Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

[Music] to order. Um, and we'll skip right to Evan and Okay. You want to share? All right. Um, so on the screen in front of you is a project that I've been working with uh the select board on. Select Board has seen um these parcels and and know about the general idea of of what we're moving towards and is generally supportive, but they have not signed a purchase and sale or done anything um official at the current time. They will take this up at their next meeting in August. Um so we have an offer in front of us for three parcels. Um these parcels are uh here on the map uh which is third uh 324 Proidence Road. There is uh 334 Proidence Road rear and there is 380 Providence Road rear. Um these three parcels equal a total of 41 uh.47 give or take acres. Um, and they are uh right along the Blackstone River. This is the Blackstone that bisects the property uh right down the middle. The town has interest in this uh we think in a number of ways.

Yeah. Uh doesn't doesn't that um the southwestern parcel also contain a segment of the Blackstone Canal itself? I believe that's what this easement shows. Right. Right. Blackstone Canal is not shown on, you know, as a river as water, but the canal runs to the south west of the land trust parcel. Okay. And it extends right through that piece that you're highlighting there. Yeah. All the way into North Bridge. Okay. So, it it owns I think there's a half a mile of the Blackstone Canal as well. Okay. Excellent. In parallel to the river. Okay. Excellent. And that's really cool.

Yeah, it is cool. Um, the land trust land that Ken was was uh noting is actually this this land here. Um, yeah, that water blurb you see there is the Blackstone Canal, and it does extend in parallel all the way down. Neat. I haven't been back in there yet, but um I'm I'm on our list of And the uh the land trust piece actually includes an old lock. Okay. Of for the of the canal. Yeah. Neat. Very neat. And the toe paths are still there right now. You can walk down to Topaz if you don't mind getting thorns all over thorn scratches.

Um, awesome. So, uh, this land, uh, as we're discussing, so we're in between two town owned parcels currently. So, we've got the water treatment plant here for the sewer department and we've got, um, the cemetery here, which is Fair View Cemetery. Um, in looking at these parcels, I think it's unlikely that we would expand the cemetery at any point into this area. Um, there is a pretty steep grade between the two. Um, and this does have some wetland that kind of borders where the cemetery is. Um, the perspective uses that we've discussed at least preliminar preliminarily, it's just regular open space, passive recreation for residents to enjoy. Um, there is also some potential on this parcel that I'm looking at right here and that it is flat. Um, that we may be able to look at that for future field space. However, we're not going to say it's 100% going to be uh future field space because the uh amount of study that it may take to make that work with our um engineer is not realistic in the time frame that we have to try to close out this property. So what I've been saying to the select board and what I'll say to all of you is that I think that this land holds tremendous value as far as conservation is concerned and uh public access and um as Ken was talking some historical value as well. Um and I think we should contemplate purchasing it on those merits alone and if we can create field space in the future um I think that's just a a bonus. So for that parcel 60 or that Yeah. lot 60.

Yeah. Is there either a road or a access to So there is because this parcel here 62 Uhhuh. that's one of the parcels that's included in these three. So it's a little bit steep of an access here. Um not insurmountably. So I did I did do some due diligence on this this spot. Um so I think this is your your best egress here. Um because while there's egress down here, there is also some some wetland uh that may pose a challenge. We can all we we can work around wetland, but it's always more expensive. Um and so I think if we come off of I believe there's a trail there's trail access from the cemetery. There is. Yep.

I meant vehicular like for people to come in and right knock their kids off. Right. So vehicularly I I think um you'd be coming in off a 324 here. Um but there is there already are walking trails in in this that go up along the se uh sewer department um all down to the the um cemetery. The uh is is parking uh you know you know would parking be okay in the cemetery because that's town property as well. Yeah. So I think we'd have to we'd have to navigate that but there is quite a bit of property that's unutilized uh kind of down towards the street. Um yeah, there's kind of like an unpaved road that goes around the outside, right? The perimeter road there.

And there's access from that to this parcel. Yep. Yeah. So, um you have to cross the brook, right? And so that's one of the that's why I'm a little hesitant on saying 100% yes, that's what we would do. Um, however, where the I if that's not feasible or only partially feasible, um, this parcel here is large enough, I think, that we could create. How about access? That was me. How about access from the, uh, the the the sewer department driveway? Um, I don't know. I have not had that conversation with the sewer commissioners uh yet

because you could uh uh you can walk down the driveway and you just stay to the left on the high side, walk into the woods and you're there. Yes. Um and it's flat.

Yep. Yep. And this parcel here, this 62 that I was just talking about, let me turn on the uh Whoops, wrong button. You turn on the topographic. Um, so it's about 20 ft uh a 20ft difference between the road and here which is is a hill but it's not insurmountable. And then once you're on top of that, it's pretty flat. So again, if we put a if we didn't want to have residents um you know skirt the the sewer treatment plant or you know the cemetery um I think we have a good access point here as well that we could you could build a stairway. Yep.

Build a stairs down there. stairway or even a a a small driveway that would go up there that you know you just close for the winter time if it's a foot of snow or something. You know, I I I do quite a bit of uh camping and hiking and you see those type of little accesses kind of all over the place. So, I think we have a lot of options uh to get there. I also talked um with Rob from the land trust um when we were first meeting and going over um looking at their parcel that is here. We actually own 60 depot street over here and have a a potential that little Yeah, that that text title thing. So we could if that were a parking area that'd be nice,

right? That's what we were thinking as well. So, I think there's a lot of options here and I think the land has quite a bit of again I think it's got a lot of conservation value of its own merit and if we could ever add field space which we desperately need that would be a a bonus but I think that standalone it's a I was down there this spring and I can attest that the river front is beautiful it's just beautiful. Yeah. Excellent. And I think in terms of access, even though that 62 parcel seems a bit narrow, seeing here, because there's so much open space on the right side of the 63 parcel where the sewage plant is. Yeah. It's it's much more open than it seems by just looking at that 62 parcel in terms of access.

Yeah, I think so as well. And one of the things I was looking at when I was down there is that um you know, this parcel uh alone is a is a 1.3 acres. So it it's not that small of a spot. If we were going to put Can you call up the wetland features? I can. I should be Where am I? Here we go. Yeah, you can. So, the wet the water kind of seeps out of the out of that the the incline there. Yes. It seeps out of the bottom of that and it then so the the uh buildable lot section has some water on it.

Yes. Down here. The other the other piece um that I I want to continue to talk about, we've t we're going to talk about this with the board uh for full transparency is that this um is heavily involved with the FEMA flood uh plane. So, uh, this is where you would be in a regulatory floodway and this is where, um, you'd have a a higher than average chance of flood. Yeah. And, uh, the news tells us every night that floods happen.

