning for like where it will go or that kind of thing. Oh, it's not planning. It's the building inspector because I did talk about that too. Yeah. So, why would planning? Sometimes the planning board does have to does have the jurisdiction over where signs go and how they you know like that's a cool sign. That's the one I'm thinking of that. Yeah. I I don't know if this falls under plane board if it falls under just building inspector jurisdiction only. If it falls under or if it falls under ZBA because all three of those could be in charge of a sign. Wow.

You know separately. It's it's not there's no overspectctor has the overlap but planning and ZBA don't have an overlap. Do town bodies have a waiver? The only way some of these rules, no, I brought this up with William. Again, we talked about a lot of stuff. That was one of the things because I said there are other signs that I was t asking about that. Um, I wanted to find out, do we have to have a permit from the town? Because I said like for CPC, I don't even know if the the ones that we have and said, I don't even want to ask. I don't want to know. We didn't put them in. the people that did the project had them put in. So, if they work with the building inspector, I don't know. Right.

But the new building inspector wants all of this to have a paper trail as he described it, as William described it, so that there's a paper trail so that it was approved, but then the fee would be waved. We would not have to pay the fee that you would have normally have to pay, but they do want to have it go through the process.

Yeah. And typically pling board has also fees if it go application fees. I don't recall if town managed projects automatically get waved or if we you know I know we we vote to wave for water district projects and typically we approve those waivers but and so if this comes before the planning board it probably be a ask to wave or maybe automatically wave right but that's I think the point for us right now is we're voting to have sunsh shines make the sign and to start the next steps on getting it out.

It's going to take a month to six weeks, she said. So, it's not like it's going to be ready anytime soon. But I also said I think if Sunshine signed this, they would almost ex expect to go through whatever process to get a permit because I don't think they'd put a sign in the ground without a permit. I think yeah, I suspect they know what process to go through to figure out the stuff, but the point is they're the quote document does say does not include any fees. So, we'd have to figure out the process to get the those fees waved if possible, if there is fees involved.

For building inspector, it seems like that built William didn't tell me if there was a a process or it just automatically would be waved. Can I make a suggestion? Yeah, the two I don't know. Can we add a section into our award letter where it just spells it out for who to go see and that creates paper trail and it's in our award letter and then they know what to do exactly. So, I'll need to get the process whether it's BI only or planning or ZBA or a little bit of everything. it that way. Award paragraph info about the y process and then it'll be buttoned up works for me.

Okay. Um any other discussion hearing? None. Justin, I Colleen, hi. Kristen, I John I Ken I Sandy I Jack I J Chan I um clear the motion carried unanimously. Um and no more no update for Lake Wildwood. So motion to adjurnn. Second CJ Justin I Colleen I Kristen [snorts] I John I Ken I Sandy I Jack I Chan

I the motion carried unanimously we are adjourned at 7:44 Good track.