It does. So, I think that, you know, again, I think there's tremendous value in this property. I think that if we go into it with eyes open and we know, yep, that's a it's a river. it floods and um you know there's some potential future use um but there's some immediate conservation value and um passive recreation use and if everybody thinks that that's valuable I think that that would be a a good purchase for the town. So what's the status of you know what's the procedure for the town to to go forward with this you need an appraisal right?

Yep. So, right now, um, we just finished a draft of a purchase and sale agreement. And so, what the purchase and sale agreement contemplates is that, um, the town will enter into a purchase and sale, do an appraisal. Will will that have an an amount on it? It will. So, the amount that that appraisal, uh, will show is 450,000. Mhm. Um, however, if the appraisal comes in below that number, that appraisal value is the highest value that the town can pay. Um, say 475, you said. No, 450. 450. Yep. Okay.

So, essentially what that means is that if we come in at our appraisal shows us at 350,000, um, that's the most we can pay. And then that the seller can either decide to honor that appraisal and drop their selling price or they can walk away from the deal. So is the 4 the $450,000 uh assuming you know based on the premise that it's a uh a buildable you know commercial lot. Yeah. So to be clear $450 $450 $450,000 is what the seller is asking. It seems like high by a factor of two or three personally speaking. So, um,

three probably. As I stated before, this has not gone before the select board. So, the select board has the opportunity to counter that number. Um, the select board has the ability to accept that number and go through with the appraisal. And if the appraisal is higher than 450, let's say hypothetically, then 450 would become the floor that what they pay. I can't imagine it would be. I I'm not gonna say it on TV because I'm still negotiating with with the seller.

Um, so the the select board is still needing to a dive deeper into this. Just time frame wise, if if the end goal is town meeting, realistically, when do we think the select board and then their counters and all of that get wrapped up so that it can get before us to potentially vote to get it to town meeting? It's a great question, Colleen. And I don't know that I have that exact answer. So, um, the only reason I ask is because we we typically meet once a month, but I think if everybody's interested, we would want to get additional meetings on the books to help facilitate this process.

So, I think that by the end of next week, I will have a more firm timeline on what that looks like. So, what I'm trying to do is that knowing that we're coming into that um next meeting with the select board. I'm trying to get the quote for the appraiser the appraiser lined up and ready to go um so that we can do that as quickly as possible. And um I already have legal primed. We've got they're negotiating directly with the sellers attorney. So, we've got that all. So, we're the short answer is I don't know exactly uh how to answer that question, but um like I said, I think by the time I get to the end of next week, I will have a schedule.

But for for our purposes, we have deadlines because you have deadlines. Correct. I I So our if if you can open the warrant if it's been closed for this purpose, we haven't even opened the warrant yet. Right. So we that's that's the only stumbling block we would have but you guys control that. So yes, you know up until right before town meeting which is so so you could open it for this purpose and then close it again. Yeah. I mean and we could just leave it open. Okay. Until you know I I think it's if the select board says yes, we have an interest inward on the same side.

Right. So there's no reason to to hinder the process by closing the warrant arbitrarily. has conservation uh had a chance to weigh in on this? Not not yet. The conservation department is very excited about it. They think it's a great parcel. Um we have asked that it be put before the conservation commission and have them weigh in on it. They're going to love it. The I I I I honestly foresee that going very favorably. It's a highly desirable. Yes. It's like uh so the for conservation the the two larger lots uh seem to be useful only for conservation or and recreation purposes not commercial purposes or residential because they're flood plane issues. Yeah.

Only the and so the the value of it beyond a straight conservation val you know can't could never be built by anybody. So it's not being protected from conservation from protected from development. it's just not developable. And so the value of it all hinges on what's the value of that uh small parcel and whether or not that could be developed in any way and in what way, right? Because it it's steep. It has water in it. And so but it has some flat land down there. Yeah. If you can get to it. Yeah. Exactly.

And so that's really the crux of it. And so based on that, I you find the 450 to be uh you know that the that the you you report that the owner is asking for is to be uh wildly high. So that's my assessment. If it can't if it's if it's the if it's not usefully developable for any real purpose, then it doesn't have much value and the rest of the property doesn't add value either. And so it ought to be someplace down closer to 100 than 400, but I think they're still actively negotiating all of that right now. So I don't know, we want to

So I just wanted to uh I just wanted to, you know, let you know what what I personally think and uh and I'm certainly in favor of all the things you're doing. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Would it be helpful if we sent the select board a letter of support saying that if they did choose to go forward with it that the CPC supports it and would be helpful in helpful in funding it just to so that that just one last thing you know I I think it would be helpful for them to know that and I mean I'm clearly going to report back to them but um I think it would be helpful for them to have something that we could put in their packet perhaps. Correct. Y

um even if it's in general terms Yep. like, you know, we might not agree 100% with the cost or or how we're going to do this, but since we know there's a lot to unfold in in generality, yeah, we we think this is a good project to move forward with. Okay. Just so that they don't say, "Well, do we have funding for it?" And it slows the whole process down even more if we're having it somewhat present. Yeah. I originally thought that we were going to be able to get in front of the select board at the last meeting, the meeting of this Tuesday. Yep. Um that was the first half hour you missed. This was Yes. This this uh winds up being a little serendipitous, I think, in that uh it threw the the schedule off a little bit, but Okay. So, our next meeting is September 25th. Okay.

We can meet more than that if needed um to deal with this, but I think we'll just wait and see how next week come unfolds. Yeah. What I what what my hope is is that by the end of next week, I can put together a timeline that I can send out to you folks, select everybody that's involved in this that shows kind of our our deadline dates and what we think we're going to be able to achieve. Um, I think the problems that you're going to have are with this the, you know, the owner. He's going, you know, he he's going to want way too much money and, you know, he'll get, you know, he he'll try to bargain for as long as he can to get as much as he can, of course. Yep. I think that's what we're used we're used to.

Um so I think that uh you know again the the appraisal is the appraisal. So we'll see we'll see how that goes. The next you haven't engaged an appraiser yet but you expect we've tenatively we we have an appraiser that we use for all of our appraising needs. Um and so they've been for warned that this is coming. Um and they're going to work up a quote for us. Yes. open space appraisal is kind of a a specialty in that business. And so, uh, I'm wondering, uh, if the appraiser that the town uses is, you know, is, you know, has some, you know, some expertise in open space appraisals.

Yes, they do. They're the ones that we've used for for pretty much all of the projects that you've had coming before you, but also um, you know, this is this is a highest and best use appraisal, so they got to be able to do both. and and folks that do this for municipalities that have that experience are I I've had very good results with I mean they they they drill down and say that's in the floodway that's only going to be open space that's what it is and this parcel is developable and this is how it works that they're very detailed I I'm I'm very confident in our our ability to get a fair appraisal good so the the big question that Ken has to answer is available resources that CPC would have

450 would be hard. Okay. But I looking at what our balance is. I mean, we have more than that. Yeah, we do. We do. And and and I don't know if there's anything else coming up. But I mean, again, it's it's it's not on our it's not in front of us. So, if we had to do 450, we would gag and do it if that's what you mean. Okay. We still That's seems crazy. We'd prefer that financing it. Excuse me. We'd prefer that than financing it like some other project. It's It's not big enough to need financing. I know it's a small amount, but and that would be another hurdle to I would you know if we have to finance it, we're paying or overpaying.

Yeah. But but anyway, that's I said that before already. So, yeah. Um financing would potentially slow down because we'd have to go out to bond market and Yeah. I don't think we I don't I don't foresee that. Yep. Just making sure I answer question. I think as long as we have a little bit extra um cushion because you know we're going to only have six months before we get another hit of cash. So, right, I'm not concerned because we've done it before that we get down to the fumes. So, my support's going to be contingent on negotiate a fair price and it it'll be a great it'll be it'll happen. So, Okay. Any other questions, comments?

Would you like a motion for us to send a letter of support for the select board? Just a general letter of support. All right. I move that the CPC sends a general letter of support for the select board's consideration in this process. So, second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. The motion carried unanimously. Perfect. Great. Thank you all for having me. Thanks for the next um select board meeting. Uh it is September 9th, I believe. I have to look at Colleen for my own schedule. Yes. September 9th. Yes. So it's a week out. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Great. Thank you for staying. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. Bye, Timber. Timber. And I learned something new. I can amend it. No, I don't. Look at the trails. Yeah, it's a good fun fact. Take care. Bye, Timber. This riverfront is beautiful. The car. No, I was looking today on the bus trying to gooseeneck where I think that'll be fine. No, no, I was looking for I was looking idea for future use, but we don't need to know that just yet. That's cool that the canals there, too.

I would say having both sides of the river that far down is excellent. You can walk on the toe path all the way to North Bridge if you don't mind Blackberry Bush and Thorns. And Colleen mentioned even just as conservation, great. But with the idea of future potential of fields or bike path or whatever, it's I'd like to not get super weighed down in those potentials though in this part of the because it could just you don't want people to stumble on things that are way too far down the road. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to propose someone something and someone will say, "Oh, you can't we'll not do that." Right. Yeah, just don't argue. I'm happy with just getting the land. That's right. I like the town. Nice land. That's the step we're on.

Don't put your email if you don't want it. Um Okay. Um staff cola pay increase. So item three um my paper. Um, every July 1st, the town has cost of living adjustment. And if we so choose, the 2% is what the town is giving. Um, Beth's pay would go from 1963 to 2002. So, she would get 39 cents more an hour. So, I need if there's any discussion. If not, I need a motion to approve that. some of

Do we have to just do that or could we go higher? You can choose to do whatever. Does the I mean 39 cents like could we just do a whole dollar? I feel like it's to make it like $21 an hour. Yeah, something like that. I feel like that it's 2025 and everything is going up. I think $21 an hour seems completely reasonable. We have the money to do it. Um just start chipping that a little bit for What does that work out to be? Yeah, because he $21 an hour. Wait, it doesn't come close to the 20. I thought you were um stating a dollar amount. That's the only reason 20. It's 2002 if we give her 39,

but we're going to round up to We're going to round it up to 21. So, what does that work out to? Oh, no. Instead, it might be more than a dollar. I think we'll just go to $21. So, it might be a$18 or something. Okay. A dollar and 37 cent hour 37 increase. Yeah. Okay. So, let me get back to this. So, you had a motion. You had a amendment amendment. So, does he have to re Can someone just second my amendment to to move to $21 an hour? Okay. So, the amendment's been seconded. So now we can just

so $21. So have a motion to increase the pay um from 1963 to $21 an hour for Beth. Um a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. All those opposed um declare the motion carried unanimously.

Nice. Okay. minutes. Um, there are minutes that were I think in the packet if everybody had a chance to look at them. If anybody have any has any questions. Oh. Um, the only questions that I had were at the very end that in the adjournment it said someone made a motion and someone seconded to um adjourn. Mhm. Can we listen? Does it It's like really far. It's hard to hear when you're in that room. I can double check and if that helps if I

because I must have played it like three or four times. Okay. And I couldn't hear when you saying it. That's why I had highlighted that. Right. Okay. I said we can accept these mot these minutes as amended with the um Yes. So I have a motion. Is that the only thing you had trouble hearing? Just see who who joined. Yeah. Okay. I mean I don't care if everyone goes over and makes a change. Let's see. All right. So, the motion is to accept the minutes as presented knowing that we'll add those two names after the fact. Okay. Correct.

Second. So, have a a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. All those opposed to clear the motion carried unanimously. treasures report. Okay. Uh actually uh I need to I need to get logged in unless does anybody have can anybody see it? Yep. I'm logging at it. Okay. I don't know. Can you Oh, he had I can I can I can the TV screen. He had that. That was Yeah, except Yeah, he plugged in.

He did. Okay. If you have if everybody has a copy of it, probably I don't have a copy. Well, it's um it's the same as it was. It has no The only thing different on it from last month is the date. And so that's it. So the we there's um 7 Thank you.

$718,000 available for all purposes available to grant for us if we wanted to zero everything out. And that's uh uh So, not counting the reserves, there's 607,000. Uh, and that's made up of 400,000 of undesated and 200,000 of uh budgeted reserve. So, it's that's we have $600,000 you can use for anything. And then the the the uh the the three uh three um 10% reserves are not that big. They're pretty much emptied out. So anyway, there's basically $600,000 there.

So there's 27,000 in open space. So that's good. Yeah, we we used it to pay the bond this time. But that's good that we have a little bit. And then also I mentioned before you got here that there's probably going to be at least 50 from closeouts at least but it depend it may not depending on the source it may not be available next month I hope to have the closeouts uh rolled up into that and so if we have $50,000 there I bet we have uh well over $100,000 act more than the shows once we uh update the the big chunk of it is made the baptist his church and I can't depends on the funding source for the columns if that was

whether they got it any purpose or historic preservation. The accountant never knows. She never she never gets it right. No, she often gets it right. It's like that that's you know that would be the only thing that would trip. I'm thinking in terms of maximizing dollars. Couldn't we also use the historical reserve knowing that you have the canal as part of it? But but just to be clear, we have 600 certainly historical aspect of that property. We we don't need to do much of that because you're saying it might make it easier for us. Um but but if we have 600,000 that can be used for anything we're we're should be good more than enough.

But then my question is going to be do we if let's say we we do we go forward with the 450 just hypothetically and we whittle our funds down. Do we have enough with what we're going to receive to cover our expected bond payments next year? Like, will we have enough in our 10% reserves that we would put aside to be able to handle that? We're not going to be caught. We will have enough in our various revenue sources to cover that. Perfect. That's not a problem. Great. Uh, in fact, just because I know we're getting close, I just wanted to make sure

one of the uh we have always gone uh used a rule that we would never uh have more bond payments than half of our uh um non-match searchcharge revenue. We never go over half our searchcharge revenue and we're not even we're not even close to that. We were talking about writing that down. We should write that down. But anyway, we're not even we're not even close to that. So the answer is with great comfort we can do it. It's a rule of thumb. I know. But if we write it, someday people won't have those thumbs. Looks like our bond payments be around 130,000. Yeah. Okay. So, and our revenue is in the fin agenda to discuss it. Actually, 700 financial policy.

Good to clean. Like we already said, it's worth it. Yeah. [Applause] So, you had a question uh from what the uh Baptist church what source the Baptist church came from. I'll tell you. Do you remember when that was? It was like a year ago. It was in 2025 for the pillar 244 for the pillar restoration.

Yeah. I'm just looking for the Baptist church. Uh Baptist Church that came from uh May 2024, the historic reserve. They came in under budget. Yeah. Considerably. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was $65,000 from us from the historic reserve. And so that's where the money will return. But yeah. How much is that how much they're returning? 65. No, 65 was the total amount. If you want the exact amount. I'm just curious. I don't know. Doesn't need to be the exact amount. Roughly. I could I would if I guessed I would be 100% wrong.

Um, sorry. Had to turn the phone back on. I say I thought it was in the last one's minutes. I was going to say, but I don't think I saw it. Um,

it was okay. They So, they got most of the money from other sources. Okay. Baptist Church. 32,000 from the Baptist Church

of what we gave him. That's awesome. Okay. Um, publicity subcommittee. Um, at the last meeting, um, Colleen pointed out that we need to do better job publicizing our grant program and to work on the the brochure for the town meeting. And so, I've added it to the agenda and if there are people that would like to be on that committee to do this work I would love to

so a if we make it a subcommittee then they have to post or how about ad hoc or what's yeah I don't know the right term to make it so we can just kind of it can't be a majority so um are there a couple people that like to work on this I'd like to I'd like We'll take a crack at the brochure. I think that's probably um priority with with town meeting coming up and then we can jump into Facebook to make sure everybody knows about the deadlines for spring and stuff like that. Uh because deadline for for October is come and gone and we're already going to be uh tying ourselves um to accommodate uh this project. I don't foresee any more coming forward, but who knows? Um

if it's more unofficial, I can assist. I don't have I don't have the time. I did say a month ago, but I can certainly help out with program usage. And do do we have any um we can send you because I think Yeah, I sent that and I can re because you didn't get it, I don't believe. I don't think I got it. Got it. So, yeah. And then I can just if everybody's okay, I can just come up with an updated brochure and we'll I'll present it in September and we can tweak it if everybody likes that. I put it out the the very first time we talked about this. I should just say it. I wrote down a list on my phone of all the things that we wanted to have. Can you email it to me? I can. You're the best. It was I thought I was the best.

You are the best. That was yesterday, John. It's a new day. I'm sorry. It was good as your last space resource map. our previous year's projects, our ongoing projects, their greatest hits, the funds pie chart, what is the CPA, uh drone shot of the center of town, and a contact us. So, I'll just just send that to you as that was what we agreed on at that moment. These are our our wants for this brochure. Yep. And I'll take a lot of stuff from the coalition is just such an excellent resource and I want to try to drive people there as well. You know, I I think it's just a great um if you're even if you're looking for ideas for projects, go see what other towns are doing, go look at the datab bank and and get inspired and maybe do it here in Grafton.

Um you talked to William about Facebook. So if you want to share because that might make your life easier from what I think he said. Um Facebook has to be attached to someone's page. So it would be attached to our CPC page. Our CPC page either has to be like attached to my page or who you mean like has a personal page. So who is Yeah.

Unless I don't know if I can make like CPC as a person like give it a birthday and all that stuff. Personally, I think we should start simpler and just make sure we're making content and ask the town to push it out on theirs. Um, right now it's going to be highlighting when our grant applications are due and maybe sporadically like, hey, this one finished. Here's a picture of it and just hype ourselves up that way. I don't know if we need a full page of content to just weigh it down as one more page people have to follow, get lost in the weeds. just make content and ask the town to push it out for us, I think would probably be easier and uh more manageable.

Yeah, because um the town has their page. So, I could always like just email William and say, "Can you add this content to your page?" And if we have a great picture or something because we we do get a lot of good pictures of stuff or, you know, go out and take a picture of something. And well, I say we could also utilize the television studio and just ask them, "Hey, could you go to this address and get some B-roll?" I think it threw together like a 10 15 second PSA just being like here's the latest footage of our newly finished blah blah blah project and then that can be posted on socials and run on GCTV. GCTV as like a in between. Yeah, it's a good idea. Great idea.

Yeah, because I feel like not enough town boards just ask them like, "Hey, could you just run down there and put together this 15 20 second hit on something?" Yeah. Yeah, they're more than happy to Nice. Just all the all the all these things get done and people vote for it. It's just be nice to highlight it somewhere for people to I always say my dream is to have people lining up here have us have to turn down projects because there's so many people wanting We have the same dream. So weird. Okay. So, all right. So, I will send you the brochure and Jack will send you his call. I just emailed you that list of things you wanted. Perfect. Thank you.

Okay. Um the next item I have um on my list or just to update project assignments. Um so I'm just going to go down the list. Um town archives is Paul. I'm still Historic Gravestone. Um 95 North Street is Kristen. Jack is Grafton Housing Authority, Gallagher Rental. Um Justin is Cisco. Uh Paul is Congregational Church. Paul is also UUS SGU, which is basically almost they're just about done, but we the invoices haven't come in yet.

I think they've gotten paid. It's just that Well, the elevator um or Lula people, it's that he said the check went out last week. Yeah. So that it should have gotten there by now. Um Ferry Street playground. Um Kristen and then um the Robinson of property and Ken will update us on that. Um uh and that's it unless anybody wants to change. Okay, moving along. um project updates, town archives,

not since last time. Um I did follow up with her and said that we'd like to have her come um you know maybe in the fall. So um she was definitely willing to do that. Okay. But uh we didn't set any dates.

Um on a related matter, I did meet with um the building inspector and she thought and argued that we could fund digitizing her records. And I explained to her, we can't. And she said, "Well, other towns have." And I said, "There is no CPA police other than each body, and we know we can't do it." And also, I said, "Can I just see some of your records?" Because I was thinking it was going to be all this old. It was file folders full of papers, documents,

which is then that's also part of CPA is that you can't um whatever the verb is take over a responsibility of the town supplant. You can't supplant a town responsibility. That's the town's responsibility to keep their records. It's that's keeping their records.

So that's another reason we can't do it. And then after I had that conversation with her and you know it's being really nice saying we just can't do it if you have some really old records you'd like for us to preserve we can send you a green dragon with them and then you can use the money that's actually available already because we discussed this. It's town records so it doesn't matter if it's from the clerk or you anybody that has historic records

can use those funds. I'm not seeing that these are eligible for the that funding source. Um, and so she kind of she finally understood, but then probably two days after that, um, I think I'd sent something. I'd been back and forth with the coalition and then basically kind of with the no and then he sent me a long letter that he sent to somebody else in another town explaining to them why they could not do this. So I forwarded it to her and she said, "Thank you." So she gets it that we just can't do it. So, but the kicker was it was like a quarter of a million dollars. Oh, so that kind of digitizing records is that was not

it's a it's a pretty steep price for digitizing. But go look in the girls bathroom, the girls locker room. It's like hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of banker boxes full of docu that the down has to somehow figure out how to to do that. But that's some we we can preserve the paper but we can't digitize it. Yeah. Well, it was even though unless they change it, I said, you know, there's some of this that I believe that that would make sense to be able to preserve through digitization the actual document because they're not touching it, but that's not the way

the information doesn't count, right? Can we have that email posted on the town website so that in the future when um somebody else wants to come across and digitize records, we can just keep directing them right to that and saying, "Hey, I I don't love the term there's no CPC police because it seems like, well, some towns are do it, but we're choosing not to." And it just seems too like squishy for me. Whereas this email will be like, it's it's outlined why why we're we're not doing it here. And you know, in the history of CPA, some projects were funded when we figured out that that's not going to work anymore. And and here's why. And we can point to the why.

Also makes it a quick like, hey, can we do this? And right here, no. Just have another tab projects we can't fund or I don't know. I mean, how do you can't fun? Just like how do you want just call it like digitation like okay, you know, like call it out for what it is. So when they're looking like, oh, can we digitize? Oh no, we can't. frequently asked questions. Yeah. But I don't even want it to get lost there. Is there a section describing what we can do? If there is, you could just append what we can't. Okay. So, you get Do you guys go on our website a lot? It's so fun. You should definitely go on. We have all these tabs that Beth is um I'm just afraid if I did that I would have so much fun. I would have a heart attack.

Well, then I can't do that. They're easily amused. It's for health reasons, right? That's my excuse. So, I guess it could go under application for funding, but that really just takes you to the application. Um, have to go. If we go to our regular page, it just shows us an overview of the members, things we've passed. So, yeah, maybe even just linking making a tab linking to the coalition would be good so that drive people there and then just writing our our digits taste and policy and then the policy is just going to be that email. maybe use a word less strong than policy but our our digitization point of view or outlook or stance I don't know

just digitization projects and then include that email to say you know unfortunately Craft and CBC cannot fund here's a letter from coalition explaining why okay or maybe just say will not so they can say but look they did it no will not fund and this is why make it Just a little more. Okay. Yeah, the website's pretty cool. Just saying. I'll take your word for it. The co coalitions is a little better. No offense, but they probably paid somebody a whole lot of money to do theirs. $22 an hour.

We'll get How about hundreds of dollars an hour? Okay. Um, gravestones. I communicated this with Pauline

but not the whole committee. I had been in touch with the gentleman in Chadam about preserving or conserving the headstone and he never got back to me and so he never got back to me and I was at in Chadam a couple weeks ago and I'm driving back from the beach and I look up at Duncan Dunit's parking lot and I see this guy's name on the side of his truck and I whip in there and I said, "Are you John?" And he said, "Yes." And I said, "I sent you something." I said, "Well, I didn't get back to you. Sorry." And I said, "You know, this is what's going on." He said, "This is probably not something that I could do." So, we come back full circle. He he said the person that you would want to talk to is most likely given the the condition of the stone that it it's it's if it's left out there, it's the pieces are going to pop off. They're going to crack because slate is it's like felo dough. It's just little thin

sediment. Yeah. And they're going to layers

peel off, pop off. And that what happens is in the top and you can see all those little layers and they separate and with the cold and the freeze cycles, the water gets in and then when it freezes, that's when it pops it off. So he said, "Your best bet," and I said, "This is where we started would be to replicate the stone." and he gave me the guy's name, which is John Stevens with a V in um Newport, Rhode Island to if we wanted to replicate the stone. So, so that's kind of where we started and we backed off of it because we had concerns about if we take it out, where do we put it? And if we take it out, do we need to get permissions and masses? We had conversations

rel. Was there any religious?

Well, it wasn't religious. It was more because and they're not buried there because nipmunks supposedly they're markers there, but there are no nipmunks buried in that graveyard that you have this whole mass historical issue. So, they would have to submit a writing to us to say you're allowed to do this. There's no problem blah blah blah. So I think what we initially just kind of like backed after we found all that out we thought no we'll just go with conservation in place. So that's kind of where we are. Do we want just to let the chips fall where they may and let that stone live its natural life and then when it pops it pops or do we want to look at replicating the stone and then bringing it inside and putting it like where they're blocking out these um

blockers? You know, we could put it in the um uh the municipal center. I like that idea cuz then you get both. you get to preserve the original stone and then still have something in the place because you'll see them. I mean, I've seen at the um Boston Museum of Art and some of the ex it's been 100 years since I've been there, but you would go and they would have these old stones by certain carvers in exhibits, you know, just kind of a morbid thing more as a an art art artifact, you know, as a history of art. Can you just remind me again the significance is who carved the stone?

Well, multiple levels. James New who was a very significant carver in central New England at the time. Okay. And there sign he signed them like if you dig far enough at the bottom, but he also, you know, stylistically that this is his work. Secondly, it's a double portrait stone, which means there are two people. It's for two people on the stone. So is this thirdly he's pulling her up to heaven with okay it's like you don't you've never seen one of those before. It's the subject matter. It's the history and it's the car.

So is the current condition sufficient to actually for the average an average person to see that and to and understand what it is. See what see all those things you mentioned. Oh yeah. I mean, well, you probably can't see because the the stones are so worn 2/3 above ground, one/3 below, depending on the height because they're very big and heavy. So, you've got to have them enough in the ground so they don't tip. And if you did dig it up or dig under, you could see where these were signed by James New probably preserved. And so, all these things that you say are readily recognizable.

You could see his name. You can see the double portraits of the man and the woman. You can see him pulling her up where like I'm going to go hunt it out tomorrow. If you go down Oak Street, the only thing you probably can't see if you walk by right now is name about halfway down maybe twothirds of the way down. So you're saying that one choice is to head towards the center. It's on the left. Make a make a replica. It's got like wood. Take bring the original into a display case somewhere and put the replica that Richard made. Yep. It's like somebody put it back up if I could that be done within the budget or what I he felt cuz I I think I said you know we have about000 and he felt like it could be done

9500 turns out that project's done run away run away go because even even if but I don't want to spend more time it's it's a big no you know it's like I've already no further down the road would or you're preserving it in a different this way. If you did it black and white, it's probably easier to see. I think the proposal was actually replic. It says for preservation and replication of three historically significant 18th century gravestones. I think the goal was to have three, but we started with one.

Yeah. Okay. Then we saying then we're talking about one headstone and blah blah blah. And so the current advice is to replicate it and bring the original inside to a display case somewhere. About this years ago, but but to be clear, it's not it's there's no it's not a headstone marking any remains. No. Oh, yeah. It's just a Oh, it is. Yeah. I mean, they're buried there. Okay. So, removing it does what exactly then? How do you mark the remains there? You put the replica. Oh, the replica. You're just swapping. But you have to put something in between cuz you got to take it out to replicate it. The old's come in here. Theoretically, the new's going right where the old one was.

But you have to take it out in order to replicate it. And you have to have something. So the replicated ones. I don't know if he would just take a picture. I don't know that he would have. Maybe they just put a white cross there or something because you don't want to lose the space or get haunted forever. I was going to say, does this company I would think they wouldn't haunt us because they're feeling a little like I love the idea of preserving it. I don't I don't know. So I mean this is the original language was preserve and replicate. So I mean it's within the scope and this is kind of we all the way around just have to mark it with something in the in between stage

one headstone a little bit nicer than a highway sign probably CPC project was here I have I think I don't know if it's here but like after my mother died you know they stick the piece of metal and they put the the letter the in and it's like I couldn't throw it away I just stuck it in interesting. It's like I could take out her name and date and put that guy's name on it. Roies would probably give me one. Actually, there's two people there, you said. Well, we could put both names, but I just was at the St. Phillip Cemetery this afternoon and they actually have a photograph. It looks like it's kind of on a temporary. Very nice.

And we could talk to Roies is the one next door, Milbury. We could get something. You know, I'm not, you know, we're not going to lose the space. Yeah. So, so you're saying it could be replicated. Yes. And then the the idea would be to put the replica on site, bring the original in into a display case somewhere historical society. And so, I don't know if this I don't know if that was also a stumbling block that the historical society I don't know if they didn't want it or didn't have a place for it. And that was when they were tombstones are kind of a funny thing. That's why I think of churches. So I feel like it would be it's religious. I don't know why I think that. But what church it would it be? But which church, right? Yeah.

I'm sure it was congregation. That was it. That was your choice. It's also once we have a replica deal with church. If we're keeping this for artistic purposes, we can kind of break it down a little bit so that it's not as massive. That might make people a little bit more wanting to take it. What? What are you talking about? The actual piece. Well, the question we can It was digging out of the ground and we have the replica in there. Yeah. John is saying, "What are we what are we really going to do with the original piece?" Yeah. Yeah. He wants break it. Well, not break it. Make it small. Maybe trim it. You're going to get it. Don't do that. No. That would that would that's that's the opposite of preservation.

So, the the real question is who would want it if that were if Who would want original? So, we would I would have to talk to Would it like go in a basement somewhere? Evan, no. It would need to be on display. It can't be creepy if you knew it was there. It can't be just shoved in a closet. It needs to be put on display. I mean, we're spending a lot of money and it needs to be Is it the kind of thing that the town would want to have on display? That's why I need I need to talk to heaven, you know. It's just Townhouse Tavern as a don't drink and drive. Oh, god. Yeah. So, it sounds like that's the next step, John. That's the hard step. See who'd like it. Who wants it? Yeah. Who wants it? And so, you know, you don't don't want to go through all of this if no one wants it. And we we could we're creating an albatross that no one kind of like the fountain that no one wants.

I'm going to say something ignorant. Is this because you said that this is from a native tribe. No, no, no. This is a white person. Okay. Because I thought when we talked about the beginning, it was talking about No, that was that was that was one of the problems with removing the stone. Not because of the stone itself, but there I don't know if there's some law mass law that said you can't you've got to go through mass historical if there have been native burials in that buring ground just on the off chance that there's some connectionish. I see. Are there any printing Indians buried there?

No. That even though there's little mark there's a big granite stone with a bronze plaque on it but there are no nipmunks buried there. They don't buried that way. They're all buried secretly on Bergam Hill Road and there's it says on Providence Road, Indian bearing ground or something like that and it has kind of the little Yeah, I've seen it. There's there no Native American. So the answer to that question is it's not is fine is that there's no issue there. Mass historical would you would have to jump through their hoops for them to say that for us to pull it. Yes. But I don't believe there are any issues. does mass historical when's the last time we reached out to them about this? 15 years ago.

Can we maybe circle back with them see if there's a protocol about you know taking it out and maybe they have a home for it or maybe they have a oh we this is we do this all the time just xyz this. I think like they might be a good resource to double the historical society is the most likely candidate but if they don't want it like you can't force someone to say here's your old headstone. I think we should I think we should be like this is I mean I would think you would I would want this because all the artifacts that came from Grafton are in Boston. We have none of them. All that stuff that we paid to have exumed from Hasset Woods are in Boston in boxes because that was the way they do it

at Boston University. Right. No, the the mass archives or the It was your mass, was it? Um I think it was new mass, right? But they put everything in mass heart that you know whatever reason mass historical that must be the way you do that. Um is that they state property? Mhm. Technically, but also it's like where would we from your security? Yeah. When we're doing like Yeah. If you want to put an exhibit out or something. I mean, I think they've let them come back, but they permanently reside there for I think for safety reasons, which is a good thing. Conservation reasons, good thing. You know, if you're not equipped to manage them, it's probably best that you don't have that stuff, right?

It'll disappear. It'll walk off like a lot of stuff. Okay. So, I will talk to Mass Historical. I will talk to Evan. I will talk to the historical society. Good luck. Okay. 95 North Street. Um, I got a bill that did you what is today? I gave that to you yesterday. I Yeah, they've been working there. I see. So, but it was a big and it wouldn't it was too late. It was a big chunk of money. They will um

it's they changed the name. It's the same to Ray Dunes. Um, but he's going by something else.

Do we have a W9? Yeah. Um, just It's different. Oh, $30,000. Um, then what's the Oh, okay. That's It's They're called balance to finish. Sorry. It' be $30,92250.

Can't find their name on here. Um, it's Ray D Ray Dunets who was the one who was the consultant. Oh, here it is. It's called PLM CO Inc. doing B DBA busy B nursery because I was like busy like that. So, so what did he do for his invoice? He bond and office overhead, mobilization, erosion control, layout and testing. And this was approved by conservation and recreation. I think the town's been doing a lot of work like just the at the entrance,

but you can see if you go by there, trees are down. It's cleaned out, leveling it out. So there's, you know, you can see works taking place. Um, so that that's all I can add to that. I'm enjoying the sidewalks. Yeah. Mhm. And I did ask Cindy because I said, "Why are those those are city sidewalk town sidewalks? Why are those cement and the other ones the town has done are asphalt?" I didn't follow up to find out because the state ones when the state because the one's all on Milbury Street by the school. These are a lot more. Those are all asphalt. Granite curbs. But why are what? It's all granite curbs. It's granite curbs

on Milbury Street. But why is it some are asphalt, some are block or the asphalt is the cheap but why why do why does one neighborhood get one and another neighborhood get another is my question. I think main roads probably get the um main road. Yeah, I don't know. So which is better granite and concrete? How much room they have if they don't have enough space to do No, it's the same way. It's it's just that one it's it's two choices of materials. Does the sidewalk extend to this to 95 North Street and that's where it ends? No, it goes beyond goes beyond all the way down to It starts at the you know where Carol Road comes out.

So if you go up there's a little neighborhood that's just a short ways up if you're going up the hill. Um it starts there and it goes all the way up and connects with the existing sidewalk that's on North Street. So it's it's awesome. puts all the way down the hill, but it narrowed the road. They came into the road to build it because they they ended up cutting down a lot of trees, but I think there were boulders and a lot of other obstacles, so they didn't have a lot of choice. They had to come into the road. I just didn't recall exactly how far it extended down the hill most almost all the way to Carol. The road's still wide enough and it gets the pedestrians off the road, which is awesome. Okay, being one of them.

Moving on. Grafton Housing Authority rental assistance. I have three nice updates. All of the funds that we had requested at the last meeting were all received in a timely manner. So, that's all set. Uh we have a rough estimate as to how much we've spent so far, but we in doing the backwards math we've been doing. We're not sure if this includes the original pilot program money or if this is just the money we've been allocated since the program became official, but we have to date we have received $12,479 and have assisted over 10 families get into housing. Awesome. Who otherwise would not have been able to. That's great. So, that's all excellent. And

how many families? Uh, at least 10. Uh we considered all applicants families for the purposes of anonymity, the word I can ever say right. Um and because we've helped families and individuals, it just works out to say families. Um but again, we're not sure if that includes that original I think it was like 10,000 for the pilot and then 20 for the official first request. So, we're going to double back again and figure out exactly what we're at because then in accordance to our policy, we can come back here with a another request for funds to fill that back up. You expect to do that in October?

Probably not. Probably going to be after. Um, and then I already told the housing authority, I don't yet feel comfortable asking for an increased amount because this is the first full year of the program. I want at least two years to see how much we spend and then I'd feel comfortable coming here and saying, "Hey, let's try 30 or, you know, increasing the amount." So, I want to see it, you know, we've had a fluctuating number of vacancies over the past couple years, so I want a steady amount of data before I ask for an increased amount of funds. But so far, programs going swimmingly, no complaints. And the other good update is while the EOHLC had no interest in this program, I reached out to Stuart and he has a lot of interest in the program and promoting it and I am working with him on what they need and what we have because one of the genuine understandable concerns from EOHLC was not every housing authority has, you know, people that we would trust getting all this money and So because we have that trust, we have all our policy written down and we have written in it that the funds are to be requested and handed out at the discretion of our executive director because we trust that and it makes it run efficiently. But I totally understand if other towns maybe don't have that level of trust. So right now the steps we're at are refining the policy on our end, getting all the language over to Stuart so that he can take a look and say we like all this. We feel comfortable promoting this out on our end to other municipalities and hopefully that becomes sort of partnership between

Do you guys have an attorney to run it through?

We have we ran it through the like EOHLC legal. They have a ton of representatives is the wrong word, but like delegates where EOHLC is the big the big monster and then they have a couple people that's like you work with all the towns in this area and you work all the towns in this area and there are two main people that is like us getting money and us spending money is like a separate person and then we just relay everything legally to EOCc and they get back to us. for this program. I believe the only legal we've run was can we give out money in this manner? Can we take money from our municipality and give it to tenants or prospective tenants? And they said yes. And yes, because it's like this is money the state doesn't have to spend, but it's still helping the tenants. So, sure. And then as far as CBC legality, I'm pretty sure as far as we ran it was are we all okay with it? the town voted in favor of it and at an event with Stuart I said hey this is what we're doing is this all within the CPA guidelines and he said yes

so that's where we are legal wise so those are my we also had this isn't CPC related but we had our two big summer cookout events that were very well attended by the communities over at Forest Lane and Maxwell Drive and because of how successful they were we are anticipating getting state funding for them going forward. So, we won't have to fund raise for those. There's some pictures of those. It's nice. Yep.

Okay. Thank you. Since Justin's not here, we won't have an update. For Cisco, um Paul, the Congregational Church. So, nothing new other than, you know, where we left off, which is that the project's on on hold. Um, they were hopeful that they could um enlist the um contractor that was helping out at the UU SGU with their lift to do the steeple piece because that was the piece that the original contractor backed out on. They're still involved for the rest, but um they don't want to take that on. So, nothing more. Um, I haven't heard anything from Andy on that. Um, or um Oh, why am I drawing a blank?

Rob. Rob. Thank you. Do Do we know if they were able to get the the Uyu contractor? No, I don't. Oh, we don't know. Or were they hidden? I don't know. Oh, okay. Okay. The lift project. So there is a um dedication I guess is the appropriate term that they are going to be holding on the 13th of September and they've asked for CPA um or CPC representation and I was planning on going but then I won two Red Sox tickets from work. Um so I am not going to be able to go. It's a Yankees game too so I definitely don't want to miss it.

They'll understand. Um, but John, I know you originally didn't think you would be able to attend, but now you said, "Yeah, that's awesome." That's a because they would like somebody somebody from CPC to say a few things. And I finally RSVP yesterday. Oh, you did? Good. Good. So, that project's closed out, but closed out. It's not closed out. They They've only submitted a couple of invoices. There's more invoices coming, but um I don't know what the holdup was. There was a a delay in getting um the first um well I don't know if it was the first it may be it may be the final one but the lift company the actual physical lift

um they were paid so they should have gotten their check okay they'll close out next year then fine yeah that's not it's not going to close or this year as we say but there won't be any 20 okay

we should be seeing a bunch of invoices And I know I got one today. I haven't even had a chance to look at it from Andy. So, okay. So, Fairy Street, there won't be a report because I don't know anything about it. Um and um that work's not going to be done till next year though, right? The equipment is all there. Oh, they got it that fast. I mean, it's there, but

last time she said she was hoping it'd be done late fall. Yeah. I didn't realize they because they gave us a bill and I said, "You got to pay your first." So it was like I don't know hundreds of thousands of dollars and they had to pay 100 grand out of that first. We paid 70 or something. So Robinson baseline that's it is complete. It's been submitted to conservation commission and uh when they approve it it'll be done.

Good. Okay. Colleen affordable housing trust. We had no update because I missed the last meeting. Shocking. I can't believe you must have been sick or gone. I was on vacation. I thought about zooming in, but my family was probably dragged back for Well, I could have zoomed, but I I didn't. Sorry everybody. I let everybody down. So, do do we know if the uh if that agreement has been fully executed? Yes. I I signed it. You signed it? I don't think I signed it, but somebody signed it because I'm not the chair of the affordable housing trust, but um the it should be that was like a number one goal I made.

That was after the last meeting. I went in like the next day and Amber had it and I I would think it would make sense that if and I asked her to Beth keeps a copy of it with the the committee records. Could even put it online. We're just adding stuff online. Throw it up there. If it's online, you could just I don't know, print it, link it. Yeah, you could download it and do whatever it is you do. Okay. It should be It should be like the minutes where same place that they go. Yeah. Okay. That's like a separate tab though. Maybe. I think that's neat because then people can find it faster than going through minutes like 10 years ago. Yeah. Nice. It showed the image should show two signatures on it.

The image the the the image should show the signature page, right? I mean, because it's I don't know, two-page document, whatever, but it's like I signed. No, it's it's like I don't know, three or four. I know you're very excited for the signatures. Um, I want to show it to Mary Lauria. Okay, let's put to bed. See, it says so right here. Yeah. And so it doesn't matter what other towns do. This is what we do. Oh, well, I don't know. I don't want to I don't want to use this grant agreement to weaponize it and make work harder for people either, though. It was supposed to be a nice thing that we were doing.

It is. And she just needed to do it because it's best practice. But is that you the money is getting unccommingled, right? No. So, she decided she decided that we didn't have to do it so she wasn't going to. So when I was the treasurer, which I no longer am, it was very difficult thing to achieve. I met with her several times and we we talked about things. I was shown her, you know, the coalition I, you know, and we and she says the software they have wouldn't allow it to be done the way I and Ken disagrees with it.

So it's just very difference of opinions and and at the end of the day, she's the one doing it. And I don't understand that software to really well to me it's like the the it doesn't it's it's more there needs to be a paper trail that's clean. Y if the money is all in one account as long as you say $50,000 is from CPA and $10 is from other sources. As long as you're tracking it on a spreadsheet for me I think it's you you did your best. you you tried, but but at also at the end of the day, there's so much that got paid out to that grant agreement from GSX that the only money if if you just assumed all other funds got paid out first,

it's it's gone. It's done there. There's not that much money now to even question whether it's CPA dollars or not. And it's not like we have influx of other money. There might be another uh another settlement that would throw more money into Yeah, that was about 100,000. And even if you include that with the py money, gone. You know what I mean? Um, so I feel like we don't have another revenue source besides CBN. I don't think going forward it's going to be an issue. And I don't think anybody's going to ever press us to say which is which because it all went to affordable housing. And it's not like we can ever say, "Oh, we bought this truck over here." And you know what I mean? Like anything we spend is on affordable housing. So

Okay. Okay. um CPA project science. I finally again one of these dances where I was calling and it was Haritch. Um nobody ever called me back. So I finally called out of desperation. The town administrator's office got a very nice lady answering the phone and kind of explained to her, "Oh yeah, I know all about those signs. Let me check. I'll find out." and she must have called somebody in the town and she said, "Oh, we got him in Chadam at Chadam Sign Company." So I probably the next day after I saw the cemetery, the pet guy tried it over to downtown and met with this little man who it's about $300, which I thought was a lot. Um, but it's maybe this big. Their sign was an oval. Um, and so he said, "Just tell me which you want on it." And it comes with wooden post that goes in it. Um, and so I thought I I have yet to I need to take that information to Sunshine because I think that would be a lot easier just, you know, to deal with here.

But at least track down. It's um, you know, you could have it. They were doing carve sign. And it's like, no, you know, we just have like a little metal sign. It's something that you could put up on the side of a project while the project's underway so people could see it. It's not meant to be a permanent sign and it would go from place to place, you know, as long as it stayed in decent shape. So, so I kind of hit pay dirt on two things. Yes. I'm going to choose to believe it wasn't fate and instead you like John Wick researched and found these people and you're like you're not getting back to me. I'm going to No, I think finding that the headstone guy was the god me.

That's because a storm came in and it blew you right into it, too. It was a whole thing. Oh, the weather was bad. It was coming in. So, I left the beach early. I wasn't I was just like, I got to go home. And I was and I look up and it's right there at the there's a little rotary and there's a Dunkin Donuts and I look and I No way. I've whipped right in there and the guy's like, "What's going on with you?" You What's your I've been trying to find you. I'm not a stalker, but I'm a stalker.

But I've been looking for you for years. So, okay. And the final like Wildwood. Um, no update, no new information on him that. So again, that's that's a good thing because that would be more money that we need spent. So any other information that can legally come before this committee? If not, move to have a motion. Second. Second. It's going to be hard to pick up on the table. We'll give it to Paul. I Paul. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Unanimous. Night. Okay.